[Barras]

Recent Government NHS statistics state that across the United Kingdom, two thirds of NHS beds are taken up by elderly people and yet hospital radio stations continue to play “La Gaga” et al non-stop…

In this video of Radio Chelsea & Westminster, guess who`s song they come out of ?

Many years ago when I was on hospital radio, I remember the DJ on the show before me, did the weather forecast three times an hour, “10 degrees and cloudy” – how does that help the guy going into surgery for an appendicectomy ?

Sorry to be cynical but I think the majority (not everyone) of people in hospital radio (I admit, including myself at that time) use it as a stepping stone to get into professonal radio or as a place to satisfy their own egos, it`s not there to play Lady Gaga to the 78 year old lady waiting for a new hip…rant over.

[kolossMember]

Lol very interesting David–
I have heard ‘hospital radio’ jingles over the years but really – really, had no idea you actually had a dj in a hospital; I thought the jingles were added to the muzak system, in an automated type thing.
This seems absurd – we don’t seem to have this in the states…(far as I know) Hospitals I’ve visited (luckily never a patient) have no music- and the point you made about the top 40 music makes it even more odd.
Maybe the DJ will come with our socialized medicine lol

I want to be treated by the guy who says he’s holding his ground-ish X_X
(All in good humor) btw and no more brackets…

[IainJohnstonMember]

Koloss…a quick history class!

In the 1960s and onwards through the earlier days of UK commecial radio in particular, many a budding (and now often household name today) UK radio DJ “learned their trade” on hospital radio, there being virtually nothing like the US “college radio” system within the UK licensing system (OK, a couple of exceptions, but those stations were usually on “induction loop” rather than true “broadcast”).

Run by volunteers and funded by charitable donation, often with makeshift studios (in the pre-digital age…), hospital stations would operate in National Health Service hospitals with closed-circuit feeds which were hard-wired to a headphone socket at every bed; most feeds would have a selector switch with a choice of one or two BBC stations plus the (usually part-time) hospital station – plus a (sometimes esential…) OFF switch!

Some hospital stations today have very-low power broadcast licenses, or are “networked” around several hospitals in their area; and of course nowadays decent PC/digital equipment is very affordable. Many hospital stations indeed do a very professional style of service, even though nowadays there’s virtually no jobs any more in centralised, conglomerate-based networked “local” radio (as Len points out).

It would be polite to simply say that many hospital radio “DJs” have never made it to “real” radio (although many of today’s “community radio” stations now being licensed in the UK perhaps continue the good AND the BAD “traditions” of earlier hospital radio)…

Many hospital stations are very professional in style of service – although as indicated above, perhaps not everyone involved will quite “understand who the audience demographic” actually are!

Many years ago, when on a visit to a then-near famous Hospital station in Edinburgh, the daily scoop around the wards etc of “Request Forms” (where patients/visitors could write out a request for a “record” to be played for a patient), there was a “programming dilema” in the studio – a request for “Some Enchanted Evening” had been asked to be played for a patient who was VERY near to being “on his way out'” that evening and unlikely to “still be around” by morning, and as it was his favourite song could they play it for him to hear “before he went”… should the station play the message and the sad song and make the old boy happy before he “went upstairs”?… or ignore it because it would be so depressing and detrimental to other patients…?
(…and some people think all they have to worry about is whether to “play” Adele or Lady Gaga 3 times an hour or 4…???)

PS – many a UK jingle collector first discovered the roots of the hobby by being involved in some way with hospital radio – and many a JMer currently “on” hospital radio will be likely to buy more “personal cuts” than many a “proper” radio station’s package!

[Barras]

koloss…I would put “hospital radio” on a similar level to your “college radio” in the USA, it can be a stepping stone to getting into professional radio, one example from your side of the pond is Howard Stern, in the his life-story movie Private Parts, you see Stern spinning discs on a college station and progessing to local commercial radio.

In the UK we have another “in-house” radio service in some stores. An example was Radio Top Shop, a clothing store called Top Shop had in-store radio stations in each of their stores across the UK.

The on-air imaging at hospital radio stations has certainly developed professionally and hospital stations are using jingle companies such as TM, Thompson Creative, JAM, Wise Buddah etc…

I`ve put this hospital radio montage together as an example…

HOSPITAL RADIO MONTAGE by DavidBarras

Enjoyed reading your hospital radio history Iain…I have to ask though, did they play the song for the “old boy” ?

