Greenwich Time Signal broadcasts the pips every hour. Pips can also be heard on many BBC Local Radio stations although their use is up to the discretion of individual stations. A rare quarter-hour Greenwich Time Signal can be heard at 05:15 weekdays on Wally Webb's programme on six BBC Local Radio stations in the east of England, as part of his "sychronised cup of tea" feature. In 1999, pip-like sounds were incorporated into the themes written by composer David Lowe to introduce BBC Television News programmes. They are still used today on BBC One, BBC World News and BBC News. The BBC does
Greenwich Time Signal as from the Droitwich AM transmitter, which is the distance to Central London. As a pre-IRIG and pre-NTP time transfer and transmission system, the pips have been a great technological success. In modern times, however, time can be transferred to systems with CPUs and operating systems by using BCD or some Unix Time variant. Newer digital broadcasting methods have introduced even greater problems for the accuracy of use of the pips. On digital platforms such as DVB, DAB, satellite and the internet, the pips—although "generated" accurately—are not "heard" by the listener exactly on the hour. The encoding and decoding of