James Cridland writes:
4 June 2023
In the UK, BBC Radio 4 is, finally, coming off LW: at least, separate scheduling for LW is to cease in March 2024, so that’s an end to The Daily Service and the longer (and superior) version of Yesterday In Parliament there (they shift to DAB station Radio 4 Extra). It’ll be off completely by Dec 2027.
The BBC says, confusingly, that the changes are “in anticipation of the closure of the LW platform, owned and operated by a third party, which is coming to the end of its life as a technology.” This seems a little disingenuous – LW isn’t “owned and operated by a third party”, though BBC Radio 4’s LW transmitters are owned and operated by Arqiva, just like their FM and DAB transmission network.
RTÉ Radio 1 came off 252 kHz LW in the middle of April. In Denmark, DR Langbølge will cease at the end of this year, and in Iceland, the RÚV will cease next year. That’ll leave just stations from Poland, Mongolia, Romania and Morocco on the waveband (and good luck getting the Mongolian output even now, since they’re on non-standard frequencies).
It looks as if LW is rapidly heading for total closure.
https://james.cridland.net
Mike Terry to Longwaveradiolistening iog (2023-06-04)