"97 per cent of the population now tune-in to the station through digital radio" Er, no they don't. Not 97% of the population, not even 97% of the Radio 4 listenership. What this refers to is the BBC's claim that 97% live in an area where they could receive Radio 4 on a digital radio. You know, if they cared to buy one, to save the BBC some money. Of course, that doesn't equate to 97% of Britain's geographical area, or anything like it, so if you're listening in the car or on the train, tough.

Grotesque misrepresentations aside, was this article written by a human being, or mechanically translated from Tibetan? Phrases like "further access is ensure online" and "When the one of the last two valves, currently service blows…" seem to hint at some extra-terrestrial origin.

Drivel from both the BBC and the New Statesman here. LW as a simple, effective, reliable and relatively cheap technology. It does not require valves! Lots of foreign stations (RTE, and French, German and Spanish stations) transmit on LW and can be picked up in the UK, most using more powerful transmitters than Radio 4. What equipment are they using? FM and DAB can only be picked up by line-of'sight transmission, which still leaves lots of blind spots, even in England. There is also a security issue; in the event of some national catastrophe, natural or man-made, FM and DAB can easily be knocked out, whereas one LW transmitter can reach the entire country. Bizarrely the BBC also transmits Radio 4 in a variety of urban areas (such as London, of all places!) on Medium Wave 720 KHz, though for some reason it keeps very quiet about the service. Why is this service not under threat, and in any case why is it there? As for the statement 'Since the 1930s, the BBC's Radio 4 has reached homes through its 198 kilohertz long-wave service', how the New Statesman can allow such rubbish into print without checking is beyond belief.