View source for Greenwich Time Signal

{{Short description|Series of six pips broadcast by the BBC}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2023}}
[[File:Greenwich Time Signal pips.png|thumb|350px|Graph of the six pips]]

The '''Greenwich Time Signal''' ('''GTS'''), popularly known as '''the pips''', is a series of six short tones (or "pips") broadcast at one-second intervals by many [[BBC Radio]] [[List of BBC radio stations|stations]] to mark the precise start of each hour. The pips were introduced in 1924, generated by the Royal Observatory, Greenwich, and from 1990 were generated by the BBC in London.<ref>{{cite journal |first=Jim |last=McIlroy |title=Network Radio: New Time and Frequency distribution system |url=http://bbceng.info/Eng_Inf/eng-inf-files/EngInf40.pdf#page=5 |format=pdf |journal=Eng Inf |publisher=[[Wood Norton Hall#BBC Academy|BBC ETD]] |date=Spring 1990 |issue=40 |access-date=2024-02-12 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240212173449/http://bbceng.info/Eng_Inf/eng-inf-files/EngInf40.pdf#page=5 |archive-date=2024-02-12 |url-status=live}}</ref> The broadcast pips replaced an electrical time coordination system based on the railway telegraph network, which itself was an extension of the mechanical [[time ball]]s in Portsmouth (1829) and later Greenwich (1833), which enabled navigators aboard ships moored in those places to set their [[Marine chronometer|chronometers]] for the determination of longitude on voyages.<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Greenwich Time Service |url=http://www.royalobservatorygreenwich.org/articles.php?article=1084 |access-date=2024-02-07 |website=www.royalobservatorygreenwich.org}}</ref>

==Structure==

{{Listen|filename=Gts_ (bbc)_pips.ogg|title=Greenwich Time Signal|description=The five pips and one beep}}

There are six pips (short beeps) in total, which occur on each of the 5&nbsp;seconds leading up to the hour and on the hour itself. Each pip is a 1 [[SI prefix|k]][[Hertz|Hz]] tone (about a fifth of a semitone above musical [[Scientific pitch notation#Table of note frequencies|B5]]) the first five of which last a tenth of a second each, while the final pip lasts half a second. The actual moment when the hour changes – the "on-time marker" – is at the very beginning of the last pip.<ref>{{cite web|title=What's the time?|url=http://www.rmg.co.uk/explore/astronomy-and-time/time-facts/what%27s-the-time|work=Astronomy & Time|publisher=Royal Museums Greenwich|access-date=5 February 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140222055748/http://www.rmg.co.uk/explore/astronomy-and-time/time-facts/what%27s-the-time|archive-date=22 February 2014}}</ref>

When a [[leap second]] occurs (exactly one second before midnight [[UTC]]), it is indicated by a seventh pip. In this case the first pip occurs at 23:59:55 (as usual) and there is a sixth short pip at 23:59:60 (the leap second) followed by the long pip at 00:00:00.<ref>{{cite web |title=Leap second: Keeper of the pips |website=BBC News |date=30 December 2008 | url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/7791709.stm |access-date=5 February 2014}}</ref> The possibility of an extra pip for the leap second thus justifies the final pip being longer than the others, so that it is always clear which pip is on the hour. Before leap seconds were conceived in 1972, the final pip was the same length as the others.<ref>{{cite web |title=The comforting tone of the hourly radio pips |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-magazine-monitor-26052087 |website=BBC News (Magazine Monitor) |date=5 February 2014 |access-date=5 February 2014}}</ref> Although "negative" leap seconds can also be used to make the year shorter, this has never happened in practice.<ref>{{cite web|title=Leap years and leap seconds|url=http://www.rmg.co.uk/explore/astronomy-and-time/time-facts/leap-years|publisher=Royal Museums Greenwich|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140222055800/http://www.rmg.co.uk/explore/astronomy-and-time/time-facts/leap-years|archive-date=22 February 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Adjusting after a 'long' weekend at the Royal Observatory – Precision clocks and the leap second|url=http://blogs.rmg.co.uk/collections/2012/07/06/adjusting/|publisher=Royal Museums Greenwich|access-date=5 February 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140222055748/http://blogs.rmg.co.uk/collections/2012/07/06/adjusting/|archive-date=22 February 2014}}</ref>

