The BBC plans to use emergency FM radio to keep the UK informed during prolonged blackouts, with a self-sufficient studio ready for 72 hours.
If electricity fails across the UK for days, the BBC says it has a plan to keep people informed. David Sillito, the BBC’s media and arts correspondent, explained the strategy in a BBC News report, starting with the 2015 Lancaster floods and ending with a simple lesson: when digital infrastructure fails, FM radio may be the most reliable way to reach the public.
On December 5, 2015, the River Lune flooded Lancaster, cutting electricity to 61,500 people. Roger Kemp, an engineering professor at Lancaster University specializing in safety and electrical systems, was watching television when the power went out. The following day, he described the scene to the BBC as almost resembling a zombie movie, with residents searching for phone reception and queuing at the only working telephone box.
Homes lost heating and lighting, while some water supplies stopped because their pumps depended on electricity. Railway stations, petrol stations and shops closed, cash machines stopped working, and traffic lights failed. Only two communication systems remained operational: copper landlines and FM radio. Local station The Bay continued broadcasting using an emergency generator and a single landline. Kemp’s subsequent report highlighted the irony: a society increasingly dependent on digital infrastructure had relied on technologies dating back decades to receive essential information.
The incident illustrated the risk of a wider catastrophe known as a Black Sky event, in which electricity, water, shops and communications fail simultaneously. At a recent UK resilience summit, discussions focused on maintaining essential services for at least 72 hours. One expression often heard in civil contingency circles, “nine meals from anarchy”, captures the concern that three days without food could turn an emergency into widespread disorder.
“We are nine meals from anarchy” is a phrase often heard in the civil contingency world. A brutal reminder of the fear that three days without food would be enough to turn a crisis into chaos. If a Black Sky event takes out electricity, water, shops and communications, there is a good reason the government wants us to have our own supplies.” BBC states.
“In a major emergency, we are being told to hunker down and turn on an FM radio, as thousands did in Lancaster. This is why the BBC has its own Black Sky plan.”
The government’s Be Ready campaign warns that severe weather and cyberattacks could disrupt essential services, although it says there is no specific threat to the electricity grid. According to government advice reported by the Express, households should maintain at least three days of food and drinking water and keep a battery-powered FM radio. Sillito also recommends a hand-cranked radio that can generate its own power.
The BBC’s contingency plan revolves around precisely this technology. Around 100 people would operate a dedicated emergency radio studio, equipped with secure communications independent of the internet, alongside enough fuel, water and food to survive at least three days without resupply. Reports published by French outlet Telesatellite and Open magazine on November 7 describe a self-contained studio, generators powering transmission facilities and FM radio as the fallback communication channel.
Only a small number of BBC staff know the complete details. The studio would broadcast pre-prepared government announcements, with scripts already published online. These include practical instructions on daily water consumption and disposing of toilet waste when flushing is impossible.
Additional reporting would come from satellite vehicles and journalists stationed at emergency centres across the UK. Transmission towers, disconnected from the internet, would use diesel generators and storage tanks ranging from 5 to 40,000 litres, providing approximately three days of power. Satellite phones would support communications between teams, with agreed meeting points and procedures if those systems also failed. FM radio remains central because it can reach almost everywhere, even during a major blackout or disruptive cyberattack.
The BBC’s planning assumptions have evolved. An insider told Sillito that the original scenario considered outages lasting five to seven days, while the latest advice from the National Energy System Operator suggests electricity could return within two to three days. The corporation’s contingency arrangements have surfaced before. In October 2022, media reports described leaked draft scripts for a national blackout, including half-hourly Radio 4 updates from an emergency broadcasting centre at an undisclosed rural location.
There is, however, a discrepancy in the Express report, which claims that only around 100 people worldwide know the full details. The BBC says approximately 100 people would operate the emergency studio, while only a small number have access to the complete plan.
Concerns about grid resilience are not new, but the massive blackout affecting Spain, Portugal and south-western France in April 2025 renewed attention to the issue. Lord Harris, chair of the National Preparedness Commission, argues that the consequences extend well beyond losing electricity. Water supplies could stop because pumping stations need power, while sewage systems could become blocked when water can no longer circulate. Governments across Europe increasingly advise citizens to maintain emergency supplies, and Harris believes the UK has been slow to prepare its population.
Some initiatives are already underway. ARIA, the government’s Advanced Research and Invention Agency, is investing £70 million in high-altitude aircraft designed to provide at least a week of emergency mobile and internet connectivity over the UK. Programme director Rico Chandra has warned that satellites alone have limitations when terrestrial networks fail.
Harris argues that decades of efficiency-driven decisions have gradually removed essential redundancies. One example is the migration of emergency services from dedicated radio systems to mobile network technology, potentially exposing their communications to the same outages affecting the public. The government maintains that the transition to 4G and 5G provides reliable and resilient communications.
“The UK has one of the most resilient electricity systems in the world, and there has never been a complete outage in the grid’s 75-year history.” The Cabinet Office states describing the UK electricity system.
Government efforts to improve resilience predate the current debate. In May 2024, then deputy prime minister Oliver Dowden launched the previous Conservative government’s disaster preparedness initiative.
During his investigation, Sillito also reconsidered the BBC’s isolated transmission infrastructure. What initially appeared outdated became a strength: independence from the internet could help keep broadcasting alive when digital networks collapse.
Yet the UK is preparing to switch off its copper landline network on January 31, 2027, while the future of FM radio is also under review. The government’s position is that copper landlines, although useful during power cuts, have become unreliable and increasingly difficult to maintain.
Kemp is less convinced that the country is moving in the right direction. Asked whether his report had improved national preparedness for a Black Sky event, he argued that the planned landline shutdown showed little consideration for how people would communicate during a prolonged power failure.
Sillito experienced a smaller reminder while preparing his report: a power cut in his own street, leaking torch batteries, missing candles and an emergency radio he could not find. His conclus: “If anything, we’ve gone backwards,” he said. “Switching off the public switch telephone network, I think shows that there has been really no thought at all about how you communicate when you’ve no longer got power.”
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(SecurityAffairs – hacking, BBC)
Source: Security Affairs · 2026-11-09