BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. It broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history from the BBC's headquarters at

Broadcasting House Broadcasting House is the headquarters of the BBC, in Portland Place and Langham Place, London. The first radio broadcast from the building was made on 15 March 1932, and the building was officially opened two months later, on 15 May. The m ...

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

. The station controller is Mohit Bakaya. Broadcasting throughout the United Kingdom, the

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and the

Channel Islands The Channel Islands ( nrf, Îles d'la Manche; french: îles Anglo-Normandes or ''îles de la Manche'') are an archipelago in the English Channel, off the French coast of Normandy. They include two Crown Dependencies: the Bailiwick of Jersey ...

on FM, LW and

DAB DAB, dab, dabs, or dabbing may refer to: Dictionaries * ''Dictionary of American Biography'', published under the auspices of the American Council of Learned Societies * ''Dictionary of Australian Biography'', published since 1949 Places * Dąb, ...

, and on

BBC Sounds BBC Sounds is a walled garden streaming media and audio download service from the BBC that includes live radio broadcasts, audio on demand, and podcasts. The service is available on a wide range of devices, including mobile phones and tablets, ...

, it can be received in the eastern counties of

Ireland Ireland ( ; ga, Éire ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe, north-western Europe. It is separated from Great Britain to its east by the North Channel (Grea ...

, northern

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan ar ...

and Northern Europe. It is available on Freeview, Sky, and

Virgin Media Virgin Media is a British telecommunications company which provides telephone, television and internet services in the United Kingdom. Its headquarters are at Green Park in Reading, England. It is owned by Virgin Media O2, a 50:50 joint ven ...

. Radio 4 currently reaches over 10 million listeners, making it the UK's second most-popular radio station after Radio 2. BBC Radio 4 broadcasts news programmes such as '' Today'' and '' The World at One'', heralded on air by the Greenwich Time Signal pips or the chimes of

Big Ben Big Ben is the nickname for the Great Bell of the Great Clock of Westminster, at the north end of the Palace of Westminster in London, England, and the name is frequently extended to refer also to the clock and the clock tower. The official ...

. The pips are only accurate on FM, LW, and MW; there is a delay on digital radio of three to five seconds and online up to twenty-three seconds. Radio 4 broadcasts the

Shipping Forecast The Shipping Forecast is a BBC Radio broadcast of weather reports and forecasts for the seas around the coasts of the British Isles. It is produced by the Met Office and broadcast by BBC Radio 4 on behalf of the Maritime and Coastguard Agenc ...

which, in August 2017, was 150 years old. According to RAJAR, the station broadcasts to a weekly audience of 9.8 million with a listening share of 10.9% as of September 2022.

Overview

BBC Radio 4 is the second-most-popular British domestic

radio station Radio broadcasting is transmission of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based radi ...

by total hours, after Radio 2. It recorded its highest audience, of 11 million listeners, in May 2011, and was "UK Radio Station of the Year" at the 2003, 2004 and 2008 Sony Radio Academy Awards. It also won a

Peabody Award The George Foster Peabody Awards (or simply Peabody Awards or the Peabodys) program, named for the American businessman and philanthropist George Peabody, honor the most powerful, enlightening, and invigorating stories in television, radio, and ...

in 2002 for ''File on 4: Export Controls''. Costing £71.4 million (2005/6), it is the BBC's most expensive national radio network and is considered by many to be its flagship. There is no comparable British commercial network:

Channel 4 Channel 4 is a British free-to-air public broadcast television network operated by the state-owned enterprise, state-owned Channel Four Television Corporation. It began its transmission on 2 November 1982 and was established to provide a four ...

abandoned plans to launch its own speech-based digital radio station in October 2008 as part of a £100m cost cutting review. In 2019, Mohit Bakaya replaced Gwyneth Williams, who had been the station controller since 2010. Music is broadcast as in documentaries relating to various forms of both popular and classical music, and the long-running music-based ''

Desert Island Discs ''Desert Island Discs'' is a radio programme broadcast on BBC Radio 4. It was first broadcast on the BBC Forces Programme on 29 January 1942. Each week a guest, called a " castaway" during the programme, is asked to choose eight recordings (us ...

