domenica 27 settembre 2015

End of Shipping Forecast on long wave radio could leave sailors high and dry

Daily Telegraph
26 September 2015  

After more than 90 years the days of the Shipping Forecast may be numbered due  to the demise of long wave technology 

It has kept sailors safe on the ocean waves for 90 years, becoming just as much a part of national consciousness as cricket, cups of tea and The Archers. 

But the days of hearing the Shipping Forecast out on a boat may be numbered thanks to the demise of long wave technology, a veteran announcer has said. 

Peter Jefferson, who read the Shipping Forecast to Radio 4 listeners for 40 years, said the "very old" transmitters which worked on long wave could soon be retired. 

If that was to happen, he said, anyone more than 12 miles from the coastline would be unable to hear the shipping forecast on long wave, ending a Radio 4 tradition dating back to 1924. 

Speaking at the Radio Times Festival, in Hampton Court, Mr Jefferson said the soothing tones of the Shipping Forecast would then be left to its many fans who choose to listen to it from their homes in lieu of a "sleeping pill". 

"Long wave reaches much further than FM, it's as simple as that," he said. 

"So FM would be totally useless for shipping beyond 12 miles from land. 

"So they will not be able to receive the shipping forecast. 
   
"If long wave is retired, which might be the case, then I don't know what will happen to the shipping forecast." 

He added: "The long wave will be retired because it's very old and costs a lot to maintain, I think it's days are numbered now.

"It's a matter of whether they can find another way of transmitting the shipping forecast to reach as far as i t needs to." 

The future of long wave radio has posed a difficult question for fans of the medium for years, with the technology required to broadcast it now fast falling out of date. 

The valves used the the transmission system, based at Droitwich in Worcestershire, are no longer made, with the BBC said to have once bought up the entire stock of 10 in the world in order to make it last as long as possible. 

A spokesman for the BBC said they were no firm plans to end long wave broadcasting, and no date set for when the technology could run out. 

The service currently reaches as far as south-east Iceland, and is occasionally picked up as far as 3,000 miles away. 

The forecast, which airs four times a day, is currently listened to by a large audience on dry land, with the vast majority choosing to tune in for pleasure rather than professional necessity. 

"We all like regularity in our lives to some extent, to have a soothing voice talking to yo u as are about to be overtaken by sleep at the same time, with the same words, it's the pattern of the words," said Mr Jefferson. 

"A lot of people find it soothing even if they don't understand what it means." 

The long-serving announcer, who retired in 2009, also raised questions over changes in the service, which see it left to a single person to put out. 

When a member of the audience said she found new announcers "highly irritating", and criticised their emphasis on particular words, Mr Jefferson said: "I do have views, yes." 

Of his early days at Radio 4, he told an audience he had been tested by his older colleagues in a ritual prank, which saw them take his script away mid-broadcast and leave him to fend for himself. 

His book, "And Now The Shipping Forecast", is out now.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/bbc/11892805/End-of-Shipping-Forecast-on-long-wave-radio-could-leave-sailo rs-high-and-dry.html