Although normally broadcast only on the hour by BBC domestic radio, [[BBC World Service]] uses the signal at other times as well. The signal is generated at each quarter-hour and has on occasion been broadcast in error.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Greenwich Time Signal - the 'pips' |url=https://www.bbc.com/historyofthebbc/anniversaries/february/the-pips |access-date=2023-03-03 |website=www.bbc.com |language=en}}</ref>

==Usage==
The pips are available to BBC radio stations every fifteen minutes, but, except in rare cases, they are only broadcast on the hour, usually before news bulletins or news programmes. Normally, [[BBC Radio 4]] broadcast the pips every hour except at 18:00 and 00:00 (at the start of the ''Six O'Clock News'' and ''Midnight News'' respectively), and at 22:00 on Sundays (at the start of the ''[[Westminster Hour]]'') when they are replaced by the striking of [[Big Ben]] at the [[Palace of Westminster]]. On [[BBC Radio 2]], the pips are used at 07:00, 08:00 and 17:00 on weekdays, at 07:00 and 08:00 on Saturdays and at 08:00 and 09:00 on Sundays.

The pips were used on [[BBC Radio 1]] during ''[[The Chris Moyles Show]]'' at 06:30 just after the news, 09:00 as part of the "Tedious Link" feature, 10:00 (at the end of the show) and often before ''[[Newsbeat]]''. As most stations only air the pips on the hour, ''The Chris Moyles Show'' was the only show where the pips were broadcast on the half-hour. [[Chris Moyles]] continues to use the pips at the beginning of his show on [[Radio X (United Kingdom)|Radio X]]. The pips were previously used at 19:00 on Saturday evenings at the start of Radio 1's 12-hour simulcast with digital station [[BBC Radio 1Xtra]]. The pips were also used on Radio 6 Music for a rare occurrence. It took place between 2009 and 2011 on weekdays and the pips were played at 10:00 (end of the breakfast show) and at 19:00 (end of the drive show). 

[[BBC Radio 3]] and [[BBC Radio 5 Live]] do not broadcast the pips, though Radio 5 Live did do so at 06:00 between 2000 and 2008.

The [[BBC World Service]] broadcasts the pips every hour.

Pips were also heard on many [[BBC Local Radio]] stations until the introduction of a new presentation package in 2020. A rare quarter-hour Greenwich Time Signal was heard at 05:15 weekdays on Wally Webb's programme on local radio in the east of England until it ended in March 2020, as part of his "synchronised cup of tea" feature.

In 1999, pip-like sounds were incorporated into the themes written by composer [[David Lowe (television and radio composer)|David Lowe]] to introduce [[BBC News|BBC Television News]] programmes. They are still widely used today over theme music of many programmes in [[BBC One]], [[BBC Two]], [[BBC World News]] and [[BBC News (British TV channel)|BBC News]].

The BBC does not allow the pips to be broadcast except as a time signal. Radio plays and comedies which have fictional news programmes use various methods to avoid playing the full six pips, ranging from simply fading in the pips to a version played on ''[[On the Hour]]'' in which the sound was made into a small tune between the pips. ''[[The News Quiz]]'' also featured a special Christmas pantomime edition where the pips went "missing", and the problem was avoided there by only playing individual pips. The 2012 project ''Radio Reunited'' used the pips to commemorate 90 years of BBC Radio.

==Accuracy==
The pips for national radio stations and some local radio stations are timed relative to [[UTC]], from an [[atomic clock]] in the basement of [[Broadcasting House]] synchronised with the [[National Physical Laboratory, UK|National Physical Laboratory]]'s [[Time from NPL]] and [[GPS]]. On other stations, the pips are generated locally from a [[GPS]]-synchronised clock. The broadcast pips usefulness for time [[calibration]] is diminished by the time lags involved in digital broadcasting.

