Radio 4 News FM was the national BBC station devoted to rolling news service that was on air during the

Gulf War The Gulf War was a 1990–1991 armed campaign waged by a 35-country military coalition in response to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. Spearheaded by the United States, the coalition's efforts against Iraq were carried out in two key phases: ...

from 16 January until 2 March 1991. It was broadcast on Radio 4's FM frequencies, whilst regular scheduled service continued on

longwave In radio, longwave, long wave or long-wave, and commonly abbreviated LW, refers to parts of the radio spectrum with wavelengths longer than what was originally called the medium-wave broadcasting band. The term is historic, dating from the e ...

. This station was also broadcast on

BBC World Service The BBC World Service is an international broadcaster owned and operated by the BBC, with funding from the British Government through the Foreign Secretary's office. It is the world's largest external broadcaster in terms of reception a ...

. At the time, some journalists gave it the nickname Scud FM from the

Scud missile A Scud missile is one of a series of tactical ballistic missiles developed by the Soviet Union during the Cold War. It was exported widely to both Second and Third World countries. The term comes from the NATO reporting name attached to the m ...

s used by

Iraq Iraq,; ku, عێراق, translit=Êraq officially the Republic of Iraq, '; ku, کۆماری عێراق, translit=Komarî Êraq is a country in Western Asia. It is bordered by Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq ...

i forces in the war. The long-term impact of Radio 4 News FM was that the popularity of the station was taken as evidence that a rolling news service was required at the BBC. In response,

Radio 5 Live BBC Radio 5 Live is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC that broadcasts mainly news, sport, discussion, interviews and phone-ins. It is the principal BBC radio station Broadcasting of sports events, covering sport in ...

was launched on 28 March 1994.

History

Operation

When

Coalition A coalition is a group formed when two or more people or groups temporarily work together to achieve a common goal. The term is most frequently used to denote a formation of power in political or economical spaces. Formation According to ''A Gui ...

forces began military operations against Iraq following the invasion of Kuwait on 2 August 1990, the BBC discontinued to broadcast usual mixed schedule on Radio 4's FM frequencies and replaced it with a rolling news service known by the emergency staff as ''Scud FM'', named after "

Saddam Hussein Saddam Hussein ( ; ar, صدام حسين, Ṣaddām Ḥusayn; 28 April 1937 – 30 December 2006) was an Iraqi politician who served as the fifth president of Iraq from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003. A leading member of the revolutio ...

's most notorious weapon" was the Russian-made missile in which Iraq was firing at the Israeli city of

Tel Aviv Tel Aviv-Yafo ( he, תֵּל־אָבִיב-יָפוֹ, translit=Tēl-ʾĀvīv-Yāfō ; ar, تَلّ أَبِيب – يَافَا, translit=Tall ʾAbīb-Yāfā, links=no), often referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the G ...

. BBC staff had managed to launch a 17 hours a day rolling

news channel News broadcasting is the medium of broadcasting various news events and other information via television, radio, or the internet in the field of broadcast journalism. The content is usually either produced locally in a radio studio or tele ...

(without time to concoct an official name) with less than 24 hours' notice and provided the listener with "access to the

raw material A raw material, also known as a feedstock, unprocessed material, or primary commodity, is a basic material that is used to produce goods, finished goods, energy, or intermediate materials that are feedstock for future finished products. As feeds ...

, the events as they unfolded, from the daily military press conferences, the Presidential briefings to what it was like living in

Baghdad Baghdad (; ar, بَغْدَاد , ) is the capital of Iraq and the second-largest city in the Arab world after Cairo. It is located on the Tigris near the ruins of the ancient city of Babylon and the Sassanid Persian capital of Ctesiphon ...

, in Tel Aviv, with the troops in

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia, officially the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), is a country in Western Asia. It covers the bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, and has a land area of about , making it the fifth-largest country in Asia, the second-largest in the Ara ...

". The service was run by

Jenny Abramsky Dame Jennifer Gita Abramsky, (born 7 October 1946) is a British media producer and philanthropist. She was chairman of the UK's National Heritage Memorial Fund (NHMF). The NHMF makes grants to preserve heritage of outstanding national importanc ...

and produced by volunteers, working on their days off: Brian Redhead,

John Humphrys Desmond John Humphrys (born 17 August 1943) is a Welsh broadcaster. From 1981 to 1987 he was the main presenter for the '' Nine O'Clock News'', the flagship BBC News television programme, and from 1987 until 2019 he presented on the BBC Radio 4 ...

, Nick Clarke,

Robin Lustig Robin Francis Lustig (born 30 August 1948, London) is a British journalist and radio broadcaster, who has presented programmes for the BBC World Service and BBC Radio 4. Family Lustig was born in Stoke Newington, London, to Jewish refugees. ...

, Nicholas Witchell, Bob Simpson and Nick Ross. Journalist

Georgina Henry Georgina Clare Henry (8 June 1960 – 7 February 2014)Alan Rusbridger"Obituary: Georgina Henry" ''The Guardian'', 7 February 2014. was a British journalist. Associated with ''The Guardian'' newspaper for 25 years from 1989 until her death in 201 ...

wrote at the time: However, many BBC radio executives and listeners were unhappy about the loss of the FM stereo service, so when the conflict ended on 2 March 1991 as the rolling news service stopped. A later Henry article reported: Despite this, both 29% of all stations and 68% of Radio 4 listeners heard it with an extra 1.5 million people tuning in to Radio 4 on

and FM frequencies.

Structure

Listeners wrote in "saying the new service was a lifeline", within the success of Radio 4 News FM convinced the BBC that a national radio rolling news network was required. However, Radio 4 listeners marched on

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 ma ...

to preserve their FM and AM frequencies when it was suggested that the new service might launch on Radio 4's longwave frequency. In ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally. It was f ...

'', Gillian Reynolds suggested: The corporation replaced the "improvised and disjointed" station Radio 5, which had been launched on 27 August 1990, with

as "a coherent and cohesive... service of intelligent news and sport for a younger audience". The new station launched on 28 March 1994.

History

Operation

Structure

Sources

References

Further reading