The long goodbye: BBC pulls the plug on long-wave radio (and TV is next)
After more than a century, an era comes to an end as the world's longest-running long-wave radio service shuts down. On June 27, 2026, the BBC switched off its Radio 4 long-wave broadcast for good, with an even more startling cancellation in the works.
In July of 1924, the BBC began testing long-wave audio transmissions from the Marconi works in Chelmsford on a wavelength of 187.5 kHz. A year later, on July 27, 1925, regular service was inaugurated from Borough Hill in Daventry, Northamptonshire, with the call sign 5XX.
From this elevated central position within England, the BBC's 25-kW transmitter, with its newly invented water-cooled thermionic valves, gave the corporation the power to reach 94% of the population. As the technology for the new radio medium rapidly developed, including 150-kW transmitters, the long-wave service moved to a permanent home in Droitwich, Worcestershire, eventually transmitting on 200 kHz, and then shifting...
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