Sailing By
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Sailing By is a short piece of light music composed by Ronald Binge, which is famous amongst British radio listeners.
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[edit] Context and usage
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.
[edit] Popularity
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 piece featured as the second track on a single recorded by the Royal Ballet Sinfonia in a quest to save the Radio 4 UK Theme. In 1993 there was a similar reaction by BBC listeners when Sailing By was temporarily taken off the air on weekday schedules, leading to it being re-instated in 1995.
The recording used by the BBC is not available commercially, but several similar recordings are available on CD.