The BBC compensates for the time delay in both broadcasting and receiving equipment, as well as the time for the actual transmission. The pips are timed so that they are accurately received on [[long wave]] as far as {{convert|160|km|-1}} from the [[Droitwich AM transmitter]], which is the distance to [[Central London]].

As a pre-digital time transfer and transmission system, the pips have been a great technological success. In modern times, however, time can be transferred using [[IRIG timecode|IRIG]] and pre-[[Network Time Protocol|NTP]].

Newer digital broadcasting methods have introduced even greater problems for the accuracy of use of the pips. On digital platforms such as [[Digital Video Broadcasting|DVB]], [[digital audio broadcasting|DAB]], satellite and the [[Internet]], the pips — although generated accurately — are not heard by the listener exactly on the hour. The [[codec|encoding and decoding]] of the digital signal causes a delay, of usually between two and eight seconds. In the case of satellite broadcasting, the [[Time of arrival|travel time]] of the signal to and from the satellite adds about another 0.25&nbsp;seconds.

==History==
[[File:Greenwich Time Signal1970.jpg|thumb|right|The machine used to generate the pips in 1970]]
The pips have been broadcast daily since 5 February 1924,<ref name="bbchist">{{citation
|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/271319.stm
|publisher=[[BBC News]]
|title=Sci/Tech – Six pip salute
|date=5 February 1999
|access-date=23 April 2009
}}</ref>
and were the idea of the [[Astronomer Royal]], Sir [[Frank Watson Dyson]], and the head of the BBC, [[John Reith, 1st Baron Reith|John Reith]] who commissioned Marconi / Siemens in [[Charlton, London|Charlton]], close to Greenwich, to create the signal. The company gave the project to an 18-year-old engineer, Harry Lampen Edwards, who was seconded to the Observatory. The pips were originally controlled by two mechanical clocks located in the [[Royal Greenwich Observatory]] that had electrical contacts attached to their [[pendulum|pendula]]. Two clocks were used in case of a breakdown of one. These sent a signal each second to the BBC, which converted them to the audible oscillatory tone broadcast.<ref name="bbchist"/>

The Royal Greenwich Observatory moved to [[Herstmonceux Castle]] in 1957 and the GTS equipment followed a few years later in the form of an electronic clock. Reliability was improved by renting two lines for the service between Herstmonceux and the BBC, with a changeover between the two at [[Broadcasting House]] if the main line became disconnected.

The tone sent on the lines was inverted: the signal sent to the BBC was a steady 1&nbsp;kHz tone when no pip was required, and no tone when a pip should be sounded. This let faults on the line be detected immediately by automated monitoring for loss of audio.

The Greenwich Time Signal was the first sound heard in the handover to the [[2012 Summer Olympics|London 2012 Olympics]] during the [[2008 Summer Olympics closing ceremony|Beijing 2008 Olympics closing ceremony]].<ref>{{cite news |title=Baton Passed to London for 2012 |first=Peter | last=Simpson |url=http://olympics.scmp.com/Article.aspx?id=3411&section=latestnews |newspaper=South China Morning Post |date=25 August 2008 |access-date=24 September 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120322024520/http://olympics.scmp.com/Article.aspx?id=3411&section=latestnews |archive-date=22 March 2012 }}</ref>

The pips were also broadcast by the [[BBC Television Service]], but this practice was discontinued by the 1960s.

To celebrate the 90th birthday of the pips on 5 February 2014, the ''[[Today (BBC Radio 4)|Today]]'' programme broadcast a sequence that included a re-working of the Happy Birthday melody using the GTS as its base sound.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01rqqkn|last=Lister|first=Charles|title=The 'time pips' at 90|date=5 February 2014|access-date=30 April 2016}}</ref>

