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now fast falling out of date.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