Keith Reeves: Radio Station life is full of positives

When I applied to join Torbay Hospital Radio as a volunteer, I had no idea of the true nature of volunteering. I thought I would rock up, do a two-hour show, and disappear, but after a few weeks, I realised that there was far more to the role and how rewarding the extra duties are. To quote Blur, it gives me a sense of enormous wellbeing

Obviously, our raison d'être is to entertain the patients and since I joined, we now broadcast to Torbay Hospital as well as Newton Abbot and Brixham Community hospitals.

We aim to have live presenters in the studio for as much of the day as possible but when we aren’t at the desk, our system takes over, allowing us to broadcast 24/7.  Each of our presenters has their own unique style and music selection and we all enjoy interaction with the listeners to play dedications and requests.

The second area of involvement is our outside events team, who work tirelessly to attend lots of events within the community. We aim to provide music and a full public announcement service to help people enjoy the event. Each of us loves meeting the public and this year we hope you will come along to meet us. The details of our events can be found on our website  https://torbayhospitalradio.com/events/

The third role is welcoming local groups and charities into the studio to promote themselves and their causes. We have welcomed several groups in recently and anyone can contact us via our website www.torbayhospitalradio.com to arrange a slot on air.

The fourth area is my personal favourite, which is to welcome locally based bands into the studio to promote themselves and their music. My first guest band was Billie Bottles Temple of Shibboleth and I was joined by Billie and Viv on the release day of their eponymous first album.

We talked about the album and played tracks from it and that meeting got me out of my seat and into the audience at gigs. My next contact was with a young band called 3 Days of Wonder. Again, we played music they have recorded while the band told us about their background.

The most recent guest was Jess Rowe who came in for two visits complete with guitar to play live. This was a first for me as previously we had played recorded music. However, it was a great success and I just hope this column may encourage more musicians to get in contact.

Every one of us in the team would welcome more guests into the studio so if you are a local community group,  charity, or a musician please go to the web page www.torbayhospitalradio.com  and book a slot on the air.