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BBC 198 kHz longwave closure date?

M

Mediafrog+

Reports on DX forums that September 26, 2026 has been set for the closure of BBC Radio 4 on 198 kHz longwave. Nothing from the BBC itself about this yet.

That would leave Romania on 153 and Poland on 225 as the only European longwave broadcast signals remaining. Morocco still has 171 and Algeria 252, plus the Mongolians on 164, 209 and 227 kHz.
 
Miss Tuned said:
It'll stay on the air on FM.
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And on DAB, satellite and streaming. The Radio 4 mediumwave outlets have been shut down over the past few years.

The Radio 4 webstream is not geofenced, so can be heard anywhere: BBC Audio | Radio 4 | Listen Live

Over a century of history with the BBC longwave signal, but the LW audience is mostly gone, as what has happened to shortwave.

If there is a death pool for what station will be the last one to abandon longwave, I’ll vote for Poland as the last European, and Algeria as the final LW anywhere.
 
snratio said:
My bet is on Mongolia, which still has 3 LW stations - 164, 209, 227.
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That would be my alternate guess, should Algeria suddenly change its mind about the viability of longwave. The Algerian 252 facility installed a new transmitter a few years ago, so they may keep it going for a while.

Also depends on what Mongolian Radio does with their planned digital shortwave outlets for the domestic service. Do those replace or merely augment the longwave coverage? Mongolia is a country where longwave still makes some sense, due to its large rural area and small, scattered cities outside of the capital Ulaanbataar.

The 209 frequency in Mongolia is actually three transmitters in the far northeast, south central, and far west of the country. 164 and 227 are stand-alones.
 
Mediafrog+ said:
And on DAB, satellite and streaming. The Radio 4 mediumwave outlets have been shut down over the past few years.

The Radio 4 webstream is not geofenced, so can be heard anywhere: BBC Audio | Radio 4 | Listen Live

Over a century of history with the BBC longwave signal, but the LW audience is mostly gone, as what has happened to shortwave.

If there is a death pool for what station will be the last one to abandon longwave, I’ll vote for Poland as the last European, and Algeria as the final LW anywhere.
Click to expand...
Most of what goes out on Radio 4 is also now available in podcast form - I listen to Radio 4 content, but I always do it as a podcast rather than on the radio. An awful lot of the Radio 4 schedule these days (outside the news content) is just a sequence of podcasts being played out.

The BBC's financial position is poor, and it is cutting about 10% of its staff (between 1,800 and 2,000 people):

www.bbc.co.uk

BBC to cut almost one in 10 staff in £500m savings

The BBC's interim director general says the cuts will require "some big and some difficult choices".
www.bbc.co.uk www.bbc.co.uk
 
Miss Tuned said:
Most of what goes out on Radio 4 is also now available in podcast form - I listen to Radio 4 content, but I always do it as a podcast rather than on the radio. An awful lot of the Radio 4 schedule these days (outside the news content) is just a sequence of podcasts being played out.
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The BBC World Service constantly promotes the podcast versions of its output. Some promos don’t even mention any radio availability.
Miss Tuned said:
The BBC's financial position is poor, and it is cutting about 10% of its staff (between 1,800 and 2,000 people):
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I’m keeping a sharp eye on what this means for the BBC World Service and what is left of its shortwave output. Radio 4 has long carried BBCWS as overnight fill, so the end of 198 also ends that longwave option for the WS.
 
Mediafrog+ said:
I’m keeping a sharp eye on what this means for the BBC World Service and what is left of its shortwave output. Radio 4 has long carried BBCWS as overnight fill, so the end of 198 also ends that longwave option for the WS.
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There has been some talk of the BBC World Service's funding coming from the government again, rather than the licence fee, to try and ease the pressure on the BBC (it was moved to the licence fee as part of government cutbacks years ago).

I don't know what this would mean in terms of the level of service provided, though. I couldn't see the government funding SW to any great extent.
 
