Radio 4

[Drago]

I love Radio 4. The news, the drama, particularly The Archers. Even the hemp woven kaftans of the man hating guests on Womans Hour make me smile. Yes, even the downright communist comedians make me chuckle.

However, this last bastion of the stiff upper lipped British idyl has been ruined. Someone has been tinkering with the pips.

On the hour there would be five short pips and a long pip. This was a British institution as ingrained as pith helmets and cream teas. A subject of Her Majesty knew where they stood with the pips. However, some mad man has been at them and now they are five short pips followed by an even shorter pip.

Who's stolen the long pip, and why?

 

[swansonj]

Huh. What's all this nonsense about engrained bastions? Some of us still remember when they introduced that new fangled longer pip, a merely twinkling of forty years ago....

Edit for typo

 

[Hill Wimp]

Remember when they changed the Archers theme tune ?

That was the end of the world

 

[twentysix by twentyfive]

What was that long pip all about? Didn't it just spread the accuracy out (if you see what I mean)?

 

[swansonj]

What was that long pip all about? Didn't it just spread the accuracy out (if you see what I mean)?

The instant that is being defined is the start of the last pip. Making it longer was supposed to differentiate the relevant pip.

With digital radio it all becomes increasingly academic anyway. Have you tried having the Archers on in three different rooms with three different digital radios?

 

[Hill Wimp]

The instant that is being defined is the start of the last pip. Making it longer was supposed to differentiate the relevant pip.

With digital radio it all becomes increasingly academic anyway. Have you tried having the Archers on in three different rooms with three different digital radios?

Yes only done it with two though.

What drag there is.

 

[PeteXXX]

Surely this change will confuse short sighted listeners!

 

[deptfordmarmoset]

What was that long pip all about? Didn't it just spread the accuracy out (if you see what I mean)?

Yes, it's really daft. If you haven't counted from the start you won't know when the long one will come and you'll only recognise it as the hour marker when it continues, by which time of course the hour has already begun. As a vanishingly small number of people are genuinely tone deaf, pitch could be used to ensure people know when the hour arrives. I suggest playing ''The mouse ran up the clock'' when clock is the :00 moment. Rhythm and pitch allow the hearer to hit the downbeat. (However, as digital radio is always behind, you're only getting the time when the radio gets round to it anyway.)

 

[twentysix by twentyfive]

Have you tried having the Archers on in three different rooms with three different digital radios?

Yep. Quite a lag TV vs digi radio vs analogue radio.

So what is the correct time?

 

[Glow worm]

I still miss the R4 theme tune that used to open the station in the mornings. I think it was ditched in the 90's.

 

[midliferider]

It is part of EU regulation.
Once we regain control, we will return to what it was in 1940.

 

[hopless500]

No long pip any more?

 

[shouldbeinbed]

You lot. I'm now earworming the archers.


My TV and digital radio channels are the furthest out. I can wander from kitchen to living room and catch the same bit of talk in both

 

[Grant Fondo]

I love Radio 4. The news, the drama, particularly The Archers. Even the hemp woven kaftans of the man hating guests on Womans Hour make me smile. Yes, even the downright communist comedians make me chuckle.

However, this last bastion of the stiff upper lipped British idyl has been ruined. Someone has been tinkering with the pips.

On the hour there would be five short pips and a long pip. This was a British institution as ingrained as pith helmets and cream teas. A subject of Her Majesty knew where they stood with the pips. However, some mad man has been at them and now they are five short pips followed by an even shorter pip.

Who's stolen the long pip, and why?

Drago you need to get out more! The Archers is shocking as are most of the daytime dramas which consist of hammy actors putting on posh accents..."oh vicar, what a splendid floral display and such a jolly bigoted middle class garden party this is turning out to be" R4 News programmes excellent, dramas narrow and insipid!

 

[G3CWI]

Who's stolen the long pip, and why?

Brexit has a lot to answer for.