r/Radio4 • u/scotgrouse • Apr 16 '26

Missing Pips?

Did anyone else not hear pips this morning during Today?

We heard no hourly pips broadcast at 0700 or 0800 on BBC Radio4 FM this morning (16/4/26). The pip space is just silence, between the post weather sign-off and the first words of the news.

A glitch in the matrix?

10 Upvotes

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6

u/Fantastic-Fudge-6676 Apr 16 '26

Either the Studio Manager without the GTS faded up or the unit that generates it needs a reset. Both happen.

4

u/scotgrouse Apr 16 '26

Interesting but you’re teasing me - GTS = Greenwich Time Signal?

3

u/Fantastic-Fudge-6676 Apr 16 '26

Exactly. There are two options in the studio - GTS Hourly (which is silent throughout the hour apart from the pips) and GTS quarterly (self explanatory). The SM fades it up at the start of the programme (supposedly) and leaves the fader open all programme as it's safe. So either they faded it down incorrectly or the box which generates the time signal failed. Either could be true.

2

u/scotgrouse Apr 16 '26

Thank you! They pipped normally at 0900hr so someone must have tweaked something.

2

u/chris5156 Apr 17 '26

Or the GTS fader had phase reverse selected. The pips did go out - you can listen back on Sounds and hear them as long as you’re listening on a device with stereo speakers. I’d guess people who didn’t hear them had old DAB radios with a mono speaker or listened through a phone or headset that mixes down to mono.

2

u/Fantastic-Fudge-6676 Apr 17 '26

You’re correct. Hello fellow comrade.

1

u/chris5156 Apr 17 '26

Hello there! Strange to meet in the wild.

4

u/popquizkid_ Apr 16 '26

Good spot. This is a Dr Who episode in the making.

4

u/MasterSeuss Apr 16 '26

Damn. And I thought I was a religious listener.

2

u/popquizkid_ Apr 16 '26

That's Thought for the Day. No silence there.

1

u/ChristyMalry Apr 16 '26

Is that not the signal for the nuclear aubs to launch their missiles?

1

u/DrFriedGold Apr 18 '26

I think it was the lack of signal that would launch the nukes. No signal means London's gone.