Miss Tuned said:
I don't know what this would mean in terms of the level of service provided, though. I couldn't see the government funding SW to any great extent.
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The BBC has made a lot of noise about shifting to a “digital first” organization recently. As the incoming BBC Director General is a former Google executive, there may be a move away from vintage tech such as shortwave. I have long suspected that the BBC would be happy to get out of the shortwave business.
 
Mediafrog+ said:
The BBC has made a lot of noise about shifting to a “digital first” organization recently. As the incoming BBC Director General is a former Google executive, there may be a move away from vintage tech such as shortwave. I have long suspected that the BBC would be happy to get out of the shortwave business.
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You never hear radio frequencies or TV channels promoted any more. Gone are the days of "88-91 FM, BBC Radio 2". The BBC domestically already act like an online streamer with a few legacy transmitters in use.

Any radio programming being trailed is "on BBC Sounds" and not "on Radio 4" or "on Radio 2". All TV trailers (shown between programming) end with "on BBC iPlayer", not "Thursday at 8pm on BBC One" as they used to.

This is a YouTube trailer, but it's the same as what goes out on TV, the "watch on iPlayer" graphic and end card (without the "Subscribe" bit).

 
I've actually visited the Mongolian LW site in Ulaan Baatar. Whilst there I was served lunch of bread, fermented yak's milk (essentially a cross between thick cream and butter and very nice on bread) and tomatoes. The bread and milk are normal, the tomatoes unusual but I didn't click why... They use the excess heat generated by the transmitter to heat a greenhouse in which they grow tomatoes. The only place in the whole country (at the time) where you could get them. So the loss of LW in Mongolia has agricultural implications too :)🍅
 
Reverend said:
I've actually visited the Mongolian LW site in Ulaan Baatar. Whilst there I was served lunch of bread, fermented yak's milk (essentially a cross between thick cream and butter and very nice on bread) and tomatoes. The bread and milk are normal, the tomatoes unusual but I didn't click why... They use the excess heat generated by the transmitter to heat a greenhouse in which they grow tomatoes. The only place in the whole country (at the time) where you could get them. So the loss of LW in Mongolia has agricultural implications too :)🍅
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Very nice story! I assume this was the Khonkhor site near Ulaanbaatar, which houses the 164 kHz longwave unit as well as the shortwave transmitter for the foreign service. The site used to also have a 500kw mediumwave (990 kHz) transmitter for the foreign service, but that is not currently active.

There have been some reports on shortwave forums of recent test transmissions from the site, with speculation they involve the purported new SW transmitters for the domestic service.
 
Mediafrog+ said:
There have been some reports on shortwave forums of recent test transmissions from the site, with speculation they involve the purported new SW transmitters for the domestic service.
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The voice of mongolia has a limited service on shortwave for their international service, or at least they did 6 months ago. english, japanese and a few other lanfguages
 
Reverend said:
I've actually visited the Mongolian LW site in Ulaan Baatar. Whilst there I was served lunch of bread, fermented yak's milk (essentially a cross between thick cream and butter and very nice on bread) and tomatoes. The bread and milk are normal, the tomatoes unusual but I didn't click why... They use the excess heat generated by the transmitter to heat a greenhouse in which they grow tomatoes. The only place in the whole country (at the time) where you could get them. So the loss of LW in Mongolia has agricultural implications too :)🍅
Click to expand...
Please tell us you took some photos!
 
This is the end of an era for the longwave band. BBC Radio 4 has always been my biggest LW target. I only have a short window of time to try and find them on the West Coast. In the past, I have heard faint carrier tones on 198, but never close to audio. Perhaps I should try around London sunrise this August or September. It looks like the tentative shutoff date is September 26th.
 
Sadly I don't have any photos. It was in the day of film and cameras. I did have a picture of downtown Ulaan Baatar but that's been lost in the mists of time too.
 


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