Broadcast Bye-bye, Long Wave...

So how long (pun not intended) was it up for?

We in Oz had 100 years of MW last year. Guess this will be older.

@irob2345 Droitwich on 1500m switched on in 1934 but there was a LW station at Daventry at much lower power from 1925 this was replaced with the higher power transmitter at Droitwich.

some info.

https://keeplongwave.co.uk/history/

So maybe the switch-off will be at the 100 year anniversary?

In Sydney we have the eight 1924 - 25 MW startups still on the air, 6 of them from Homebush Bay in the swampy ground next to the 2000 Olympic site which is a perfect QTH for MW coverage. These are all commercial stations, 5kW omnidirectional.

All of these are also on digital radio. I guess one of the reasons they are still on the air is pretty much all the transmitters were replaced with unattended, reliable, efficient Nautel mosfet units in the early 80s. Just not worth switching them off and the mangrove swamps they occupy cannot be sold or built on for a number of reasons.

The ABC has their two 50kW txs (National and Regional radio) out in the south-western suburb of Leppington. Plus an 11kW for their Newsradio / National Parliament broadcasting service.

Posted by: @irob2345

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So maybe the switch-off will be at the 100 year anniversary?

No. That would have to be on the 27th of July, when 5XX at Daventry on 1600m commenced operation.

I listened to "The shipping forecast day" yesterday on radio 4. I listened on LW and recorded some of the content on cassette from FM. They spent a fair bit of time reminiscing about the shipping forecast and how dear it was or is to listeners.

  The programme makers talk about the uniqueness and heritage of the programme I wonder why the BBC see no value in keeping radio 4 longwave going? I suppose it is all down to money. We have heritage railways, why not a heritage radio station? Maybe they could apply for lottery funding? We just seem to keep losing the things that helped make Britain great. 

Posted by: @slidertogrid

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I listened to "The shipping forecast day" yesterday on radio 4. I listened on LW and recorded some of the content on cassette from FM. They spent a fair bit of time reminiscing about the shipping forecast and how dear it was or is to listeners.

  The programme makers talk about the uniqueness and heritage of the programme I wonder why the BBC see no value in keeping radio 4 longwave going? I suppose it is all down to money. We have heritage railways, why not a heritage radio station? Maybe they could apply for lottery funding? We just seem to keep losing the things that helped make Britain great. 

True story: a friend of the family had "Sailing By" played at her cremation.

Perhaps if the BBC still owned its transmitters it may well have done but I think two things are at play here: one, the cost to the BBC from whomsoever owns Droitwich now and two, years of hostility to the BBC over its content and its funding model I think are driving it towards becoming a solely online subscription model. If you listen to Radio 2 over the last year or so you may have noticed that at no time does it mention its broadcast availability: it is pushed as being "on BBC Sounds or your 'smart speaker' ".

Pig-ignorant politicians of the last few decades don't help either. However, Maritime Safety Information (to give the shipping forecast its proper title) is transmitted via various means outside of the broadcast wavelengths and using such methods as NAVTEX. To claim R4LW is paramount for safety is a bit wide of the mark and if you know when and where to listen, it's still on the old "Trawler Band" on some radios.

As for a "heritage" station - well, there's plenty of those already as long as you can tolerate the adverts. At least Caroline puts all its adverts on in a block every half hour! A lot of people bemoan Radio 2 becoming like Radio 1, missing out the "thirty years ago" bit. R2 merely reflects the demographic of its listenership. I realised that was happening long ago, not least when I put R2 on in the car and heard Janie Jones by The Clash playing! Remember, people who first heard the Beatles as a teenager in 1964 are now in their 70s.

Perhaps, as Joni Mitchell sang, "you don't know what you've got 'till it's gone".

Thanks Mike for the explanation, I didn't realise that the BBC do not own the Transmitter any more.  I realise the BBC are facing problems, most of which are not of their own making. The BBC has always had it's critics but it seems worse these last years. Maybe because it is so easy to vent one's spleen these days! The media or "press" as it used to be are always keen to throw wood on the fire as well. As I get older I find it more difficult to adjust to change...

