CALLING LISTENERS ON LONG WAVE

No, it’s not an April Fool’s Day hoax — from 1 April the BBC will no longer be broadcasting some programmes separately on Radio 4 long wave while others go out on FM. This affects listening such as the Daily Service, the longer version of Yesterday in

Parliament and Test Match Special. In other words, there will only be one version of Radio 4, whether you tune in on long wave or FM.

That’s not to say your trusty old transistor will be more and more redundant, as the long wave platform won’t be closing down for a while yet. But if you don’t have a digital radio, a television set or smart speaker through which you can access digital radio, or a smartphone, desktop computer or tablet, you will no longer be able to tune in to these programmes as the schedules are unified. Older car radios with long wave will be similarly affected.

The BBC first began broadcasting on long wave in 1925, from a transmitter in Daventry, Northamptonshire. Today, three transmitters, owned by private firm Arqiva, broadcast Radio 4 long wave on 198 kHz, and Arqiva say “significant further investment” would be necessary in order to continue doing so, after 36 years of energy-intensive operation.

Here’s where you will find the following from 1 April:

■ Daily Service (Monday—Friday 9.45am Radio 4 LW) moves to Radio 4 Extra/BBC Sounds.

■ Yesterday in Parliament (longer version, Tuesday—Friday 8.30am Radio 4 LW) moves to Radio 4 Extra/BBC Sounds.

■ Test Match Special (Radio 4 LW and 5 Sports Extra) will now be available only on 5 Sports Extra and BBC Sounds.

■ The Shipping Forecast — which until now was broadcast four times a day across long wave and FM — will in future be broadcast twice a day on Radio 4 on weekdays and three times a day at weekends. It will also continue to air on the Coastguard channels.

Look out for more schedule updates on next week’s radio pages.