Usage
The pips are used by several stations, but not always at every hour. On Radio 4, the pips broadcast every hour, except when they are replaced at the start of the 6pm and midnight news bulletins (and the start of the Westminster Hour on Sundays at 10pm) by the Westminster chimes from the Clock Tower at the Palace of Westminster, with the hour chimes of Big Ben, sometimes called the "bongs" (though these are more associated in the popular mind with ITV's News at Ten).
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 pips can also be heard every hour on the BBC's worldwide radio station BBC World Service.
The pips were used on Radio 1 during The Chris Moyles Show at 6.30am just after the news, 9am as part of the Tedious Link feature, 10am (at the end of the show) and often before Newsbeat. As most stations only air the pips on the hour, the Chris Moyles show was the only show where the pips were broadcast on the half hour. Masterpieces, the playing of an album in its entirety, is begun with pips, and they also feature at 7pm on Fridays to signify the start of the weekend and at 4pm on Sundays to mark the start of The Official Chart Show. The pips are also used at 7pm on Saturday evenings at the start of Radio 1's 12-hour simulcast with digital station BBC Radio 1Xtra.
The pips are used on Radio 2 at 7am and 8am during The Chris Evans Breakfast Show, at 5pm between Steve Wright's and Simon Mayo's Drivetime show and at 7pm at the end of the show. They are also broadcast during Anneka Rice's show at 7am and 8am on a Saturday and at 8am and 9am on a Sunday during Aled Jones' show. Radio 2's coverage of the Eurovision Song Contest is preceded by the pips.
The pips were used on 5 Live at 12:30am in the early hours of Tuesday to Friday to signify the start of the Special Half Hour segment on Richard Bacon's late evening show.
The BBC does 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 2012 project Radio Reunited, however, did use the pips not as a time signal, but simply to commemorate 90 years of BBC Radio.
Read more about this topic: Greenwich Time Signal
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