h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: BBC Radio Four - A2491274
Author: PaulEvans - U684918

I think this article is now ready for peer review. It is not excessively lengthy but I think it has all the relavant information and compliments the existing entry on BBC Radio One.

A good start

Other entries you might like to link to include A330797 (Just a Minute) and A493670 (The News Quiz). Also, might it be worth mentioning what it was Radio 4 replaced - was it the Home Programme?

Excellent Start....


Personally I'd like to see a little more history - I have no idea of the history, but the fact that The Archers for example pre-dates the existence of Radio 4 makes me think that the station itself must have replaced another one - if that's true, what was it?

Secondly, apart from The Archers it must be worth mentioning a couple of the other long-running programmes.
Alister Cooke & Letter from America deserves a mention at least


and of course, an entry on Radio 4 wouldn't be complete without a mention of the most rivitingly exciting radio programme in existance...

The Shipping Forecast

Darn it! Delayed action Simpost...

At least that answers one of my questions

comments duly noted, will get to it!
I think it was just the Home Programme before, yeah, then they divided it all up in 1967, I'll check and update.

Have tried to give it a bit of a tidy-up now.

Hello Paul

Extraordinary that there wasn't an entry! Too obvious perhaps?

Anyway, good start...

Up here (Perthshire) we get R4 on about 96.5FM and others get it on 95.8 and more get it on 104.5. So the small waveband options you give aren't necessarily accurate...


Fb

The 92-95 FM and 198 longwave are the ranges announced by the station itself. The long wave frquency of 198KHz was a change from 200KHz, originates in Droitwich, and used to be the Light Programme. (That is, the frequencies used do not correspond to the content in quite the same way that Light programmme/Home service did.)

The orders of our radio-silent nuclear submarines used to include something to the effect that, if the today programme was not broadcast for three consecutive days, assume nuclear holocaust.

198 longwave is the station of choice for cricket lovers during test matches, even if they would otherwise avoid Radio 4 - this should be mentioned.

Doesn't the house style require programme names in italics rather than bold?

thanks for the tips, I'll try and sort that out.

I love that fact about the Today programme and nuclear holocuast, it's so British.

Didn't mean to do PR tonight but couldn't resist this one, v good but it should be "its" (no apostrophe) throughout (unless there's one where you're saying "it is", but I don't remember any). Also there was a sentence something like "the station ... their programmes" - "their" should be another its. And no I'm not obsessive really ...

cheers, I appreciate it, because to be honest I'm actually never quite sure of my grammar (comprehensive schools eh!), will attend to it.

And I love Agaton Sax by the way!

Yup, comprehensive schools. I only know because we had an extraordinary teacher who was clearly in the wrong place - he ended up at a terribly posh school I believe, but managed to din the apostrophe rule into my head before he went.

And I thought nobody had heard of Agaton Sax! I must check out the Jackanory thing on the front page, that's where I first met him.

Looking back I do know the 'it's rule', I think my brain just gets lazy...

and especially rcommend Agaton Sax and the Scotland Yard Mystery to the world as a great work of literature!

I like the Criminal Doubles. And the guy with the magnetic foot. And the one where Agaton ends up in a car race. Well - all of them really. And somebody had posted a comment about Agaton at the Jackanory entry. I feel almost cool.

Their and they're and there is what I get muddled when I'm writing without thinking properly. And I had to spend 5 minutes yesterday explaining to my five year old daughter about to and two and too. What a confusing language - no wonder they gave up teaching it in schools.

Hello again Paul. Sorry for the disjointed nature of my postings, but I have been away for a couple of days and am wrestling with a large backlog.

For various technical reasons (essentially the way radio waves propagate), 198 longwave has the greatest uninterrupted range of all the frequencies in use by the BBC. Some of the (non-domestic BBC service) shortwave frequencies have farther reach, but there is a skip distance in between which is not reachable. For this reason, the weather reports, especially those from UK coastal stations, are on 198 longwave, and hence these days on Radio 4. I reckon that regardless of the allocation of frequencies to Radios 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5, 198 longwave will have those weather forecasts - so now that means they on on Radio 4.

Here are some additional technicalities, which you may choose not to include. Droitwich is quite near me (less than 1 hour drive), and I have passed the transmitting aerial many times. The aerial is unusual, in that it cannot be of the common half-wave or quarter-wave dimensions (the wavelength is about 1500m), and so the broadcast power is enormous to compensate for poor aerial efficiency. Near Droitwich, a carefully constructed tuned aerial aligned to receive 198KHz, and some very simple other stuff to prevent bulb overload, enable one to build a radio powered torch which lights for ever without any batteries at all. If you think this aspect is worthy of comment, you may like to investigate it further, as radio transmitters are not my area of electronics.

By the way, if you had not already guessed, I only ever listen to Radio 4. I do not watch (or even own) a television, as I can use h2g2 with the radio on. In the small hours of the morning, the frequencies used for Radio 4 do not go silent after close down, but carry the BBC World Service - English language radio for non-domestic audiences (Wright around the World at this very moment, which is more like Radio 1), with the acclaimed BBC news services very prominent. That happens between about 1am, and about 5.30am when farming today and then that today programme begin.

I have to flee to the countryside for a couple of days but will look into sorting out the more technical side when I get back. Cheers!

Yes, I agree the entry needs a bit more history.

Here's proof positive about the Home Service:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/aboutradio4/history/history_chap6.shtml

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/aboutradio4/history/history_chap7.shtml

You should put something in about Women's Hour too and I notice that Listen with Mother carried over into Radio Four - again, worth a mention, as children's broadcasting has always been important to the Beeb.

OH - Sorry, but much as I'd love to believe it, the Today/Submarine anecdote could never be true, for around fifty different reasons.

'Twas broadcast on ... Radio 4, in a series some little while back. True of cold war days, I promise you.

what about the fairly recent addition (or re-introduction) of children's radio on BBC - go for it (??? - for the life of me I cannot remember the name now) .

good article.

mini