Can I just add something on the historical side of hospital radio. I believe my local hospital radio station was one of the first hospital radio stations in the United Kingdom. Radio Ingham which doesn`t exist any more, it`s now H.R.S.T. (Hospital Radio South Tyneside) the radio station was based at the Ingham Infirmary, South Shields, Tyne and Wear, the Ingham Infirmary doesn`t exist any more either, it`s now apartments. Radio Ingham played music but mainly broadcast the commentary of local football matches of Sunderland and Newcastle.

If you do an internet search on hospital radio. there is a great deal written about hospital radio in the United Kingdom and one of the sites quotes York County Hospital as the first HR service in the UK…

“During 1925 and 1926 the wiring was installed throughout the [York County] hospital – 200 sets of headphones and 70 loudspeakers fed from a wireless receiving set housed in a small alcove….The hospital radio bug was with us, and it was catching. New stations began to appear, at Oldham in 1933 and Tottenham in 1935 among others.”

[kolossMember]

Very Interesting; I see the tradition from the 20’s. It was not something I gave any thought to until seeing the video above-
To the point you make of older people and perhaps a lot of people in pain listening to Lady Gaga… I would think a bit softer presentation would work better. lol
And yes consolidation-and less opportunity for people to get into radio- Just like everywhere else.

[Barras]

aircheckdownloads.com said: “As for a target audience, Hospital Radio doesn’t/shouldn’t have one. If stations are playing currents like Lady GaGa, they are doing exactly what stations were doing in 1986 when they were playing Bananarama and the Pet Shop Boys.”

Hospital Radio does have a “target audience”.

The target audience is the “patient” and the music output is completely different to BBC/ILR because the people at the hospital radio station can actually go out on the wards and meet ALL their listeners (patients) face-to-face.

They can ask what would the patient like to listen to and as I said previously, two thirds of NHS beds are taken up by elderly people which is categorised as 65+ years.

If you were to go out on the ward and ask an elderly person, what would they like to listen to on the hospital radio, I can say 99% it wouldn`t be Lady Gaga, Petshop Boys or Bananarama, more likely to be Sinatra, Mantovani or Louis Armstrong.

[LenGroat]

An interesting topic, which I’m pleased to see draws together jingles, dj’s, and HOW radio is programmed.

Hospital Radio WAS a source of ‘talent’ for ILR. As just one (personal) example the 1970-1974 people on the Swansea Hospital’s Radio Service (Radio City) included:

Dave Bowen, Chris Harper, Mark Williams, Doreen Jenkins, Plastic Sam, Clive Saddington, Rob Pendry, Viv Evans, myself (and others)

And between us we worked on Piccadily, Trent, Swansea Sound, Centre Radio, Metro Radio, Beacon Radio, GEM-AM, Smooth, Radio Aire, Radio 210 (and many others!)

In my experience it’s the case that the MUSIC now is poorly chosen, more station/dj-focussed than patient-centered.

In Swansea to BE on the ‘air’ you HAD to also collect requests once every 2 weeks…. and there was indeed ‘Some Enchanted Evening’ !

For people 65+ NOW it should be ‘Beatles, Stones, Motown, Carpenters and Bacharach genres’, and “cut-off” in the 80’s.

Lastly, the presenter at the start of the clip is far too ‘hip’ and not ‘warm’; it sounds more like Heart or Capital than a service aimed at ill people.

[Bigdave]

I did have experience of another Hospital station that was more the “usual” set up prior to joining the HR station I was associated with for almost a decade – and yes,you did have to understand that Rap wouldn’t sit well alongside Jim Reeves and Roger Whittaker,and that to be a real presenter,you had to learn to respect other forms of music format,and your style needed to be reflective of the audience you were to represent.Although the management of said station left a lot to be desired,I would not say my 6 month association with them was entirely wasted..

I joined Chrystal in Sheffield in 2001 as an assistant,and to provide swing cover.By mid 2001,I’d picked up my own show,and stayed until its eventual demise,(due to funding cuts) in January 2010, becoming PD for its final 18 months on air. We were probably as close to a HOT AC/CHR ILR station, as any HR station could be,purely and simply because we were based in a Children’s Hospital and the average age of our listener was around 11 years old – the same audience that would listen to their local ILR.We always would drive home the message to any wannabe wanting to join us “this is THEIR station (the patients) and they set the playlist”. Also,we also had another unwritten rule – “If we have it,we play it”. Therefore,we would have played Lady Gaga because our audience would have almost certainly would have asked for it,but it wasn’t unusual for us to play the theme from from the Hair Bear Bunch or the Tweenies – because it met that rule of thumb – which made us extremely popular.

