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 RadioBBC Radio is a service of the British Broadcasting Corporation which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a Royal Charter since 1927...
stations to mark the precise start of each hour. First introduced in 1924, the viability of continued use of the time signal on radio is under discussion, as the unavoidable time lags associated with digital broadcasting systems make its use less feasible as an aid to
calibrationCalibration is the set of operations that establish, under specified conditions, the relationship between the values of quantities indicated by a measuring instrument and the corresponding values realized by standards...
.
Structure
There are six pips (short beeps) in total, which occur on the 5 seconds leading up to the hour and on the hour itself. Each pip is a 1
kAn SI prefix is a name or associated symbol that precedes a basic unit of measure to form a decimal multiple or submultiple. The abbreviation SI is from the French language name Système International d’Unités...
HzThe hertz is a unit of frequency. It is defined as the number of complete cycles per second. It is the basic unit of frequency in the International System of Units , and is used worldwide in both general-purpose and scientific contexts...
tone (about half way between musical B5 and C6), which, for the five, last each a tenth of a second, while the final pip lasts half a second. The actual moment when the hour changes– the "on-time marker"– is at the very beginning of the last pip.
When a
leap secondA leap second is a positive or negative one-second adjustment to the Coordinated Universal Time time scale that keeps it close to mean solar time. UTC, which is used as the basis for official time-of-day radio broadcasts for civil time, is maintained using extremely precise atomic clocks...
occurs (exactly one second before midnight), it is indicated by a seventh pip. In this case the first pip occurs at 23:59:55 (as usual) and there is a sixth short pip at 23:59:60 (the leap second) followed by the long pip at 00:00:00. The leap second is also the explanation for the final pip being longer than the others. This is so that it is always clear which pip is on the hour, especially where there is an extra pip that some people might not be expecting. Before leap seconds were conceived the final pip was the same length as the others. Leap seconds can also be used to make the year shorter, but in practice this has never happened.
Although normally broadcast only on the hour, the signal is also generated, with fewer pips, at each quarter hour. These are occasionally broadcast in error at these times, though they are equally accurate so no harm is done beyond the interruption.
Usage
The pips are used by several stations on some, or every, hour. On
Radio 4BBC Radio 4 is a domestic UK radio station that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967.-Outline:...
, the pips are replaced at the start of the 6pm and midnight news bulletins (and on Sundays at 10pm) by the Westminster chimes from the Clock Tower at the
Palace of WestminsterThe Palace of Westminster, also known as the Houses of Parliament, is the seat of the two houses of the Parliament of the United Kingdom—the House of Lords and the House of Commons...
, with the hour chimes of Big Ben, sometimes called the "bongs" (though these are more associated in the popular mind with
ITVITV is a public service network of British commercial television broadcasters, set up under the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC. ITV is the oldest commercial television network in the UK...
's
News at TenNews at Ten is the flagship news programme on British television network ITV, produced by ITN and founded by news editor Geoffrey Cox. It was originally planned as a thirteen week project in July 1967, because senior figures at ITV refused to believe that a 30 minute late night news bulletin would...
).
In 1999, pip-like sounds were incorporated into the themes written by composer
David LoweDavid Lowe is a British composer, focusing primarily on music for television and radio. His work includes all the current themes for BBC News....
to introduce
BBC Television NewsBBC News, formerly BBC News and Current Affairs, is the department within the British Broadcasting Corporation responsible for the corporation's news-gathering and production of news programmes on BBC television, radio and online....
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 ServiceThe BBC World Service is one of the most widely-recognised international broadcasters, currently broadcasting in 32 languages to many parts of the world via analogue and digital shortwave, internet streaming and podcasting, satellite, FM and MW relays. It is politically independent, non-profit and...
.
The pips are used on
Radio 1BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station operated by the BBC which also broadcasts internationally, specialising in current popular music and chart hits throughout the day. Radio 1 provides alternative genres after 7:00pm including electronic dance, hip hop, rock or interviews. It is aimed...
