End of an era as BBC Long Wave closes down

THERE is a real sense of the end of an era in radio circles as BBC will close their Long Wave Radio service on 198 kHz on Saturday, June 27, after 100 years of excellent service. It all started back in 1926, the same year that Ireland’s first medium-wave service, 2RN, made its debut.

Long Wave was a feature of every radio set in this country for many decades and some of the more senior generation will recall getting up in the middle of the night to switch over to BBC radio for the famous heavyweight boxing fights between Cassius Clay (before changing his name to Muhammad Ali) and Sonny Liston and others of that era.

Reception was excellent on long-wave and many in Ireland, especially in the northern regions, became so familiar with the programmes from the station.

One of the most enduring and nostalgic parts of the daily broadcasts all down the years has been the Shipping Forecast. Since 1963, it has had 'Sailing By' as the introductory music. This beautiful, calming and dreamy music was composed by Ronald Binge and was performed by the Alan Perry/William Gardner Orchestra. It remains the most iconic tune on BBC Radio and will be the heart of so much nostalgia when the transmitters fall silent at the weekend.

The Shipping Forecast on long-wave has brought solace and comfort for many years to fishermen from Atlantic waters off Ireland and the UK to the south of Iceland, the North Sea and down to the Bay of Biscay with a mention for all thirty one sea areas. It operates to a very strict format and has a limit of 380 words, delivered in perfect and measured English.

Radio 4 was also the home of the legendary 'Letter from America' programme written and hosted by the legendary Alistair Cooke. The weekly 15-minute programme ran from 1946 until he retired in 2004. It had a hugely devoted audience as Alistair’s folksy style covered events and happenings in cities, towns and countryside across the USA.

The closure of the long-wave service is being lamented by many radio devotees who warn of the loss of a dependable and reliable outreach service should satellite ‘jammers’ make modern technology redundant.

While BBC Radio 4 will continue on FM, DAB and other platforms, there is still a sense of something unique and part of radio culture going beneath the waves. For now, the curtains will come down on a century of long-wave broadcasting from the BBC at midnight on Saturday.

The last Shipping Forecast on BBC Radio 4 198 kHz Long Wave will air at 00.48 on Friday night/Saturday morning with 'Sailing By' just before it and, no doubt, it will have a huge audience for this historic occasion. Farewell, old friend.