Greenwich Time Signal Greenwich Time Signal The Greenwich Time Signal (GTS), popularly known as the pips, is a series of six short tones broadcast at one-second intervals by many BBC Radio stations. The pips were introduced in 1924 and have been generated by the BBC since 1990 to mark the precise start of each hour. Their utility in calibration is diminishing as digital broadcasting entails time lags. There are six pips (short beeps) in total, which occur on each of the 5 seconds leading up to the hour and on the hour itself. Each pip is a 1 kHz tone (about halfway between
BBC Radio 4 September 1967, when the BBC renamed many of its domestic radio stations, in response to the challenge of offshore radio. It moved to long wave in November 1978, taking over the 200 kHz frequency (1500 meters) previously held by Radio 2, and later moved to 198 kHz as a result of international agreements aimed at avoiding interference (all UK AM/MW/LW frequencies are divisible by 9) and to mark the station becoming a fully national service for the first time the station officially became known as Radio 4 UK, a title that remained until mid 1984. For a time during the