Just a last thought I wonder what the owners of the transmitter will do with it? If they paid a high price for it they may want to still get a return on their money if they can. I wonder if anyone else will be interested in a LW station? Somehow I doubt it....

@slidertogrid The transmitters were one of the first things the BBC sold off, nearly thirty years ago to an outfit called Crown Castle, I think. About the same time, the IBA sold theirs to NTL.

Current owner of Droitwich is Arqiva.

Power bills are another reason.

Depending on the antiquity and design of the actual transmitters it may be that it's becoming more difficult to maintain them.

More egregious things happened in Oz. About 10 years back the ABC suddenly pulled the plug on their shortwave service to SE Asia. That was political, it was done as a sop to the Chinese govt.

@irob2345 I have no doubt that cost and maintenance are a big factor in its closure.

I presume like most of the broadcasters on MW the BBC will look at audience numbers and do a cost benefit for LW. Many MW transmitters have shut down over the last few years both BBC and commercial.

@nuvistor In addition to which, I suspect that listeners and advertisers are turned off by audio that stops at 6kHz and probably find an analogue radio too difficult to tune. I suspect cost is the driving factor more than anything else: the BBC was probably told by Arqiva how much it would cost to upgrade the transmitter and said "no".

The BBC likes to say it's because they can't get the valves for the transmitter any more. I think that hides the real reason.

A bigger problem for people like me is we are going to lose the Radio Teleswitch Service which we rely on to bill our Economy 7 heating systems. They keep sending me emails demanding I make an appointment to install a smart meter except I don't have access to the meter cupboard. It is shared with more than a dozen other properties and can only be accessed by the local housing association. The electricity supplier (in this case Octopus) can arrange access with the housing association themselves but refuse to do this insisting I arrange access which I'm not allowed to do. There are possibly hundreds of thousands of other residents across the country in the same situation as me.

@ntscuser Perhaps time to write to the MD of the housing association and Octopus to get their heads together and sort it out. Put contact details in the letter of both parties. With that many meters close together they may not be that smart.

Posted by: @ntscuser

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A bigger problem for people like me is we are going to lose the Radio Teleswitch Service which we rely on to bill our Economy 7 heating systems. They keep sending me emails demanding I make an appointment to install a smart meter

Conversely, I've not heard a dicky bird out of British Gas, who I have my Economy7 with. I've been wondering when and what they are going to do about this problem, time is ticking with just over 6-month. As usual, I suspect it will get left to the last minute. I was told about 3-4 years ago when I asked about a Smart meter, they stated then it could not be done for Eco 7, hopefully things have improved since that conversation. OH, and I just had my first winter bill in £1,563.00 f'fin nuts, but at least £300 cheaper than last year.

@crustytv Seems other suppliers can handle the problem, the smart meter must be a 5 port type with the extra port being the switched night time feed. I can’t see installing that to be difficult but whether BG back end computers can sort out the difference is another question.

Sorry Chris, you probably know this already.

@crustytv Yep, same here - on a Teleswitch meter for Economy 7 and no mention of replacing it from BG other than "have you considered a 'smart meter'?". Given you've got an electric car though, don't Octopus do a very good deal for night-time charging or do you have E7 for heating the museum/workshop?

I miss the good old-fashioned 'Ferraris' meter with the chunky, bullet-proof Venner time switch alongside it that made a loud "clang!" when the meter was switched from normal to night-time rate: the tiny electronic thing I have doesn't even show live current consumption...

I phoned BG and asked what was going on with regard to the RTS switch-off. The scripted offshore message was "You will be moved to a smart meter, and we will be contacting you shortly".

Posted by: @cathovisor

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do you have E7 for heating the museum/workshop?

It's a little more complicated than that, my system is hybrid and until the world went nuts financially, it worked best for me and did not cost a fortune to run, unlike now. I have gas combi boiler providing hot water and central heating rads for downstairs (lounge 1, Lounge 2, Kitchen, Hall). Upstairs eco 7 rads in bed1, bed2, bed3, bathroom, two in museum/workshop and 1 in the conservatory. The EV's charge overnight for about £6