The end of Radio 4 on 198 kHz long wave

[Arran]

It's the end of an era in broadcasting.

26 June will be the last day that Radio 4 will be broadcast on 198 kHz long wave.

On 23 November 1978, Radio 4 swapped places with Radio 2 on long wave. It was originally broadcast on 200 kHz (1500 m) but changed to 198 kHz on 1 February 1988.

Radio 4 is also broadcast on medium wave in more difficult reception areas, London, and Northern Ireland.

The long wave setting of a radio will no longer officially be of any use in Britain.

[George 1978]

Living in the Midlands (well, East Midlands), and getting national radio station frequencies from either Sutton Coldfield or Droitwich (a place where I always aassociate DFS having a store there), the LW signal of Radio 4 has always been strong and the best place to listen as it mostly comes from the same place. The main problem however is that a lot of radio cassette recorders, radios, and hi-fis don't have Long Wave on them, and so I thought that this was the main reason why LW has not been popular in recent years, as well as the fact that programmes like the Daily Service has transferred to DAB radio as being on Radio 4 Extra (I always play along when the Lord's Prayer is mentioned).

In 1994 I got a world radio from Argos which had Long Wave and around six Short Wave bands (I remember arriving home with it at lunchtime on that day, testimng it out and listening to Jimmy Young on Radio 2 on it, and also searching the Short Wave bands with the radio perched on a back bedroom window sill and getting a World Service-alike station from Switzerland where English was spoken). And of course, Radio 4 LW came out perfectly on the radio.

It is the end of an era, and I suppose that I was lucky that the Midlands was the strongest place to listen to Radio 4 LW in the UK.