Editing BBC Radio 4 (section)

== Programmes and schedules ==
=== Daily schedule ===
As of April 2025 the station is on air from 05:00 to 01:00 Monday to Friday, and 05:30 to 01:00 on Saturday and Sunday. Whilst off air the BBC World Service is broadcast over its frequencies. An online schedule page lists the running order of programmes.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/schedule/ |title=Radio 4 Daily Schedule page |publisher=BBC |date=8 February 2010 |access-date=19 March 2010}}</ref>

=== Production ===
The station broadcasts a mix of live and pre-recorded programmes. Live programming includes breakfast programme ''[[Today (BBC Radio 4)|Today]]'', magazine programme ''[[Woman's Hour]]'', consumer affairs programme ''[[You and Yours]]'', and (often) the music, film, books, arts and culture programme ''[[Front Row (radio programme)|Front Row]]''. [[Continuity (broadcasting)|Continuity]] is managed from [[Broadcasting House]] with news bulletins, including the hourly summaries and longer programmes such as the ''Six O'Clock News'' and ''Midnight News'', and news programmes such as ''Today'', ''The World at One'' and ''PM'', which by early 2013 had returned to Broadcasting House after 15 years at [[BBC Television Centre]] in [[White City, London|White City]].<ref>{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/998847.stm |title=New era for Broadcasting House |work=BBC News |access-date=19 March 2010 | date=31 October 2000 | location=London}}</ref> 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. This has reduced the total number of continuity announcers required each day down from four to three.

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. There is no Greenwich Time Signal at 15:00 on Saturday or 11:00 and 12:00 on Sunday due to the Saturday Afternoon drama and the omnibus edition of ''[[The Archers]]'' respectively. Only pips broadcast on FM and LW are accurate. On digital platforms there is a delay of between three and five seconds, and up to 23 seconds online.

=== Programmes ===
<!-- Please add programmes to [[List of BBC Radio 4 programmes]] -->
{{Main|List of BBC Radio 4 programmes}}

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]]''. The rise of these magazine shows is primarily due to the work of [[Tony Whitby]], controller of Radio 4 from 1970 to 1975.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Life on Air: A History of Radio Four|first=David|last=Hendy|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=9780199248810|year=2007|pages=78–79}}</ref> The station hosts a number of long-running programmes, many of which have been broadcast for over 40 years.

Most programmes are available for 30 days or over a year after broadcast as streaming audio from Radio 4's ''listen again'' page<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/progs/listenagain.shtml |title=Radio 4: Listen Again |publisher=BBC |access-date=19 March 2010 |archive-date=21 August 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190821234152/http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/progs/listenagain.shtml |url-status=dead }}</ref> and via [[BBC Sounds]]. A selection of programmes is also available as [[podcasts]] or [[download]]able audio files.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/radio4 |title=Radio 4 – Downloading and Podcasting |publisher=BBC |access-date=19 March 2010}}</ref> Many comedy and drama programmes from the Radio 4 archives are broadcast on [[BBC Radio 4 Extra]].
Due to the capacity limitations of DAB and increasing sport broadcasts on [[BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra]], BBC Radio 4 DAB has to reduce its bit rate most evenings, such that after 7 p.m. its DAB output is usually in mono, even though many of its programmes are made in stereo (including its flagship drama "The Archers"), these can be heard in stereo only on FM, Digital TV on Freeview & Freesat (Ch. 704), Sky, Virgin and on line via BBC Sounds. BBC World Service, which uses BBC Radio 4 FM & DAB frequencies between 01:00 and 05:20, is in stereo, but only on Radio 4 FM & DAB and not on its own dedicated DAB channel. 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.