Reliable on-air fixture for almost 100 years
Given the pomp and circumstance surrounding tributes for the late Queen Elizabeth II, many Americans may have watched events live on TV through the esteemed British Broadcasting Corporation’s World Service.
The BBC is the oldest government-run broadcast organization in the world, having been launched on England’s radio stations in the 1920s. Programming was intended to be more sophisticated than that heard on “inelegant” advertiser-supported American stations. To this day, you’ll not see or hear any paid commercials on the BBC, which employs more than 22,000 and broadcasts in nearly 30 languages worldwide.
Probably one of the most recognized sounds to BBC listeners around the globe are hourly time markers known as “the pips.” The six beeps heard in the seconds just before each hour on most BBC stations have been a reliable on-air fixture for almost 100 years.
The pips were first broadcast on February 5, 1924. BBC boss John Reith worked them up with Frank Watson Dyson, the top astronomer at the Royal Greenwich Observatory where they were produced by mechanical clocks to mark Greenwich Mean Time. Originally, there were just five pips of one-tenth of a second each, but a sixth half-second beep was added for radio audiences in 1972 to mark the exact top of the hour. Today, some BBC stations also use pips occasionally at :15, :30 and :45 past the hour.
Although unavoidable time lags that come with cable connections or internet streaming throw off their accuracy by as much as eight seconds, Americans watching the BBC can see the TV service’s homage to the pips in the dramatic themes written by David Lowe to introduce BBC News programs.