''. Following the creation of BBC Radio 5 Live in 1994, the station has become the home of ball-by-ball commentaries of most

Test cricket Test cricket is a form of first-class cricket played at international level between teams representing full member countries of the International Cricket Council (ICC). A match consists of four innings (two per team) and is scheduled to last f ...

matches played by England. The coverage is broadcast on long wave. Consequently, for around 70 days a year, listeners have to rely on FM broadcasts or DAB for mainstream Radio 4 broadcasts – the number relying solely on long wave is now a small minority. The cricket broadcasts take precedence over on-the-hour news bulletins, but not the

, carried since Radio 4's move to long wave in 1978 because long wave can be received clearly at sea. The station has a strong reputation for news, drama, and comedy. Following the ''Six O'Clock News'' from Monday to Friday, the station normally broadcasts a thirty-minute comedy programme. The station is available on FM in most of Great Britain, parts of Ireland and the north of France; LW throughout the UK and in parts of Northern Europe, and the Atlantic north of the

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to about 20 degrees west; MW in some areas;

; Digital TV including Freeview,

Freesat Freesat is a British free-to-air satellite television service, first formed as a joint venture between the BBC and ITV plc and now owned by Digital UK. The service was formed as a memorandum in 2007 and has been marketed since 6 May 2008. F ...

, Sky and

, and on the Internet. Freesat, Sky and Virgin have a separate channel for Radio 4 LW output in mono, in addition to the FM output. The longwave signal is part of the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by Kingdom of England, English and Kingdom of Scotland, Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were foug ...

's system of letters of last resort. In the event of a suspected catastrophic attack on Britain, submarine captains, in addition to other checks, check for a broadcast signal from Radio 4 on 198 longwave to verify the annihilation of organised society in Great Britain.

History

The BBC Home Service was the predecessor of Radio 4 and broadcast between 1939 and 1967. It had regional variations and was broadcast on

medium wave Medium wave (MW) is the part of the medium frequency (MF) radio band used mainly for AM radio broadcasting. The spectrum provides about 120 channels with more limited sound quality than FM stations on the FM broadcast band. During the dayt ...

with a network of

VHF Very high frequency (VHF) is the ITU designation for the range of radio frequency electromagnetic waves (radio waves) from 30 to 300 megahertz (MHz), with corresponding wavelengths of ten meters to one meter. Frequencies immediately below VHF ...

FM transmitters being added from 1955. Radio 4 replaced it on 30 September 1967, when the BBC restructured and renamed its domestic radio stations, in response to the challenge of offshore radio. It moved to long wave in November 1978, taking over the 200 kHz frequency (1,500 metres) previously held by Radio 2 - later moved to 198 kHz as a result of international agreements aimed at avoiding interference (all ITU Region 1 MW/LW broadcast frequencies are divisible by 9). At this point, Radio 4 became available across all of the UK for the first time and the station officially became known as Radio 4 UK, a title that remained until 29 September 1984. For a time during the 1970s Radio 4 carried regional news bulletins Monday to Saturday. These were broadcast twice at breakfast, at lunchtime and at 17:55. There were also programme variations for the parts of England not served by BBC Local Radio stations. These included '' Roundabout East Anglia'', a VHF opt-out of the ''Today'' programme broadcast from BBC East's studios in

Norwich Norwich () is a cathedral city and district of Norfolk, England, of which it is the county town. Norwich is by the River Wensum, about north-east of London, north of Ipswich and east of Peterborough. As the seat of the Episcopal see, See of ...

each weekday from 6.45 a.m. to 8.45 a.m. ''Roundabout East Anglia'' came to an end in August 1980, ahead of the launch of BBC Radio Norfolk. All regional news bulletins broadcast from BBC regional news bases around England ended in August 1980, apart from in the southwest as until January 1983 there was no BBC Local Radio in the southwest so these news bulletins and its weekday morning regional programme, ''

Morning Sou'West ''Morning Sou’West'' was a regional programme broadcast in south west England as an opt-out from BBC Radio 4. It was broadcast on weekday mornings between 6:30am and 8:35am, rejoining Today for Yesterday in Parliament when Parliament was sitting ...

'', continued to be broadcast from the BBC studios in Plymouth on VHF and on the Radio 4 medium wave Plymouth relay until 31 December 1982. The launch of Radio 5 on 27 August 1990 saw the removal of

Open University The Open University (OU) is a British Public university, public research university and the largest university in the United Kingdom by List of universities in the United Kingdom by enrolment, number of students. The majority of the OU's underg ...

, schools programming, children's programmes and the '' Study on 4''/''Options'' adult education slot from Radio 4's FM frequencies. Consequently, the full Radio 4 schedule became available on FM for the first time. However, adult educational and

programming returned to Radio 4 in 1994 when Radio 5 was closed to make way for the launch of BBC Radio 5 Live and were broadcast on Sunday evenings on longwave only. Between 17 January 1991 and 2 March 1991 FM broadcasts were replaced by a continuous news service devoted to the

Gulf War The Gulf War was a 1990–1991 armed campaign waged by a Coalition of the Gulf War, 35-country military coalition in response to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. Spearheaded by the United States, the coalition's efforts against Ba'athist Iraq, ...

