Hospital Radio: Could you survive without your phone?

The role of a presenter can provide a variety of situations, ones that you may not expect when you first take up the reins at Torbay Hospital Radio.

As with most small charities, there is much to do and only a small band of volunteers to complete the jobs, and those have to be completed around our own day-to-day routines and, for many, a full-time job.

Our studio is full of electrical wizardry, most of which is, shall we say, complex and the domain of our engineer, who tends it tenderly like a keeper at the zoo would tend the animals in their care. How did we ever manage before the advent of the PC, tablet or laptop?

With that in mind, here are some observations on a recent experience, which may strike a chord with you.

The other day, I did something I hadn't done for ages. I left my phone at work. As I didn't realise this until I got into my car, and it was too late to go back, I was stuck with a phone-free evening. No checking the weather every ten minutes. No instant family catchups and banter. And no radio on catch-up. Most importantly, no daily round of music quizzes to test my memory! How would I cope?

How would any of us cope? Fortunately, I can check the weather by looking at the speed and direction of the clouds, and I can call my family from a landline – yes, we still have one! And dotted around the house are a few old-school radios. So, life would go on, but it was a very different kind of evening. You could say I was out of my comfort zone.

 It got me thinking – how much of our daily routine is now dictated by our phones? And I count myself as someone who isn't a slave to their screen (who am I kidding? I realised as the evening progressed). Every few minutes, a colour screen will tell us we've only done 1,500 steps today, we haven't set up using our phone as a bank card, or we have seven unread texts – and don't get me started on the unread emails!

On reflection, how good was it to be free, even oh-so-briefly, from the twenty-first-century genie in a bottle, even for one fleeting evening, already swiftly receding into history? Everywhere we go, we see the same proof of how beholden we've become to our phones.

I tried to ban them at mealtimes but gave up. Fortunately, it's easy to keep conversation going. But how sad is it that some primary schools have taken to displaying posters reminding parents to put their phones away and actually talk to their own children when they collect them?

Fortunately, you can listen to Torbay Hospital Radio in a wide variety of ways. While our principal audience no doubt listens online, we distribute personal FM radios to the wards, pre-tuned to our 95.9 FM wavelength, on which we can still be found in a few areas.

In addition, we're available on some smart speakers and car radios, and we've even launched our own app, so far only for Apple devices. You can listen on catch-up by downloading the Mixcloud app. And we are always looking for new ways to reach our audience, so watch this space.....

We broadcast 24/7, every day of the year, and always give new volunteers the warmest of welcomes and thorough training. We offer a wide variety of opportunities – administration, fundraising, marketing and visiting wards and departments to interact with staff and patients, as well as presenting. So, if you have an hour or two to spare, why not get in touch through our website? I know that I am glad I did.