==Crashing the pips==
The [[BBC]] discourages any other sound being broadcast at the same time as the pips; doing so is commonly known as "crashing the pips". This was most often referred to on [[Terry Wogan]]'s Radio 2 Breakfast show, although usually only in jest since the actual event happened rarely.<ref name="sue">{{cite news |title=Pip, pip! Woman of Today is gone tomorrow |author=Tom Leonard |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1386296/Pip-pip-Woman-of-Today-is-gone-tomorrow.html |newspaper=[[The Daily Telegraph]] |date=28 February 2002 |access-date=18 November 2012}}</ref> Different BBC Radio stations approach this issue differently. Radio 1 and Radio 2 generally take a relaxed approach with the pips, usually playing them over the closing seconds of a song or a jingle "bed" (background music from a jingle), followed by their respective news jingles. Many BBC local radio stations also played the pips over the station's jingle before the 2020 rebrand. BBC Radio 4 is stricter, as it is an almost entirely speech-based network.

As a contribution to [[Comic Relief]]'s 2005 [[Red Nose Day]], the BBC developed a "pips" ringtone which could be downloaded.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/today/reports/arts/rednose_ringtones_20050307.shtml |title=The Radio 4 Pips – How you download the pips |date=March 2005 |work=[[Today (BBC Radio 4)|Today Programme]] |publisher=[[BBC News]] |access-date=18 November 2012}}</ref>

[[Bill Bailey]]'s BBC Rave includes the [[BBC News (British TV channel)|BBC News theme]], which incorporates a variant of the pips (though not actually broadcast exactly on the hour). The footage can be seen on his DVD ''Part Troll''.

In the late 1980s Radio 1 featured the pips played over a station [[jingle]] during [[Jackie Brambles|Jakki Brambles]]' early show and [[Simon Mayo]]'s breakfast show. This was not strictly "crashing the pips" as they were not intended to be used as an accurate time signal.

During her final broadcast as presenter on BBC Radio 4's [[The Today Programme]] – following 11 years sharing the post – [[Mishal Husain]] asked for forgiveness having previously "crashed the pips." Husain remarked that "in the tradition of [her] faith, when people used to go on pilgrimage in generations past, they would not only take leave of their associates, but they would ask for their forgiveness because in those days many would not return from the arduous journey."<ref>{{citation
|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c77j68y8v52o
|title= Mishal Husain bids farewell in final Today episode
|publisher=[[BBC News]]
|date=17 December 2024
|access-date=17 December 2024
}}</ref>

==Technical problems==
At 8 am on 17 September 2008, to the surprise of [[John Humphrys]], the day's main presenter on the ''Today'' programme, and [[Johnnie Walker (DJ)|Johnnie Walker]], who was standing in for Terry Wogan on Radio 2, the pips went "adrift" by six&nbsp;seconds, and broadcast seven pips rather than six. This was traced to a problem with the pip generator, which was rectified by [[power cycling|switching it off and on again]].<ref>{{citation
|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7621996.stm
|title='Pips' slip in BBC radio error
|publisher=[[BBC News]]
|date=17 September 2008
|access-date=23 April 2009
}}</ref> Part of Humphrys' surprise was probably because of his deliberate avoidance of crashing the pips with the help of an accurate clock in the studio.

A sudden total failure in the generation of the audio pulses that constitute the pips was experienced on 31 May 2011 and silence was unexpectedly broadcast in place of the 17:00 signal. The problem was traced to the power supply of the equipment which converts the signal from the atomic clocks into an audible signal.<ref name=blog>{{cite web |url= http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/radio4/2011/06/what_happened_to_the_radio_4_p.html |title= What happened to the Radio 4 pips? |author= Denis Nowlan |date= 1 June 2011 |work= Radio 4 and 4 Extra Blog |publisher= BBC |access-date=2 June 2011}}</ref> Whilst repairs were underway the BBC elected to broadcast a "dignified silence" in place of the pips at 19:00.<ref>{{cite news |title= Radio 4's pips die |author= Harry Wallop |url= https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/8548683/Radio-4s-pips-die.html |archive-url= https://archive.today/20130421065620/http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/tvandradio/8548683/Radio-4s-pips-die.html |archive-date= 21 April 2013 |newspaper= The Telegraph |date= 31 May 2011 |access-date=31 May 2011}}</ref> By 19:45 the same day the power supply was repaired<ref name=blog/> and the 20:00 pips were broadcast as normal.<ref>[http://radiotoday.co.uk/2011/05/bbc-radio-4-reports-on-pips-failure/ "The Pips return from a 3&nbsp;hour break" ''Radio Today'' 31 May 2011] Retrieved 31 May 2011.</ref>

