Radio 4 News FM
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| Broadcast area | UK - National FM |
|---|---|
| Frequency | FM - 92 MHz - 95 MHz |
| First air date | 17 January - 2 March 1991 |
| Format | Rolling news |
| Owner | BBC |
Radio 4 News FM was the BBC radio rolling news service that was on air during the first Gulf War from 16 January until 2 March 1991. It used BBC Radio 4's FM frequencies, whilst their regular scheduled service continued on long wave. This service was also broadcast on BBC World Service. Some journalists chose to give it the nickname Scud FM from the Scud missiles used by Iraqi forces in the war.
The long-term impact of Radio 4 News FM was that the popularity of the station was taken as evidence that a rolling news service was required. In response, BBC Radio 5 Live was launched in 1994.
When coalition forces began military operations against Iraq following Iraq's invasion of Kuwait the previous year, the BBC discontinued broadcasting the usual mixed schedule on BBC Radio 4's FM frequency and replaced it with a rolling news service, known by the emergency staff as "Scud FM", named after "Saddam Hussein's most notorious weapon," the Russian-made Scud missile which Iraq was firing at Tel Aviv.
BBC staff had managed to launch a 17 hours-a-day rolling news channel (without time to concoct an official name) with less than 24 hours notice and provided the listener with "access to the raw material, the events as they unfolded, from the daily military press conferences, the Presidential briefings to what it was like living in Baghdad, in Tel Aviv, with the troops in Saudi Arabia".
The service was run by Jenny Abramsky and produced by volunteers, working on their days off: Brian Redhead, John Humphrys, Nick Clarke, Robin Lustig, Nicholas Witchell, Bob Simpson and Nick Ross.
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