BBC Radio 4‘s longwave transmitter at Droitwich is due to shut down in June 2025. If the latest announced extension is to be believed. This extension has been negotiated by the energy industry, which relies on the BBC to transmit the Economy 7 telecoms signal.
It appears that almost a million homes and businesses still rely on old meters that use the telecommutation signal. It is therefore unlikely that all these meters will be replaced before June.
Are we heading for another extension? The longwave transmitter is owned and operated by Arqiva on behalf of the BBC. Arqiva may be happy to keep the customer for a few more months, but is concerned about the state of the installation, which is at the end of its life, and above all about the stock of spare parts, which is almost non-existent, following the various postponements.
Another concern for Arqiva: The Twentieth Century Society (C20), which aims to save irreplaceable twentieth-century buildings and design, is campaigning to save the two masts and the main transmission building of the Droitwich transmitting station. C20 wants to list the site as part of England’s national heritage.
These two 213.4 m (700 ft.) steel lattice masts are supported by 21 steel cables, each anchored to a concrete block weighing 400 tonnes. They were the tallest structures in the UK when they were built, and are believed to be the only pre-war structures over 200 m to have survived, making them the oldest telecommunication structures of their type in Britain.
The station’s main transmission building, built in 1934, was also included in the consultation. Comprising four contiguous blocks, clad in limestone and finished with decorative tooling, they are monolithic Art Deco in style.
Unfortunately, the complex has been profoundly altered in the course of its existence. A new western facade was added in the 1990s, reusing the carved BBC coat of arms that had been salvaged from the old facade.
This applies to all three transmitters: Droitwich, Burghead and Westerglen.
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