== Similar time signals elsewhere ==
{{Listen|filename=Israeli Broadcasting Authority Time Signal.ogg|title=IBA Time Signal|description=The time signal used by the [[Israel Broadcasting Authority]] until 2017, which has longer pips in a higher pitch than the Greenwich Time Signal}}
Many radio broadcasters around the world use the Greenwich Time Signal, or a variant thereof, as a means to mark the start of the hour. The pips are used in both domestic and international commercial and public broadcasting. Many radio stations use six tones similar to those used by the BBC World Service; some shorten it to five, four, or three tones. On some broadcasters the final pip is of a different pitch.
* [[Australia]] – Pips are used on [[ABC Radio National]] and [[ABC Local Radio]] at the top of every hour, as well as on [[Fairfax Media]] talkback stations- [[2UE]], [[3AW]], [[4BC]] and [[6PR]]. In Australia, the news pips are closer to 735&nbsp;Hz and each of the six pips lasts for half a second. After each pip, there is half a second of silence.<ref>Archived at [https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211211/0-lsc29hkww Ghostarchive]{{cbignore}} and the [https://web.archive.org/web/20190202055405/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-lsc29hkww&gl=US&hl=en Wayback Machine]{{cbignore}}: {{Cite web|title=ABC Radio incoming News sound| date=8 December 2017 |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-lsc29hkww|website=YouTube|publisher=Google, Inc.|access-date=3 April 2018}}{{cbignore}}</ref> The pips were discontinued on [[ABC Radio Sydney]] on 23 November 2023 to coincide with the station's 100th anniversary.<ref>{{Cite news |date=2023-11-23 |title='Irrelevant and irritating': The familiar beeps heard every hour to disappear from radio broadcasts|website=ABC News|publisher=Australian Broadcasting Corporation|url=https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-11-23/abc-switches-off-the-pips-irrelevant-digital-age-smartphones/103137592 |access-date=2023-11-23}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=2023-10-29 |title=Goodbye pips! |url=https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/sydney-mornings/goodbye-pips/103039482|website=ABC Listen|publisher=Australian Broadcasting Corporation|access-date=2023-11-23}}</ref> 
* [[Brazil]] - Some news stations, such as the national station [[Radio Bandeirantes]], and the regional stations [[Radio Guaíba]] and [[Radio Gaúcha]] broadcasts a similar time signal every 15 minutes. In Radio Bandeirantes, there is 5-pips signal (called as "fifth signal"), broadcast every 15 minutes. In Radio Gaúcha, a four-pip signal with three tones in 920&nbsp;Hz and the last in 1360&nbsp;Hz is broadcast every 15 minutes. The musical radio network Atlântida FM, which broadcasts to the states of [[Rio Grande do Sul]] and [[Santa Catarina (state)|Santa Catarina]] transmits an audible signal every 15 minutes, composed by the first four notes of the song "[[Here Comes the Sun]]".<ref>Archived at [https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211211/3r1vSEwsCI0 Ghostarchive]{{cbignore}} and the [https://web.archive.org/web/20201122174306/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3r1vSEwsCI0 Wayback Machine]{{cbignore}}: {{cite web |title=Como surgiu o sinal da Atlântida? |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3r1vSEwsCI0 |website=YouTube | date=9 November 2020 |access-date=2 May 2021}}{{cbignore}}</ref>
* [[Bulgaria]] - On all [[Bulgarian National Radio|BNR]] radio stations, the pips are broadcast on the hour. Five short pips and a long pip is broadcast between :55 and :00. The time signal broadcast at 15:00 EET is from Bulgarian Institute of Metrology.
