‘A link across time’: how shipping forecast will outlast Radio 4 long wave

Boats haven't needed the broadcast for decades, but radio bosses know that nostalgia for it runs deep

Radio 4's shipping forecast is a national institution, with millions of listeners reassured by the thought that, somewhere out at sea, British fishers are patiently waiting by their radios to find out whether there is a gale warning in Rockall or Cromarty.

Yet the announcement that Radio 4's long wave signal will be shut down, as part of the BBC's latest cuts, has left many wondering how the nation's fishing fleet will cope without access to the four-times-a-day updates.