Chrystal (the unusual spelling was because it stood for C hildrens H ospital R adio Y our S tation T o A lways L isten) was on air for nearly 25 years,and gave the world such names as Richard McCourt (Dick from Dick n Dom),Anthony Gay (the same one that heads up Reelworld’s European undertakings),Ben Day (Touch FM),Jon Holling (UTV Network),Richie Pearson (UTV Network), and many more that worked at Hallam,Radio Aire,Real,Kiss and others – it was a proven starting point in many careers. We managed some very good individuals who cared about their listeners,what they put into their shows to make them entertaining,and what’s most important,made it RELEVANT. That’s why so many still work in ILR today. And yes,even though I wasnt one of them,I’m still proud of what myself,and a real unsung hero called Brett Hadley (the PD for 7 of my 9 years at Chrystal who lived and breathed the place) achieved.

[DevawebMember]

Some hospital radio jingles…

Devaweb Hospital Radio Jingle Sampler by ignitejingles

Radio Clatterbridge 2011 by ignitejingles

[jc_djmac]

On the subject of Hospital Radio, ReelWorld in seattle actually did a jingle package for HWD Hospital radio. Anyone have a montage from ReelWorld? Would love to hear it!

[UKJinglesMember]

I hate to think how much money I spent on Jingles during my Hospital Radio Days #-O
I do remember when I first started at Wycombe Radio in about 1978 they were using old
PAMS (TANNER?) Non-Custom (edited) Jingles with a “Bill Mitchell” soundalike produced (I believe) by a guy who worked at the BBC called Keith Bowden

[UKJinglesMember]

Incidentally that Hospital Radio Jingle Sampler was great Chris, Particularly liked the Radio Hillingdon Jingles (where I was born!)
Some Hospital Radio’s now have better Jingles than proper Radio Stations! )

[bossjockMember]

I did a bit of hospital radio many many years ago, but it did not result in a career in radio, which was probably for the best. I did the occasional stint at a well-known cancer hospital, so there was a wide range of patients across all age groups. We played a fairly eclectic mix of music from top 40 to Glenn Miller and everything in between, plus a few home-made jingles by yours truly – never to see the light of day again (please don’t ask) X_X . I agree with Pete though that some hospital stations have better jingles than mainstream radio – in fact, unlike some of today’s “proper” stations, they actually have jingles

[IainJohnstonMember]

“never to see the light of day again (please don’t ask)”

[adopts sleazy low-life accent…] OK, you’ll have to pay up the “tribute” or I’ll post ’em on F-B!

#85839

[bossjockMember]

Just give me a couple of days to raise the cash and I’ll drop it off at a secret location of your choice

[IainJohnstonMember]

“secret location”
Do blackmailers these days use P*yp*l…?

Anyway – I’ll never “publish” yours if you likewise never do any of mine!

[bossjockMember]

Deal

[Nige]

I’ve been in hospital radio for years and still enjoy it. I agree that the music should be aimed at the patient and not just what the presenter wants to play. I choose a Gold format along with a mixture of other songs. If I play modern music it’s likely to be an easy listening song, something that would be popular with a mature audience. The main thing with hospital radio is that it should provide requests for the patients. That makes people feel better when they’re not well. Getting requests means a station can easily gauge what the audience wants to hear.

The problem is that teenagers want to join as a way of breaking into radio (there’s no problem with that) but the music they like is not going to be suitable for the audience, unless it’s a children’s hospital.

I also hear a lot of presenters saying they don’t play requests or the songs chosen don’t fit in with their Country/Classical/Jazz show, etc., but every live show should be a request show and presenters should be glad to play any song chosen by the listener.

[GrahamCollins]

I was fired from my local hospital station for not getting enough requests! I presented an early evening news magazine and spent all my limited free time prepping the show rather than wandering the wards pouncing on people….. They argued that I should be getting requests for the various music shows. A little harsh but you live and learn.

[Nige]

That’s a shame. What should happen is that you join as a station assistant and collect requests for other presenters, so that when you become a presenter (after a few months), you get an assistant assigned to you to collect your requests. That way, you can concentrate on prepping your show.

[Author]

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