Greenwich Time Signal 19:00. By 19:45 the same day the power supply was repaired and the 20:00 pips were broadcast as normal. Many radio broadcasters around the world use the Greenwich Time Signal as a means to mark the start of the hour. The pips are used in both domestic and international commercial and public broadcasting. Many radio stations use six tones similar to those used by the BBC World Service; some shorten it to five, four, or three tones. Greenwich Time Signal The Greenwich Time Signal (GTS), popularly known as the pips, is a series of six short tones broadcast at one-second
Greenwich Time Signal tone when a pip should be sounded. This let faults on the line be detected immediately by automated monitoring for loss of audio. The Greenwich Time Signal was the first sound heard in the handover to the London 2012 Olympics during the Beijing 2008 Olympics closing ceremony. The pips were also broadcast by the BBC Television Service, but this practice was discontinued by the 1960s. To celebrate the 90th birthday of the pips on 5 February 2014, the "Today" programme broadcast a sequence that included a re-working of the Happy Birthday melody using the GTS as its base sound. The