, Radio 4 News FM, with the main Radio 4 service transferring to long wave. In September 1991 the main Radio 4 service transferred from long wave to FM coverage had now extended to cover almost all of the UK - Radio 4 did not become available on FM in much of Scotland and Wales until the early 1990s. Opt-outs were transferred to longwave: currently '' Test Match Special'', extra shipping forecasts, '' The Daily Service'' and '' Yesterday in Parliament''. Longwave very occasionally opts out at other times, such as to broadcast special services, the most recent being when

Pope Benedict XVI Pope Benedict XVI ( la, Benedictus XVI; it, Benedetto XVI; german: link=no, Benedikt XVI.; born Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger, , on 16 April 1927) is a retired prelate of the Catholic church who served as the head of the Church and the sovereign ...

visited Britain in 2010.

Programmes and schedules

Daily schedule

An online schedule page lists the running order of programmes.

Production

Many programmes are pre-recorded. Programmes transmitted live include '' Today'', magazine programme ''

Woman's Hour ''Woman's Hour'' is a radio magazine programme broadcast in the United Kingdom on the BBC Light Programme, BBC Radio 2, and later BBC Radio 4. It has been on the air since 1946. History Created by Norman Collins and originally presented by ...

'', consumer affairs programme '' You and Yours'', and (often) the music, film, books, arts and culture programme '' Front Row''. Continuity is managed from

with news bulletins, including the hourly summaries and longer programmes such as the ''Six O'Clock News'' and ''Midnight News'', and news programmes such as ''Today'', ''The World at One'' and ''PM'', which by early 2013 had returned to Broadcasting House after 15 years at BBC Television Centre in

White City White City may refer to: Places Australia * White City, Perth, an amusement park on the Perth foreshore * White City railway station, a former railway station * White City Stadium (Sydney), a tennis centre in Sydney * White City FC, a football c ...

. The news returning to Broadcasting House has also meant that newsreaders can provide cover for continuity, which regularly occurs at 23:00 each night and 16:00 on a Sunday. This has reduced the total number of continuity announcers required each day down from four to three. The Greenwich Time Signal, popularly known as "the pips", is broadcast every hour to herald the news bulletin, except at midnight and 18:00, and 22:00 on Sunday, when the chimes of

are played. There is no Greenwich Time Signal at 15:00 on Saturday or 10:00 and 11:00 on Sunday due to the Saturday Afternoon drama and the omnibus edition of ''

The Archers ''The Archers'' is a BBC radio drama on BBC Radio 4, the corporation's main spoken-word channel. Broadcast since 1951, it was famously billed as "an everyday story of country folk" and is now promoted as "a contemporary drama in a rural sett ...

'' respectively. Only pips broadcast on FM, MW and LW are accurate. On digital platforms there is a delay of between three and five seconds, and up to 23 seconds online.

Programmes

Radio 4 programmes cover a wide variety of genre including news and current affairs, history, culture, science, religion, arts, drama and light entertainment. A number of the programmes on Radio 4 take the form of a "magazine" show, featuring numerous small contributions over the course of the programme—''

'', ''

From Our Own Correspondent ''From Our Own Correspondent'' is a weekly BBC radio programme in which BBC foreign correspondents deliver a sequence of short talks reflecting on current events and topical themes in the countries outside the UK in which they are based. The prog ...

'', '' You and Yours''. The rise of these magazine shows is primarily due to the work of

Tony Whitby Tony may refer to: People and fictional characters * Tony (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters * Gregory Tony (born 1978), American law enforcement officer * Motu Tony (born 1981), New Zealand international rugby lea ...

, controller of Radio 4 from 1970 to 1975. The station hosts a number of long-running programmes, many of which have been broadcast for over 40 years. Most programmes are available for four weeks after broadcast as streaming audio from Radio 4's ''listen again'' page and via

. A selection of programmes is also available as podcasts or

download In computer networks, download means to ''receive'' data from a remote system, typically a server such as a web server, an FTP server, an email server, or other similar system. This contrasts with uploading, where data is ''sent to'' a remo ...

able audio files. Many comedy and drama programmes from the Radio 4 archives are broadcast on BBC Radio 4 Extra. Due to the capacity limitations of DAB and increasing sport broadcasts on BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra, BBC Radio 4 DAB has to reduce its bit rate most evenings, such that after 7 p.m. its DAB output is usually in mono, even though many of its programmes are made in stereo (including its flagship drama "The Archers"), these can be heard in stereo only on FM, Digital TV on Freeview & Freesat (Ch. 704), Sky, Virgin and on line via BBC Sounds. BBC World Service, which uses BBC Radio 4 FM & DAB frequencies between 01:00 and 05:20, is in stereo, but only on Radio 4 FM & DAB and not on its own dedicated DAB channel. BBC Radio 4 Extra broadcasts in mono on DAB, but has always been in stereo on Digital TV (Freeview / Freesat Ch 708), Sky, Virgin and online.

