Vintage Audio Activities...

[CitroJim]

This seems the proper place for a few more pictures of the 1950s TV and Radio shop in the Beamish Museum...

I spent a lot of time in this bit of the museum

And a more general one showing the other shops around it, the cinema and the record shop and TV showroom upstairs...

[CitroJim]

The BBC are turning off the Droitwich Long Wave transmitter broadcasting Radio 4 on 198KHz at the end of June and in doing so, ending an era...

In homage to this momentous event, I'm now listening to Radio 4 on Long Wave and will do so until it goes off the air.

It makes sense really. The electricity bill for the transmitter alone is in excess of a million a year and add to that the cost of maintaining the aerial array makes it very uneconomic for the small residual listenership.

And small it is. Who still listens to Radio 4 on LW and indeed, who still has a radio capable of even receiving it on 198KHz?

My children, of the millennial generation, don't even have a radio in their houses and listen exclusively on smart speakers...

And that it's there for use in case of national emergency is now a bit pointless given the above...

Sad perhaps but inevitable...

[xantia_v6]

About 3 years ago I found Radio 4 on the LW band of the radio in my XM here in Burgundy. No reception in town due to noise, but in the countryside it was usable, but I got bored with the test match.
I agree that it is sad, but I think that all terrestrial broadcasting including TV will be gone in a generation.

[bobins]

I always had this dream that one day I'd retire and be able to lie on a sun lounger in the back garden, sipping a drink whilst listening to the Test Match on Longwave. I have no love of cricket, but I liked the idea of doing nothing in particular whilst the radio burbled on in the background. Alas, it seems that dream will never come to fruition

[CitroJim]

Alas, it seems that dream will never come to fruition

Not necessarily Bobins I understand TMS now goes out on a pop-up DAB channel these days so if you have a suitable portable DAB radio and you have decent'ish DAB reception in your bucolic location then that dream may become true...

And if the reception is not decent, then indeed it will be burbling...

[bobins]

Ah no, it has to be longwave or nothing, Jim. As far as longwave is concerned, it has 2 uses for me - cricket (which I don't usually listen to), and helping to prove that the UK hasn't been annihilated in a nuclear exchange

[CitroJim]

About 3 years ago I found Radio 4 on the LW band of the radio in my XM here in Burgundy. No reception in town due to noise, but in the countryside it was usable, but I got bored with the test match.

Allegedly, there's quite a listenership in Europe and beyond due to the reach of the signal. There's reports it reaches as far as the USA at times...

The R4 LW transmitter has already had a stay of execution whilst all existing radio teleswitches were replaced with smart meters. Teleswitches were used to switch electricity metering to off-peak (Economy 7 and the like) for those using storage heaters and so on.

In France, the Allouis LW transmitter ceased broadcasting France Inter in 2016 but remains 'on-air' transmitting the TDS Time Signal as so much of French critical infrastructure depends upon it. Although a frequency standard, our R4 LW transmitters don't play such a role. We have transmitters on 60 and 500KHz for that.

I agree that it is sad, but I think that all terrestrial broadcasting including TV will be gone in a generation.

That's very likely. UK Terrestrial Freeview TV is already slated for cessation with DAB and the remaining MW stations too. FM seems to have a fairly secure future - at the moment...