: on
The Chris Moyles ShowThe Chris Moyles Show is the current BBC Radio 1 breakfast show in the UK, and has been since Chris Moyles became the station's breakfast show presenter on 5 January 2004...
at 6.30am just after the news, 9am as part of the
Tedious Link feature, 10am (at the end of the show), and sometimes before
NewsbeatNewsbeat is the flagship news programme on BBC Radio 1. Newsbeat is produced by BBC News but differs from the BBC's other news programmes in its remit to provide news tailored for a specifically youth audience.- Presenters and editors :...
bulletins.
Masterpieces, the playing of an album in its entirety, is begun with pips, and they also feature at 7pm on Fridays to signify the weekend.
The pips are used on
Radio 2BBC Radio 2 is one of the BBC's national radio stations and the most popular station in the UK. Much of its daytime playlist-based programming is best described as Adult Contemporary or AOR, although the station is also noted for its specialist broadcasting of other musical genres...
at 7am (during
Sarah KennedySarah Mary Kennedy MBE is a British TV and radio broadcaster. She has presented her own daily early morning radio show, The Dawn Patrol, on BBC Radio 2 since 1993....
's show), 8am (during
Terry WoganSir Michael Terence "Terry" Wogan KBE DL is a veteran Irish radio and television broadcaster and comedian, who has worked for the British Broadcasting Corporation in the United Kingdom for most of his career. With a regular 8 million listeners, he is the most listened to radio broadcaster of any...
's breakfast show) and at 5pm (between Steve Wright's and Chris Evans show),
Zoe BallZoë Louise Ball is an English television and radio personality, most famous for becoming the first female host of the BBC Radio 1 breakfast show and for her earlier work presenting 1990s kids show Live & Kicking.-TV career:The daughter of children's TV presenter Johnny Ball, Zoë Ball grew up in...
's show at 7am and 8am on a Saturday and at 8am and 9am on a Sunday during
Aled JonesAled Jones is a Welsh singer and television/radio personality and broadcaster who first came to fame as a treble. He is the only child of Nest and Derek Jones, was raised in the small Welsh-speaking community of Llandegfan, in Anglesey and attended Ysgol David Hughes...
' show.
Broadcasting the pips is frowned on by the BBC except as a time signal. 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 HourOn the Hour was a British radio programme that parodied current affairs broadcasting, broadcast on BBC Radio 4 between 1991 and 1992.Written by Chris Morris, Patrick Marber, Eric Weinstein, Armando Iannucci, Steven Wells, Andrew Glover, Stewart Lee, Richard Herring and David Quantick, it starred...
in which the sound was made into a small tune between the pips.
Accuracy
The pips for national radio stations and some local radio stations are timed relative to UTC, from an
atomic clockAn atomic clock is a type of clock that uses an atomic resonance frequency standard as its timekeeping element. They are the most accurate time and frequency standards known, and are used as primary standards for international time distribution services, and to control the frequency of television...
in the basement of
Broadcasting HouseBroadcasting House is the headquarters and registered office of the BBC in Portland Place and Langham Place, London, England.Architect George Val Myer designed the building in collaboration with the BBC's civil engineer, M T Tudsbery. The interiors are the work of the Australian-Irish architect...
synchronised with the
National Physical LaboratoryThe National Physical Laboratory is the national measurement standards laboratory for the United Kingdom, based at Bushy Park in Teddington, London, England. It is the largest applied physics organisation in the UK....
's Time from NPL and GPS. On other stations, the pips are generated locally from a GPS-synchronised clock.
The BBC compensates for the time delay in both broadcasting and receiving equipment, as well as the time for the actual transmission. The pips are timed so that they are accurately received on long wave as far as from the
Droitwich AM transmitterThe Droitwich transmitting station is a large broadcasting facility for longwave and mediumwave transmissions, established in 1934 in the civil parish of Dodderhill, just outside the village of Wychbold, which is near Droitwich, Worcestershire, England...
, which is the distance to
Central LondonThe term Central London refers to the districts of London which are considered closest to the centre. There is no conventional definition, nor any official one, for the entire area that can be called "central London". Central London covers about 10 square miles on areas both north and south of the...
