POSTBAG

Many thanks to SRAA contributor Andrew, who shares the following recording from Radio 4.

“I chose to record the programme on one of my old radios received on the soon-to-be-discontinued Droitwich 198kHz transmitter.

The radio is a Pye Mistral (picture attached) which was (almost) the first radio that I even had around 1972. It might even be tuned to the right place on the dial ("Radio 2", 1500m). That was the station that was broadcast on that wavelength back then.

It is not a well-performing radio, but it has a wide-ish audio bandwidth and the recording is probably as nice-sounding as it can be on LW - that warm AM sound that you refer to in the programme. Reception was on the radio's internal ferrite rod aerial in one of the rooms of the house here on the South Coast of the UK.”

This recording captures a special edition of BBC Radio 4’s The Sound of Soft Power, a documentary exploring the cultural, political, and emotional legacy of international broadcasting and shortwave radio. The programme weaves together archival recordings, listener memories, and contemporary reflections on a medium that once connected the world across borders and ideologies.

The documentary also makes extensive use of recordings preserved in the Shortwave Radio Audio Archive, highlighting the importance of preserving off-air recordings as historical documents. In addition, SRAA curator Thomas Witherspoon is interviewed during the programme, discussing both the archive itself and the enduring fascination many listeners still have with shortwave broadcasting.

While this is not an off-air shortwave recording in the traditional sense, it is very much connected to the history and culture of shortwave listening. Andrew’s decision to record the programme from BBC Radio 4 Longwave using a vintage Pye Mistral receiver adds another layer of radio history to the experience — capturing the broadcast with the characteristic warmth and ambience of longwave AM reception just as the Droitwich 198 kHz transmitter approaches the end of its service life.

For those interested in radio history, international broadcasting, and the sounds of the shortwave era, this programme is well worth hearing.

This recording is being published on 27 June 2026 to mark the closure of the BBC Radio 4 Long Wave service from Droitwich on 198 kHz, bringing to a close one of the United Kingdom’s longest-running and most historically significant AM broadcast transmissions.