[5] BBC Radio 4 broadcasts news programmes such as Today, The World at One and PM heralded on air by the Greenwich Time Signal pips or the chimes of Big Ben.

There is no comparable British commercial network: Channel 4 abandoned plans to launch its own speech-based digital radio station in October 2008 as part of a £100m cost cutting review.

[14] The station is available on FM in most of Great Britain, parts of Ireland and the north of France; LW throughout the UK and in parts of Northern Europe, and the Atlantic north of the Azores to about 20 degrees west; DAB; Digital TV including Freeview, Freesat, Sky and Virgin Media, and on the Internet.

[15][16][17] BBC Radio 4 broadcasts a wide variety of speech-related programming, including news, drama, comedy, science and history.

It moved to long wave in November 1978, taking over the 200 kHz frequency (1,500 metres) previously held by Radio 2 - later moved to 198 kHz as a result of international agreements aimed at avoiding interference (all ITU Region 1 MW/LW broadcast frequencies are divisible by 9).

[20] All regional news bulletins broadcast from BBC regional news bases around England ended in August 1980, apart from in the southwest as until January 1983 there was no BBC Local Radio in the southwest so these news bulletins and its weekday morning regional programme, Morning Sou'West, continued to be broadcast from the BBC studios in Plymouth on VHF and on the Radio 4 medium wave Plymouth relay until 31 December 1982.

Longwave also occasionally opted out at other times, such as to broadcast special services, the most recent being when Pope Benedict XVI visited Britain in 2010.

[22] BBC Radio 4's medium wave frequencies were switched off on 15 April 2024, which previously served as relays in areas with a weak LW signal to provide reception of BBC Radio 4 LW, such as Northern Ireland and south west England.

Most were turned off at 12:27 PM BST and broadcast an endless closedown loop informing listeners to retune to other methods of reception.

[28] The news returning to Broadcasting House has also meant that newsreaders can provide cover for continuity, which regularly occurs at 23:00 each night and 16:00 on a Sunday.

The Greenwich Time Signal, popularly known as "the pips", is broadcast every hour to herald the news bulletin, except at midnight and 18:00, and 22:00 on Sunday, when the chimes of Big Ben are played.

Radio 4 programmes cover a wide variety of genre including news and current affairs, history, culture, science, religion, arts, comedy, drama and entertainment.

A number of the programmes on Radio 4 take the form of a "magazine" show, featuring numerous small contributions over the course of the programme—Woman's Hour, From Our Own Correspondent, You and Yours.

Most programmes are available for 30 days or over a year after broadcast as streaming audio from Radio 4's listen again page[30] and via BBC Sounds.

BBC Radio 4 Extra broadcasts in mono on DAB, but has always been in stereo on Digital TV (Freeview / Freesat Ch 708), Sky, Virgin and online.

Other continuity announcers for whom it is not known whether they are freelance or BBC employees, include Joanna Kean, Kelsey Bennett, Arlene Fleming (who also used to read the news) and Richard Evans.

Criticism voiced by centre-right newspapers in recent years have a perceived left political bias across a range of issues,[39][40][41] as well as sycophancy in interviews, particularly on the popular morning news magazine Today[42] as part of a reported perception of a general "malaise" at the BBC.

Conversely, the journalist Mehdi Hasan has criticised the station for an overtly "socially and culturally conservative" approach.

[45] In addition, there has been long-running criticism by atheist and humanist groups of Thought for the Day, a slot dedicated exclusively to religious discussion during Radio 4's flagship morning news programme.