BBC Radio 4 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It launched on 30 September 1967 as a replacement for the BBC Home Service and broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes from the BBC's headquarters at Broadcasting House in London. Since 2019, the station controller has been Mohit Bakaya. He replaced Gwyneth Williams, who had been the station controller since 2010.
Radio 4 is broadcast throughout the United Kingdom, the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands on FM, DAB and BBC Sounds, it can also be received in the eastern counties of Ireland, northern France and Northern Europe. It is available internationally via the BBC.com website and app. It currently reaches over 9.2million listeners, making it the UK's second most-popular radio station after BBC Radio 2. Radio 4 was previously broadcast on long wave on 198kHz, from 23 November 1978 until 27 June 2026.
BBC Radio 4 broadcasts news programmes such as Today, The World at One, PM, and The Westminster Hour heralded on air by the Greenwich Time Signal pips or the chimes of Big Ben, which are broadcast live. Radio 4 also broadcasts the Shipping Forecast, which is over 150 years old.
According to RAJAR, the station (inc.4 Extra) broadcasts to an audience of 9.54million with a listening share of 16% as of March 2026.
Overview BBC Radio 4 broadcasts a wide variety of speech-related programming, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. Music is broadcast as in documentaries relating to various forms of both popular and classical music, and the long-running music-based Desert Island Discs. Sport is not part of the station's output, apart from during news bulletins, although between 1994 and 2023, the station's long wave frequency was used to broadcast ball-by-ball commentaries of most Test cricket matches played by England. Consequently, for around 70 days a year, listeners had to rely on FM broadcasts or DAB for mainstream Radio 4 broadcasts – the number relying solely on long wave was now a small minority. The cricket broadcasts took precedence over on-the-hour news bulletins, but not the Shipping Forecast, carried since Radio 4's move to long wave in 1978 because long wave can be received clearly at sea.
The station is available on FM in most of Great Britain, parts of Ireland and the north of France; LW throughout the UK and in parts of Northern Europe, and the Atlantic north of the Azores to about 20 degrees west; DAB; Digital TV including Freeview, Freesat, Freely, Sky and Virgin Media, and on the Internet. Freesat, Sky and Virgin formerly had a separate channel for Radio 4 LW output in mono, in addition to the FM output, but these were removed after the separate schedule for LW ended in April 2024. BBC Radio 4 broadcast from 5am to 1am on weekdays, and 5:30am to 1am on the weekends
BBC Radio 4 is the second-most-popular British domestic radio station by total hours, after Radio 2. It recorded its highest audience, of 11million listeners, in May 2011,Guardian 12 May 2011 Retrieved 16 May 2011] and was "UK Radio Station of the Year" at the 2003, 2004, 2008 and 2023 Radio Academy Awards. It also won a Peabody Award in 2002 for File on 4: Export Controls.62nd Annual Peabody Awards , May 2003. Costing £87million (2024/5), it is the BBC's most expensive national radio network. There is no comparable British commercial network: Channel 4 abandoned plans to launch its own speech-based digital radio station in October 2008 as part of a £100m cost-cutting review.
The long wave signal was part of the Royal Navy's system of letters of last resort. In the event of a suspected catastrophic attack on Britain, submarine captains, in addition to other checks, check for a broadcast signal from Radio 4 on 198kHz long wave to verify the destruction of organised society in the United Kingdom."Radio silence puts subs on nuclear alert" 28 November 2003 Manchester Evening News Retrieved 11 February 2018
History
Initially the power was 100watts on 350metres (857kHz). 2LO was allowed to transmit for seven minutes, after which the "operator" had to listen on the wavelength for three minutes for possible instructions to close down. On 14 November 1922, the station was transferred to the new British Broadcasting Company, which in 1923 took up the nearby Savoy Hill for its broadcasting studios. At midnight on New Year's Eve 1923, the twelve chimes of Big Ben were broadcast for the first time to mark the new year. The British Broadcasting Company began transmissions in London on 14 November 1922, from station 2LO in the Strand, which it had inherited from the Marconi Company (one of six commercial companies which created the BBC), but technology did not yet exist either for national coverage or joint programming between transmitters. While it was possible to combine large numbers of trunk telephone lines to link transmitters for individual programmes, the process was expensive and not encouraged by the General Post Office as it tied up large parts of the telephone network. The stations that followed the establishment of 2LO in London were therefore autonomously programmed using local talent and facilities.
By May 1923, simultaneous broadcasting was technically possible at least between main transmitters and relay stations, the quality was not felt to be high enough to provide a national service or regular simultaneous broadcasts. In 1924, it was felt that technical standards had improved enough for London to start to provide the majority of the output, cutting the local stations back to providing items of local interest.
The company became the British Broadcasting Corporation in 1927. On 9 March 1930, 2LO was replaced by the BBC Regional Programme and the BBC National Programme. The letters LO continued to be used internally as a designation in the BBC for technical operations in the London area (for example, the numbering of all recordings made in London contained LO). The code LO was changed to LN in the early 1970s.
