An instrumental piece of music, "Sailing By", is played before the 00:45 broadcast of the Shipping Forecast. It acts as a buffer between the news bulletin and the Shipping Forecast, in order to make the Shipping Forecast play at exactly the same time each day. This gives the Radio 4 controllers leeway if the programming of Radio 4 is running late. There was an outcry when it was temporarily taken off air for two years in 1993. "Sailing By" was written by Ronald Binge, in 1962 a light music composer.