Radio Enfield

Radio Enfield is a voluntary Hospital Radio broadcasting service for patients in Chase Farm Hospital, Enfield. It broadcasts programmes of record requests, local news, interviews, quizzes and other items of interest 24 hours a day. There are special request programmes for the patients in Chase Farm Hospital broadcast Sunday to Friday from 8-10pm. The station is operated by volunteers in their spare time, who present programmes, collect requests, manage the record library and keep the equipment working. Radio Enfield is funded by donations and various activities such as fetes, discos and other public events. The station is a member of the Hospital Broadcasting Association and is a Registered UK Charity No. 265915.

History

The station started broadcasting to Chase Farm on 24 May 1970 from a converted storeroom in the hospital with a 2-hour weekly request programme on Sunday evenings. In November 1971, the station moved to its second home in Block 7 of Chase Farm, a brick built bicycle shed. The service was extended to Highlands Hospital, Winchmore Hill in March 1972 and to North Middlesex Hospital, Edmonton, London in January 1973. The hospitals were linked by landline to enable the same programme to be heard simultaneously.

Programmes were gradually extended to cover Sunday to Friday evenings to cope with the extra requests. Live football commentaries from Enfield F.C. and Tottenham Hotspur F.C. were introduced after the station moved home again in late 1978. The new studios were financed from a major fund-raising campaign, which included a car raffle organised by the Lions Club of Enfield and was formerly used as a teaching classroom. Two studios were built, enabling separate programmes to be transmitted to any of the hospitals in order to cope with the large number of requests received. At that time, programmes could also be heard at the Prince of Wales Hospital in Tottenham.

Sadly the link to North Middlesex Hospital closed in 1983, due to the escalating cost of renting the lines between hospitals, and Highlands Hospital closed some years ago. Radio Enfield therefore concentrates on its broadcasts to Chase Farm and has completed occasional FM broadcasts to Enfield and the surrounding area covering the annual Enfield Autumn Show, under licence from Ofcom.

Over its nearly 40 year history, Radio Enfield has won a number of prestigious national awards, notably for its outside broadcasts. Many of Radio Enfield's former members now work professionally in Radio - both on air and behind the scenes.

Radio Enfield Today

Following major redevelopment at Chase Farm Hospital, the station moved studios again at the end of 2006. The final programme from the former teaching classroom was broadcast on Friday 1 December, being a compilation of programme highlights since the station began. The station moved to the new home, which was kindly financed by the Leagues of Friends, and was back on the air on Monday 4 December as usual. The teaching classroom studios were demolished in March 2007.

Amongst the annual events the station takes part in are the Enfield Autumn Show, the Enfield Scouts Town Park firework display, various quiz evenings and local fetes.

Radio Enfield Website