— the
speed of lightIn physics, the speed of light is a physical constant, the speed at which electromagnetic radiation, such as light, travels in free space . Its value is 299,792,458 metres per second...
being pretty much irrelevant for these purposes (and, in any case, unavoidable).
Newer digital broadcasting methods have introduced even greater problems for the accuracy of use of the pips. On digital platforms such as DVB,
DABDigital Audio Broadcasting , is a digital radio technology for broadcasting radio stations, used in several countries, particularly in Europe. As of 2006, approximately 1,000 stations worldwide broadcast in the DAB format....
and the Internet, the pips — although generated accurately — are not received by the listener exactly on the hour. The
encoding and decodingA codec is a device or computer program capable of encoding and/or decoding a digital data stream or signal. The word codec is a portmanteau of compressor-decompressor' or, more accurately, coder-decoder'.Historically a modem was a contraction of modulator/demodulator and converted...
of the digital signal causes a delay, usually between 2 and 8 seconds. In the case of satellite broadcasting, the
travel timeTravel time may refer to* the duration of a journey, see travel and travel journal* the best season for traveling, see Wanderlust* in physics the travel time of light or a radio waves from a transmitter to a receiver, due to the signals propagation speed. It can be used for distance measurement and...
of the signal to and from the satellite adds about another 0.25 seconds.
History
The pips have been broadcast daily since 5 February 1924,
and were the idea of the
Astronomer RoyalAstronomer Royal is a senior post in the Royal Household of the Sovereign of the United Kingdom. There are two officers, the senior being the Astronomer Royal dating from 22 June 1675; the second is the Astronomer Royal for Scotland dating from 1834....
, Sir
Frank Watson DysonSir Frank Watson Dyson, KBE, FRS was an English astronomer and Astronomer Royal who is remembered today largely for introducing time signals from Greenwich, England, and for the role he played in testing Einstein's theory of general relativity.- Biography :Dyson was born in Measham, near...
, and the head of the BBC,
John ReithJohn Reith may refer to:*John Reith, 1st Baron Reith*John Reith...
. The pips were originally controlled by two mechanical clocks located in the Royal Greenwich Observatory that had electrical contacts attached to their pendula. Two clocks were used in case of a breakdown. These sent a signal each second to the BBC, which converted them to the audible oscillatory tone broadcast.
The Royal Greenwich Observatory moved to
Herstmonceux CastleHerstmonceux Castle is a brick-built Tudor castle near Herstmonceux, East Sussex, United Kingdom. Today it is the home of the Bader International Study Centre of Queen's University, Canada.-History of Herstmonceux:...
in 1957 and the GTS equipment followed a few years later in the form of an electronic clock. Reliability was improved by renting two lines for the service between Herstmonceux and the BBC - with a changeover between the two at
Broadcasting HouseBroadcasting House is the headquarters and registered office of the BBC in Portland Place and Langham Place, London, England.Architect George Val Myer designed the building in collaboration with the BBC's civil engineer, M T Tudsbery. The interiors are the work of the Australian-Irish architect...
should the main line become disconnected.
The tone sent on the lines was inverted: the signal sent to the BBC was a steady
electric currentElectric current can mean, depending on the context, a flow of electric charge or the rate of flow of electric charge ....
when no pip was required, and no current when a pip should be sounded. This let faults on the line to be detected immediately by continuous loss of current.
The Greenwich Time Signal was the first sound heard in the handover to the London 2012 Olympics during the Beijing 2008 Olympics Closing Ceremony.
The pips were also broadcast by the BBC Television Service although this practice had been phased out by the 1960s.
Crashing the pips
It is frowned upon at the
BBCThe British Broadcasting Corporation, usually referred to by its abbreviation as the "BBC", is the longest established and largest broadcaster in the world...
to talk, play music or otherwise make noise while the pips sound, and doing so is commonly known as
crashing the pips. This is most often referred to on Wogan's show, although usually only in jest since the actual event happens rarely.
