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
BBC Radio Orchestra sections of the Radio Orchestra were utilised across BBC’s Regional Radio Orchestras: The B1, B2, C1, C2 and D combinations matched the line up of the largest regional orchestra, the BBC Scottish Radio Orchestra, which would occasionally receive augmentation to A size. The BBC Northern Radio Orchestra (previously the BBC Northern Dance Orchestra) utilised C and D combinations, as did the Midlands Radio Orchestra. In a change of musical policy at the BBC, the corporation disbanded many of its light orchestras in 1979, including the regional Radio Orchestras, resulting in a dispute with the Musicians' Union that disrupted the Proms