Back then, in the late 1970s, there were dozens of long wave stations broadcasting. Now, only a handful are left. Among them are those in Denmark and Iceland - but they are due to shut by the end of 2023 and during 2024, respectively.
The BBC still broadcasts Radio 4 on long wave as well as on digital radio, FM, and online. However, separate scheduling of BBC radio programmes on long wave will end in March next year - for example Test Match Special will not be available on long wave. The long-term future of the BBC's long wave output is far from certain.
The only other remaining broadcasters in the world using the long wave band are those in Romania, Poland, Algeria, Morocco and Mongolia.
"The band is basically almost dead," says Mr Gouveia, who enjoys listening to radio stations from his home in Oxford. "It all feels a bit sad, really." He adds that, when a long wave station shuts, he makes an effort to record its last moments.
Interesting article with some neat historical photos of longwave stations.
I still occasionally tune through the LW band even though there was only one time I recall picking up a foreign broadcast station. Of course one of the largest problems with listening to any of these stations left on LW or even other communications using the band is the noise interference and harmonics of MW broadcast stations nearby which can easily overload most radios that have LW built in. Only real way around this is to build a low-pass filter and a quality loop antenna.
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