* [[Canada]] – The [[National Research Council Time Signal]] was broadcast daily on [[Ici Radio-Canada Première]] at 12:00 EST/EDT and on [[CBC Radio One]] at 13:00 EST/EDT. It was Canada's longest running radio feature and had been broadcast every day from 5 November 1939 until 10 October 2023.<ref>{{cite news |last=Taekema |first=Dan |title=The end of the long dash: CBC stops broadcasting official 1 p.m. time signal|url=https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/cbc-stops-broadcasting-national-research-council-long-dash-time-signal-1.6988903 |website=CBC News|publisher=Canadian Broadcasting Corporation|access-date=10 October 2023 |date=10 October 2023}}</ref>
* [[Egypt]] - [[Nile FM]] broadcasts pips similar to the BBC on the hour at 07:00hrs daily at the start of the Big Breakfast show with Rob Stevens and Nadine. 
* [[Finland]] – On [[Yle]]'s radio services the pips are broadcast on the hour.<ref>{{cite web|title=Yleisradion aikamerkki on radioklassikko|date=7 July 2008 |url=https://yle.fi/aihe/artikkeli/2008/07/07/yleisradion-aikamerkki-radioklassikko|access-date=14 August 2022|language=fi}}</ref>
* [[Hong Kong]] – A six-pip time signal is used on [[RTHK]]'s radio channels.<ref>{{cite web|title=Time Synchronization with Hong Kong Time System|url=http://www.hko.gov.hk/gts/time/Clocksyn.htm|website=[[Hong Kong Observatory]]|access-date=29 September 2017}}</ref> The signals, which are provided by the [[Hong Kong Observatory]], are broadcast every half-hour during the day and on the hour at night, immediately before the news headline reports.
* [[Israel]] – On Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation hourly radio news, five tones (part of a recording of Kol Israel's original beeps) play counting down to the hour. Right as the hour starts, a jingle starts playing, the end of which includes the IPBC's [[Sound trademark|sonic ident]] and an a cappella singing the name of the broadcaster "Kan".<ref>Archived at [https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211211/Z70Y_d2h25I Ghostarchive]{{cbignore}} and the [https://web.archive.org/web/20190202055405/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z70Y_d2h25I&gl=US&hl=en Wayback Machine]{{cbignore}}: {{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z70Y_d2h25I|script-title=he:תאגיד השידור הציבורי "כאן"- אותות הפתיחה והסיום של החדשות ברדיו|date=22 May 2017|website=YouTube|publisher=Google, Inc.|access-date=22 May 2017|language=he}}{{cbignore}}</ref> This jingle replaced the original six tones that played on [[Kol Israel]]'s hourly newscasts; these pips were 1.05[[SI prefix|k]][[Hertz|Hz]] tones, the first five of which lasted a quarter of a second each, and the final pip lasted 0.85 of a second. As of 2017 (when public broadcaster [[Israel Broadcasting Authority|IBA]] got shut down and replaced by the IPBC or "[[Israeli Public Broadcasting Corporation|Kan]]"), the intro got changed and added a jingle. In 2023, this jingle was replaced with a new one. This jingle is played twice, before the headlines, which are now read at 30 seconds to the hour, and then immediately following. The second iteration includes the tones counting down to the hour, which were left as a "memorial to the historical soundtrack".<ref>{{cite news|date= 3 September 2023|script-title=he:לראשונה מקום המדינה: שינוי היסטורי במהדורות כאן רשת ב|trans-title=For the first time since the establishment of the state: a historical change in the Kan Reshet Bet news report|url= https://www.kan.org.il/content/kan-news/local/512064|language=he|newspaper=Kan News|location= Israel|access-date=2023-09-03}}</ref>
* [[Japan]] – [[NHK|NHK Television]] formerly used three short pips played at :57 to :59 of the clock ident and a longer three-second pip from :00 to :03 just before the start of news programmes.<ref>Archived at [https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211211/WTXl_zR88OE Ghostarchive]{{cbignore}} and the [https://web.archive.org/web/20190202055405/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTXl_zR88OE&gl=US&hl=en Wayback Machine]{{cbignore}}: {{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WTXl_zR88OE|script-title=ja:時報|trans-title=TV Clock|date=9 June 2015|website=YouTube|publisher=Google, Inc.