As a contribution to the 2005 Red Nose Day, the
BBCThe British Broadcasting Corporation, usually referred to by its abbreviation as the "BBC", is the longest established and largest broadcaster in the world...
developed a "pips" ring-tone.
On the 2009 Red Nose Day, well-known comedians replaced the continuity announcers for most of the daytime output of Radio 4, and it seems deliberately crashed the pips— the first crash by
Jo BrandJosephine "Jo" Grace Brand is a British stand-up comedian.-Career:Brand's mother was a social worker, and Brand herself worked as a psychiatric nurse at the South London Bethlem and Maudsley Hospital until the mid-1980s...
was perhaps a genuine mistake, but as the day progressed every other announcer did the same.
Bill BaileyBill Bailey is an English stand-up comedian, musician and actor, Bailey is a best known for his appearances on Have I Got News for You, Never Mind the Buzzcocks, QI and Black Books....
's self styled comedy included the BBC Rave, which includes the BBC News theme, which incorporates a variant of the pips (though not actually broadcast exactly on the hour). The footage can be seen on his DVD Part Troll.
In the late 1980s, Radio 1 featured the pips played over a station
jingleA jingle is a memorable slogan, set to an engaging melody, mainly broadcast on radio and sometimes on television commercials.- History :The jingle had no definitive debut: its infiltration of the radio was more of an evolutionary process than a sudden innovation...
during
Jakki BramblesJackie Brambles , formerly known as Jakki Brambles, is an English journalist, radio DJ and television presenter.-Early life and early career:...
' early show and
Simon MayoSimon Andrew Hicks Mayo is an English radio presenter, who has worked for BBC Radio since 1981. Mayo has been presenter of a BBC Radio Five Live weekday afternoon programme since May 2001....
's breakfast show. This was not strictly crashing the pips as they were not intended, or mistaken for, an accurate time signal.
At 8am on 17 September 2008, to the surprise of
John HumphrysDesmond John Humphrys , is a Welsh author, journalist and presenter of radio and television, who has won many national broadcasting awards...
, the day's main presenter on the
Today programmeToday, sometimes referred to as the Today programme to avoid ambiguity, is BBC Radio 4's long-running early morning news and current affairs programme, which is now broadcast from 6am to 9am from Monday to Friday and from 7am to 9am on Saturdays. It is also the most popular programme on Radio 4 and...
and
Johhnie WalkerJohnnie Walker MBE is a popular British veteran radio disc jockey and broadcaster....
who was standing in for Terry Wogan on Radio 2, the pips went adrift by 6 seconds, and broadcast seven pips rather than six. This was traced to a problem with the pip generator, which was 'repaired' by switching it off and on again. Part of Humphrys' surprise was probably because of his deliberate avoidance of crashing the pips; an accurate clock in the studio helps presenters keep time.
Hong Kong
In
Hong KongHong Kong , officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, is a highly autonomous territory of the People's Republic of China, facing Guangdong to the north and the South China Sea to the east, west and south...
similar pips are used on RTHK's radio channels for the same purpose and in the same way. The signals, which are provided by the
Hong Kong ObservatoryHong Kong Observatory , known as the Royal Observatory Hong Kong before 1997, is a department of the Hong Kong Government. The Observatory forecasts weather and issues warnings on weather-related hazards...
, are broadcast every half hour (except in the late hours when the pips are broadcast only on the hour) immediately before the news headline reports.
See also
- MSF time signal
- National Research Council Time Signal
The National Research Council Time Signal is Canada's longest running but shortest radio programme. Heard every day since November 5, 1939 , at 13:00 ET across the CBC Radio One network, it lasts between 15 and 25 seconds.The signal is also heard on some stations of the Première Chaîne radio...
- A CBC Radio OneCBC Radio One is the English language news and information radio network of the publicly-owned Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. It is commercial free and offers both local and national programming...
indicator for 1300 ET
External links
- http://www.miketodd.net/other/gts.htm
- http://www.radionetherlands.nl/features/media/practical/time.html
- http://www.clockco.co.uk/article_info.php?articles_id=15