Greenwich Time Signal not allow the pips to be broadcast except as a time signal. Radio plays and comedies which have fictional news programmes use various methods to avoid playing the full six pips, ranging from simply fading in the pips to a version played on "On the Hour" in which the sound was made into a small tune between the pips. "The News Quiz" also featured a special Christmas pantomime edition where the pips went missing, and the problem was avoided there by only playing individual pips and not the whole set. The 2012 project "Radio Reunited", however, did use the pips
Greenwich Time Signal pips were of equal length and confusion arose as to which was the final pip, hence the last pip was of extended length. The pips are available to BBC radio stations every 15 minutes but except in rare cases, they are only broadcast on the hour, usually before news bulletins or news programmes. On BBC Radio 4, the pips are broadcast every hour except at 18:00 and 00:00 and at 22:00 on Sundays (at the start of the Westminster Hour) when they are replaced by the Westminster chimes of Big Ben at the Palace of Westminster. No time signal is