Owain wrote:

No, the klaxon on the alarm clock has that effect. I'm out of bed and
standing before I wake up!


Reminds me of my (very much) younger days (I was still at school) and
listening to AFN after Radio Luxembourg closed down - yes! I am going
back a very long time!

(For the benefit of younger listeners: AFN was the American Forces
Network, Europe.)

Closedown procedure varied from station to station and I can't remember
now if it was Frankfurt, Munich or Stuttgart, (I think Frankfurt) but
it went something like this:

"At the sound of the last tone, Central European Time will be One Hour
..... AFN Frankfurt broadcasts on an assigned frequency of Eight
Hundred, Seventy Two kilocycles per second, Three Hunded, Fourty-Four
meters in the Medium Waveband with a power of One Hundred, Fifty
Thousand Watts! ... AFN is now closing down and will return to the air
at six hours this morning ... Ladies and Gentlemen: Our National
Anthem!..."

.... at which point, as a 14 year old listening under the bedcovers (as
we all did, didn't we?) I had this mental picture of all these yanks
jumping out of bed just after 1am, snapping smartly to attention and
saluting (possibly to the flag propped up in the corner of the
bedroom!)

Terry