Notable continuity announcers and newsreaders

Announcers carry out the following duties from Broadcasting House: * Provide links (or junctions) between programmes * Read trails for programmes * Provide reassurance to listeners during a programme breakdown * Read the

(except the 05:20 broadcast, which is covered by BBC Weather) * Read the

BBC Radio 3 BBC Radio 3 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It replaced the BBC Third Programme in 1967 and broadcasts classical music and opera, with jazz, world music, drama, culture and the arts also featuring. The st ...

news summaries at 13:00, 17:00 and 18:00 on weekdays Newsreaders read hourly summaries and longer bulletins from New Broadcasting House. In 2012 the BBC announced that it would be reducing its main presentation team from 12 to ten.

BBC

* Alan Smith * John Hammond * Caroline Nicholls * Tom Sandars * Jane Steel

Freelance

* Chris Aldridge * Andrew Crawford * Mark Forrest *

Jim Lee Jim Lee ( Korean 이용철; born August 11, 1964) is a Korean American comic-book artist, writer, editor, and publisher. He is currently the Publisher and Chief Creative Officer of DC Comics. In recognition of his work, Lee has received a H ...

* Andrew Peach * Susan Rae *

Neil Nunes Neil Nunes (born 12 December 1980) (pronounced ) is a British-Jamaican continuity announcer and newsreader on BBC Radio 4 in the United Kingdom, and on the BBC World Service. Early life Nunes was born in Kingston, Jamaica, and brought up in th ...

Former

* Alice Arnold (1994–2012) * Carolyn Brown (left 2015) * Harriet Cass (left 2013) *

Corrie Corfield Coriona Kear Ware Corfield is a radio broadcaster and producer known especially for her newsreading and continuity announcements on BBC Radio 4. Early life and education She was born 1961 in Oxford. Raised near Stratford-upon-Avon, Corfield ...

(1988–2021) * Peter Donaldson (1973–2012) * Charlotte Green (1988–2013) * Peter Jefferson (left 2009) *

Astley Jones Astley Jones is a newsreader and continuity announcer on BBC Radio 4. After beginning his career as a PE teacher, he took up work as a BBC Sports correspondent. He has followed a freelance career since 1975, working on Radios 2, 3, 4 and World ...

(left 2006) *

Laurie Macmillan Laurie Macmillan (10 May 1947 – 8 October 2001) was a BBC Radio 4 newsreader and continuity announcer born in Aberdeen on the east coast of Scotland. Educated at Haberdashers' Monmouth School for Girls, Monmouthshire and then at Newcastle Univ ...

(died 2001) *

Rory Morrison Rory David Morrison (5 August 1964 – 11 June 2013) was a newsreader and continuity announcer for BBC Radio 4. Early life and education Morrison was born in London in 1964, the eldest of Anne and Bob Morrison's three children. He was brou ...

(died 2013) * Charles Nove (left 2019; now with Scala Radio) * Jamie Owen * Brian Perkins * Iain Purdon (retired from BBC World Service in 2016) *

Vaughan Savidge Vaughan Edward Savidge (born 6 June 1956) is a former British freelance newsreader for BBC Radio 3, continuity announcer for BBC Radio 4, and formerly a newsreader the World Service. He also performed spoof news items on ''Armando Iannucci's Char ...

(left 2018) * Neil Sleat (1998-2021) * Zeb Soanes (left 2022) * Moira Stuart (left 1981 to move to TV; now with Classic FM)

Frequencies and other means of reception

Criticisms

Criticism voiced by centre-right newspapers in recent years have a perceived left political bias across a range of issues, as well as sycophancy in interviews, particularly on the popular morning news magazine ''Today'' as part of a reported perception of a general "malaise" at the BBC. Conversely, the journalist Mehdi Hasan has criticised the station for an overtly " socially and culturally conservative" approach. There has been criticism of ''Today'' in particular for a lack of female broadcasters. In September 1972, Radio 4 employed the first female continuity announcers—Hylda Bamber and Barbara Edwards. For quite some time, the introduction of female newsreaders led to complaints from listeners; women discussing topics of feminist interest led to similar complaints. In addition, there has been long-running criticism by atheist and humanist groups of ''Thought for the Day'', a slot dedicated exclusively to religious discussion during Radio 4's flagship morning news programme. Radio 4 has been criticised for being too

middle class The middle class refers to a class of people in the middle of a social hierarchy, often defined by occupation, income, education, or social status. The term has historically been associated with modernity, capitalism and political debate. Co ...

and of little interest to non-white listeners.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bbc Radio 4 4 News and talk radio stations in the United Kingdom Radio stations established in 1967 1967 establishments in the United Kingdom Radio stations in the United Kingdom Longwave radio stations Peabody Award winners Podcasting companies