Hospital radio
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Hospital radio stations provide radio entertainment to patients in UK hospitals.
Hospital radio can also be found in The Netherlands though is it diminishing rapidly.
Most stations are on closed-loop wires and can only be heard inside the hospital wards on headphones or speakers next to the patient's bed. There are a few stations using AM or FM free-to-air transmission.
Run by volunteers, some stations broadcast for only a few hours each week, with others using computer technology to provide their service 24 hours a day.
The strength of hospital radio is the close interaction with their listeners. Patients in hospital are often restricted to their beds and have little to do. A visit from a member of their hospital radio station brings an opportunity to talk to someone different. The patient can select a song to hear, which will generally be played for them on the radio station later the same day. The record request is very personal to the patient, as the presenter of the radio programme is often the same person who collected the request from the bedside.
Ward staff in many hospitals report that when a record request show is in progress, patients forget that they are ill for a couple of hours, while they enjoy listening to their choice of music and the choices of their fellow patients.
[edit] References to hospital radio in popular culture
- Takin' Over the Asylum - a six part television drama about the development of a radio station in a psychiatric hospital.
[edit] External links
- Hospital Broadcasting Association
- Sunshine Hospital Radio, Weston-Super-Mare
- Bridge FM 87.7 - on air since 1955
- Hospital Radio Bedside
- Chippenham Hospital Radio
- Hospital Radio Wexham
- Hospital Broadcasting Service Ayrshire for Crosshouse Hospital, Kilmarnock
- Hospital Radio Bedford
- Hospital Radio Colchester
- Radio Cavell 1350am, Oldham
- Hospital Radio Tunbridge Wells
- Hospital Radio Fox - Leicester Royal Infirmary and the Glenfield Hospital
- Radio Redhill - Hospital Radio Station for the East Surrey Hospital
- Radio West Middlesex - Hospital Radio Station for the West Middlesex University Hospital
- Nottingham Hospitals Radio Saturday Morning Show
- Whipps Cross Hospital Radio in East London
- Milton Keynes Hospital Radio Service includes a comprehensive history of Hospital Radio in the UK
- Epsom Hospital Radio
- Ashford Hospital Broadcasting Service, William Harvey Hospital,Ashford
- Hospital Radio South Tyneside
- Hemel Hospital Radio
- Hospital Radio Bedside Bournemouth Poole Christchurch Wimborne
- Kendal Hospital Radio
- Portsmouth Hospital radio
- Haslar Hospital radio
- Kingstown Radio, Hull
- Radio North Tees, Teesside
- Harlow Hospital Radio
- Radio Nene Valley, Northampton
- Radio Cherwell, Hospital Radio for Oxford
- Bristol Hospital Broadcasting Service
- Southampton Hospital Broadcasting Association in business since 1952
- Radio Glamorgan, Cardiff Broadcasting Across the Biggest Hospital In Wales.
- Winchester Hospital Radio
[edit] External links - Hospital radio in The Netherlands
- VHN Dutch organisation for hospital radio
