The BBC in the UK recently announced that their Radio 4 service on 198 kHz will finally shut down on Saturday 27th of June 2026 at 00:00 UTC. It will join a list of other radio stations in Europe that have ceased using the Long Wave broadcast band.
In a statement, the BBC said... "Radio 4’s Long Wave (LW) service will close on the 27th June 2026. We will broadcast daily on-air reminders to help everyone switch to other ways of listening.
The company that owns and operates the LW broadcast equipment has confirmed that the system is reaching the end of its life. As LW is an older broadcasting technology, recent years have seen a decline in listener numbers, with the majority now opting for FM and DAB digital platforms. Given these factors, investing in upgrading the LW equipment is not considered a cost-effective solution for licence fee-funded services. "
While most media sources focus on the Droitwich transmitter, BBC Radio 4 operates from three separate locations.
The main transmitter running 250 kilowatts operates from near Droitwick to the south of Birmingham.. This covers all of England and the signal spills over into Ireland, the north of France and Belgium and the Netherlands.
There are two other transmitters on the same frequency transmitting with 25-kilowatts from Burghead and Westerglen in Scotland.
It's very likely that this BBC signal on 198 kHz would have closed years ago if it wasn't for the fact that the signal was being used for switching electricity meters around the country. I covered this in a previous post.
The last few signals on the long wave band that can be heard in Europe are...
153 kHz - SRR Antena Satelor in Romania
171 kHz - Radio Méditerranée International in Morocco
225 kHz - Polskie Radio in Poland
252 kHz - Chaîne 3 in Algeria
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