2024 looks to be a critical year for longwave broadcasting in the UK. In the year we celebrate 90 years of transmissions from Droitwich, the BBC has announced its intention to shut this historic transmitter down. The campaign to keep Longwave is still very young and consists essentially of the 13 people on this mailing list, but it is encouraging to see nearly 2500 people already having signed our petition. Please continue to refer anyone who might be interested in signing to www.keeplongwave.co.uk
I'm getting in touch now to let you know our current plan of action:
Plan A: Keep BBC Radio 4 Longwave
We have already contacted the BBC on this issue multiple times and contributed to the Radio 4 Feedback program. Some of those contacted have been sympathetic, but the general view of the BBC is that nobody listens to LW anymore and maintaining the transmitter is a waste of money. They have not provided any evidence for this, and have not been able to produce any listening figures for longwave. Please contact the BBC if you haven't already, to complain about the planned demise of Longwave, and help to prove them wrong! You can contact them quickly and easily here.
It has been heartening to receive messages from listeners in Europe, and as far away as Newfoundland, and it is becoming increasingly clear that the Droitwich transmitter is one of the most important in the world, with a large international audience. This is a point that has not been emphasised to the BBC, and will therefore guide our next stage of campaigning. I am going to contact my MP specifically on the issue of listeners abroad, and suggest to him that it might be worth approaching the Foreign Office to discuss the impact of losing the voice of the BBC in Europe. He is very sympathetic to our cause, and the Droitwich transmitter is inside his constituency.
Plan B: Amateur Longwave
Our Plan B will come into play if it becomes impossible to persuade the BBC and government to retain longwave transmissions. The plan would be to obtain an Ofcom license to broadcast on longwave from an alternative site using an underground aerial, since the costs of maintaining the Droitwich transmitter would be too high. This would keep longwave broadcasting, but we would lose our iconic transmitter, and listeners abroad would no longer be served. Were we forced to choose this option, however, we would need to start a fundraising campaign to set up and maintain transmissions?
If you have any other ideas or suggestions, please do let the group know. Thank you to everyone who has already contributed your comments and suggestions, and for sharing the petition.
Let us enter 2024 with a degree of optimism, even in the midst such troubled times worldwide.
With all best wishes,
Tobias
Dr Tobias Thornes
Campaign to Keep Longwave
tobiastjwt@googlemail.com
(Mike terry/BDXC)
(photo/Wikpedia)