
Sign up to save your podcasts
Or


To mark the centenary of the Greenwich Time Signal on the BBC, Paddy O'Connell asks the unaskable - Do We Still Need the Pips?
First broadcast at 9.30pm on Feb the 5th 1924, the six pips of the Greenwich Time Signal have become synonymous with Radio 4. But today digital broadcasting has rendered this time signal delayed and inaccurate. Plus their immovable presence can cause accidents on-air, and no-one wants to crash the Pips. So after 100 years, should Radio 4 just get rid of them? What is the point of a time signal in 2024 anyway?
Paddy O'Connell looks back across a century of organised beeps, and meets the people who listen to, broadcast and sometimes crash in to the Pips to find out what we really think about these six little characters. With interviews including Mishal Husain, Robin Ince & Brian Cox, Jane Steel, Richard Hoptroff, Jon Holmes and David Rooney.
Produced by Luke Doran.
By BBC Radio 44.3
257257 ratings
To mark the centenary of the Greenwich Time Signal on the BBC, Paddy O'Connell asks the unaskable - Do We Still Need the Pips?
First broadcast at 9.30pm on Feb the 5th 1924, the six pips of the Greenwich Time Signal have become synonymous with Radio 4. But today digital broadcasting has rendered this time signal delayed and inaccurate. Plus their immovable presence can cause accidents on-air, and no-one wants to crash the Pips. So after 100 years, should Radio 4 just get rid of them? What is the point of a time signal in 2024 anyway?
Paddy O'Connell looks back across a century of organised beeps, and meets the people who listen to, broadcast and sometimes crash in to the Pips to find out what we really think about these six little characters. With interviews including Mishal Husain, Robin Ince & Brian Cox, Jane Steel, Richard Hoptroff, Jon Holmes and David Rooney.
Produced by Luke Doran.

7,621 Listeners

372 Listeners

879 Listeners

1,045 Listeners

5,484 Listeners

1,794 Listeners

959 Listeners

1,775 Listeners

1,042 Listeners

2,092 Listeners

2,090 Listeners

486 Listeners

46 Listeners

298 Listeners

70 Listeners

743 Listeners

241 Listeners

840 Listeners

160 Listeners

3,141 Listeners

740 Listeners

1,640 Listeners

63 Listeners