Main stations Each of these main stations were broadcast at approximately 1kW: Airdate Station ID City Initial frequency 14 November 1922 2LO London 822kHz 15 November 1922 5IT Birmingham 626kHz 2ZY Manchester 794kHz 24 December 1922 5NO Newcastle upon Tyne 743kHz 13 February 1923 5WA Cardiff 850kHz 6 March 1923 5SC Glasgow 711kHz 10 October 1923 2BD Aberdeen 606kHz 17 October 1923 6BM Bournemouth 777kHz 14 September 1924 2BE Belfast 689kHz
Relay stations Each of these relay stations were broadcast at approximately 120watts (W): Airdate Station ID City Relay of Frequency 16 November 1923 6FL Sheffield 2ZY 980kHz 28 March 1924 5PY Plymouth 6BM 887kHz 1 May 1924 2EH Edinburgh 5SC 914kHz 11 June 1924 6LV Liverpool 2ZY 906kHz 8 July 1924 2LS Leeds and Bradford 935kHz 15 August 1924 6KH Kingston upon Hull 896kHz 16 September 1924 5NG Nottingham 920kHz 21 October 1924 6ST Stoke-on-Trent 996kHz 12 November 1924 2DE Dundee 2BD 952kHz 12 December 1924 5SX Swansea 5WA 622kHz
The BBC Home Service was the predecessor of Radio 4 and broadcast between 1939 and 1967. It had regional variations and was broadcast on medium wave with a network of VHF FM transmitters being added from 1955. Radio 4 replaced it on 30 September 1967, when the BBC restructured and renamed its domestic radio stations, in response to the challenge of offshore radio. It moved to long wave in November 1978, taking over the 200kHz frequency (1,500 metres) previously held by Radio 2 - later moved to 198kHz as a result of international agreements aimed at avoiding interference (all ITU Region 1 MW/LW broadcast frequencies are divisible by 9). At this point, Radio 4 became available across all of the UK for the first time and the station officially became known as Radio 4 UK, a title that remained until 29 September 1984.
For a time during the 1970s, Radio 4 carried regional news bulletins Monday to Saturday. These were broadcast twice at breakfast, at lunchtime and at 17:55. There were also programme variations for the parts of England not served by BBC Local Radio stations. These included Roundabout East Anglia, a VHF opt-out of the Today programme broadcast from BBC East's studios in Norwich each weekday from 06:45{ to 08:45. Roundabout East Anglia came to an end in August 1980, ahead of the launch of BBC Radio Norfolk.
All regional news bulletins broadcast from BBC regional news bases around England ended in August 1980, apart from in the southwest as until January 1983 there was no BBC Local Radio in the southwest so these news bulletins and its weekday morning regional programme, Morning Sou'West, continued to be broadcast from the BBC studios in Plymouth on VHF and on the Radio 4 medium wave Plymouth relay until 31 December 1982.
The launch of Radio 5 on 27 August 1990 saw the removal of Open University, schools programming, children's programmes and the Study on 4/Options adult education slot from Radio 4's FM frequencies. Consequently, the full Radio 4 schedule became available on FM for the first time. However, adult educational and Open University programming returned to Radio 4 in 1994, when Radio 5 was closed to make way for the launch of BBC Radio 5 Live and were broadcast until the end of the 1990s, on Sunday evenings on long wave only.
Between 17 January 1991 and 2 March 1991, FM broadcasts were replaced by a continuous news service devoted to the Gulf War, Radio 4 News FM, with the main Radio 4 service transferring to long wave. Before this, Radio 4's FM frequencies had occasionally been used for additional news coverage, generally for live coverage of statements and debates in Parliament.
By the start of the 1990s, Radio 4 had become available on FM in most of the UK - previously FM coverage had been restricted mainly to England and south Wales. This meant that it was possible for the main Radio 4 service to be transferred from LW to FM, and this took place on 16 September 1991 with opt-outs - extra shipping forecasts, Daily Service, Yesterday in Parliament coverage of Prime Ministers Questions and other occasional extra news coverage, joined in 1994 by Test Match Special - transferring to long wave. However, 1994 did see the end of the extra news coverage on long wave due to the launch of BBC Radio 5 Live, although occasional broadcasts of services continued with the last being when Pope Benedict XVI visited Britain in 2010.
On 15 April 2024 at 12:27 BST, Radio 4's medium wave frequencies were switched off. These previously served as relays in areas with a weak long wave signal to provide reception of Radio 4 long wave, such as Northern Ireland and south west England. A continuous closedown loop message was broadcast until 30 April 2024, informing listeners to retune to other methods of reception.
On 30 May 2023, the BBC announced that Radio 4 will stop broadcasting opt-outs on long wave with the last opt-outs airing on 31 March 2024. The two displaced programmes, Daily Service and Yesterday in Parliament moved to BBC Radio 4 Extra, although the latter was returned to the early morning Radio 4 schedule in April 2025. The daily amount of Shipping Forecasts was reduced to be broadcast 2 times on weekdays and 3 times on weekends. Test Match Special moved to BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra on 31 July 2023. These end ahead of a planned switch-off of long wave transmissions by 26 September 2026. On 11 May 2026, the BBC announced that Radio 4 long wave transmission would be switched-off earlier than previously publicised, on 27 June 2026. At 01:00 BST, the long wave transmitters were switched off as planned, and a retune loop began playing on 198kHz, and is expected to continue doing so until its permanent switch-off on 30 June 2026.
Programmes and schedules Daily schedule