|access-date=29 April 2016|language=ja}}{{cbignore}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXGknxAjgj0| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190202055403/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXGknxAjgj0&gl=US&hl=en| archive-date=2 February 2019|script-title=ja:NHK 1987年 ニュースOP集|website=YouTube|publisher=Google, Inc.|access-date=29 April 2016|language=ja}}</ref> The longer three-second pip can however be crashed shortly after the :00 mark on certain special events or if there was time constraints.<ref>Archived at [https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211211/WWi7QS_vOps Ghostarchive]{{cbignore}} and the [https://web.archive.org/web/20190202055403/https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWi7QS_vOps&gl=US&hl=en Wayback Machine]{{cbignore}}: {{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WWi7QS_vOps|title=昭和から平成への変わり目|website=YouTube|publisher=Google, Inc.|date=6 December 2007|access-date=29 April 2016|language=ja}}{{cbignore}}</ref>
* [[Netherlands]] – In the NPO (Netherlands Public Broadcasting), the signals have been around since 1948, when six pips were used. In 1991 they went down to three. Broadcast of the traditional pips stopped with the last transmission at 7:00 on 2 October 2018, leading way to a new design with three pips that count down to exactly the full hour and make way for a short tune.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Vanaf vandaag: vernieuwde 'pips' op NPO Radio 1 |url=https://www.nporadio1.nl/homepage/12058-vanaf-maandag-vernieuwde-pips-op-npo-radio-1 |access-date=11 November 2019 |language=nl}}</ref> Other radio stations may still use the traditional beeps at every hour.
* [[New Zealand]] – [[RNZ National]] plays the six pips at the top of every hour. Additionally, a [[bird call]] is played before the 7:00 and 9:00 news on Morning Report.<ref>{{cite web |title=RNZ's pips are changing - Can you hear the difference? |url=https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/514073/rnz-s-pips-are-changing-can-you-hear-the-difference |website=[[Radio New Zealand|RNZ]] |access-date=23 September 2024|date=12 April 2024}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Little |first1=Paul |title=Squawk-back radio: RNZ bird call turns 50 |url=https://www.nzherald.co.nz/the-listener/culture/sqwawk-back-radio-rnz-bird-call-turns-50/LYTKKRIEIBEOZHG6P5VZZD2K2I/ |website=[[New Zealand Listener]] |access-date=23 September 2024|date=4 December 2023}}</ref>
* [[Russia]] - Russia's state radio channels broadcast six tones (five little pips and one short beep). The duration of the sixth pip depends on the current hour: it is 100 ms at midnight Moscow time ([[UTC+3]]) and increases by 20 ms every hour, up to 560 ms at 23:00 UTC+3 (the first five pips always are 100 ms long). Russia's state television [[Channel One Russia|Channel One]] broadcasts six tones too (at the end of a short melody) before newscasts and [[Vremya]] (the primetime news program).<ref>{{Cite web|title=Russia - Channel One - Vremya («Время») - Intro/Outro (Russia Day - 12/06/2022) |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rbtPWSX3Dcg&t=10|website=YouTube|publisher=Google, Inc.|access-date=17 December 2022}}</ref>
* [[United States]] – [[NIST]] operates a [[speaking clock]] audio-only station, [[WWV (radio station)|WWV]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://nist.gov/pml/time-and-frequency-division/time-distribution/radio-station-wwv|title=Radio Station WWV|website=NIST|access-date=2 December 2024}}</ref>

==See also==
*[[Time from NPL]]
*[[National Research Council Time Signal]] – A [[CBC Radio One]] indicator for 1300 ET

==References==
{{reflist}}

== External links ==
*[http://www.miketodd.net/other/gts.htm The Greenwich Time Signal]
{{BBC World Service}}
{{BBC Radio 4}}

[[Category:BBC World Service programmes]]
[[Category:Time signal radio stations]]
[[Category:International broadcasting]]
[[Category:Time in the United Kingdom]]
[[Category:Telecommunications-related introductions in 1924]]