BBC Radio 4 Totally Explained

Everything about Bbc Radio 4 totally explained

BBC Radio 4 is a domestic UK radio station which broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967.

Outline

Radio 4 is the second most popular British domestic radio station after Radio 2 and was named "UK Radio Station of the Year" at the 2004 Sony Radio Academy Awards for the second year running and at the 2008 awards. Costing £71.4 million (2005/6), it's the BBC's most expensive national radio network and is considered by many to be the corporation's flagship. There is currently no comparable UK commercial network (nor any internationally), although Channel 4 had plans to launch its own speech-based station in autumn 2007.
   The current controller of Radio 4 is Mark Damazer. The previous controller was Helen Boaden, who is now the head of BBC News. The most controversial controller in recent years was James Boyle, nicknamed "McBirt" for his support of the BBCs former Director-General, John Birt. Music and sport are the only fields that largely fall outside the station's remit. There are occasional concerts and ball-by-ball commentaries of most test matches played by England cricket are broadcast on longwave. Because the longwave service can be received clearly at sea in the vicinity of the British Isles, Radio 4 also carries regular weather forecasts for shipping and gale warnings. The station has also been designated as the UK's national broadcaster in times of national emergency such as a war, meaning that even if all other radio stations were forced to close, Radio 4 would still carry on broadcasting. despite some public opposition and a campaign to save it. After a continuity link and programme trail there's a shipping forecast, weather reports from coastal stations for 0400GMT and inshore waters forecasts, followed at 0530 by a news bulletin, a review of British and international newspapers, and a business report. On weekdays, Farming Today, which deals with news of relevance to the agricultural sector, is followed by the Today programme which runs from 0600 to 0900. On or after the hour, a news bulletin is broadcast — this is sometimes a two minute summary, a longer piece as part of a current affairs programme, or a thirty minute broadcast on weekdays at 6pm and midnight.
   At 1200, FM has a four minute bulletin whilst longwave has the headlines and then the Shipping Forecast; for the same reason, longwave leaves PM on weekdays at 1754.
   There is a news programme or bulletin (depending on the day) at 2200, then the midnight news at 0000, followed by (on weekdays) a repeat of Book of the Week. The tune Sailing By is then played until 0048, when the late shipping forecast is broadcast. Radio 4 ends with the national anthem, God Save the Queen, and the World Service takes over from 0100 until 0520.
   There is an online schedule page which lists the running-order of programmes.

Production

Many Radio 4 programmes are pre-recorded, although some programmes are transmitted live including daily programmes such as Today, magazine programme Woman's Hour, consumer affairs programme You and Yours, and (often) the music, film, books, arts and culture programme Front Row. Continuity is generally managed from BBC Broadcasting House whilst news bulletins (including the hourly summaries and longer programmes such as the Six O'Clock News and Midnight News) and news programmes (such as Today, The World at One, PM, etc.) come from the BBC News Centre at Television Centre in White City. They were moved there in 1998 when the News Centre was opened to house both radio and TV news. News is due to return to Broadcasting House in 2008.
The Greenwich Time Signal, known as 'the pips', is usually broadcast every hour to herald a news bulletin.

Programmes

Radio 4 is marked out by a set of long-running programmes, many for well over 20 years. The station is notable for a varied schedule of unusually intelligent and diverse programming.
Most programmes are available as streaming audio from Radio 4's listen again page for a week after broadcast, although RealPlayer is required to listen. A smaller selection of programmes are available as podcasts or downloadable audio files. The BBC has announced its intention to provide an online service provisionally called the BBC iPlayer which would let its licence fee payers access a broader range of its audio and video.
Many comedy and drama programmes from the Radio 4 archives are now rebroadcast on BBC 7.

Continuity announcers and newsreaders

Announcers link programmes, read trails for programmes and read the Shipping Forecast. Newsreaders read hourly summaries and longer bulletins. Senior Announcers

Newsreaders / Continuity Announcers

Annie McKie

Rory Morrison

Susan Rae

Neil Sleat Newsreaders (non-Today programme) / Continuity Announcers

Charles Carroll

David Miles

Vaughan Savidge

Alan Smith

Zebedee 'Zeb' Soanes Newsreaders (non-Today programme)

Peter Donaldson

Brian Perkins Continuity Announcers

Peter Jefferson

Jim Lee

Neil Nunes

Howard Philpot

Diana Speed Former staff

David Anderson (left to senior management, but covered during the May '05 strike)

Edward Cole

Andrew Crawford

Caroline Nicholls (left July 2007)

Alison Rooper (left 2005)

Astley Jones (left 2006)

Pennie Latin (left 11/04)

Patrick Muirhead (left 9/04)

Laurie Macmillan (died 10/01)

Andy Rushton (Test Match Special announcer 1998 - June 2007)

Moira Stuart (left 1981 to TV)

Anna Hill (left ~2000)

Clive Roslin (left ~1990)

Frequencies and other means of reception

Radio 4 is broadcast on:

92-95 MHz FM

95.8 MHz in central Scotland
96 MHz in Greater Belfast
103-104.5 MHz in parts of Wales and on 103.6 MHz in the Inverness area
the Internet

satellite

Radio 4 FM: Sky channel 0104

Radio 4 LW: Sky channel 0143 , as well as sycophancy in interviews, particularly on the popular morning news magazine "Today" , as part of a reported perception of a general "malaise" at the BBC.
Accusations of institutionalised groupthink have been reported on the Radio 4 "Feedback" programme. People have also complained about a perceived prejudice towards "left-wing" comedy shows, such as "The News Quiz" and "The Now Show". They see this 'prejudice' as evidence that Radio 4 tends to favour broadcasting comedy that promotes a particular world view, rather than comedy which is broadcast purely for its humorous qualities.

Further Information

Get more info on 'Bbc Radio 4'.

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