Sailing By

"Sailing By" is a short piece of light music composed by Ronald Binge in 1963, which is used before the late Shipping Forecast on BBC Radio 4. A slow waltz, the piece uses a repetitive ABABC structure and features a distinctive rising and falling woodwind arpeggio.

"Sailing By" is played every night on BBC Radio 4 at around 00:45hrs before the late Shipping Forecast. Its tune is repetitive, assisting in its role of serving as a signal for sailors tuning in to be able to easily identify the radio station. It also functions as a buffer — depending on when the final programme before closedown finishes, Sailing By (or part of it) is played as a "filler" as the shipping forecast starts at 00:48hrs precisely. The initial reason for its introduction was because of the indeterminate finish time for the preceding Midnight News, leading to filling music being played until the Shipping Forecast was due to start. Sailing By was added to allow for a clear break between the end of the music and the start of the forecast.

In the 1990s the tune was also adopted for the weekly maritime programme Seascapes on Ireland's RTÉ Radio 1.

Sailing By is also played in full at the beginning of each weekly broadcast of The Shipping Forecast (approximately 23:30 on Sunday evenings) on Brooklands Radio, an internet-based local radio station, based in Weybridge, Surrey.

Besides its intended function, "Sailing By" is thought of affectionately by many British radio listeners as it is considered a soothing accompaniment to bedtime. The lead singer of the Britpop band Pulp, Jarvis Cocker chose "Sailing By" as one of his Desert Island Discs, saying for many years he had used it "as an aid to restful sleep".

The BBC issued it as a single in 1973 on its own BBC Records label, played by the John Fox Orchestra.

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