Hospital Radio: The secret life of a hospital radio host

I am sure you consider the life of radio presenter is a glamorous one, where we mix with the rich and famous and that we have a huge production team.

Well, sorry, you need to think again. Most stations are small and are run by volunteers who are most definitely amateurs. This week I have put the rubbish out and run around the studio with the vacuum and the most famous person I have met is one of the hospital porters who looks a little bit like Olly Murs, that said I did not have my glasses on at the time.

Now, I am not complaining. It is fabulous to be able to present a radio show and we, like many small stations have some fabulous equipment and are able to broadcast to the world via the internet. It’s not our primary goal of course, we are trying to reach the patients and staff at Torbay Hospital, which in itself can be a challenge. We have an FM transmitter that covers the hospital, but it doesn’t always reach some of the areas around the site, there are a lot of obstacles (thick walls) that the radio waves cannot penetrate. The old bedside units are no longer available to patients, so we often provide individual radios with headsets so that would be listeners, can hear our output.

We visit the wards every week to see if anyone would like a tune and we meet so many lovely and sometimes very ill people. They all seem to welcome the efforts made and the range of songs requested is eclectic to say the least, more on that later. Of course, not all patients have a large support group of visitors to try and lift their spirits, so sometimes a visit from one of our dedicated team is a welcome distraction. Nobody wants to spend a period in hospital and when it’s not a planned stay you do not always consider how you might keep your mind occupied. Despite the best efforts of the staff, hospitals can be a lonely place.

Only last week we were told of a chap who came down on a sporting trip only to suffer a heart attack, he was glowing in his praise for the Cardiac Centre, but I’m sure he didn’t want to be there. Not so long ago we met a lady who fell on the bus that was showing her the sites of Torbay. With a nasty fracture she ended up in A&E and then an enforced stay, as she lived up country. The volunteers around the hospital do a great job, with little praise, so it is always nice to hear whether it be someone from the radio station or any of the other numerous areas around the place that you might find them.

We ask for song choices, it’s not always a straightforward answer that we get, sometimes an artist, sometimes a genre, sometimes part of the title of a song or an odd lyric. This is when the fun starts for us, trying to find the song that they have requested or mean. Quite often we may not know the song they want, most of our volunteers are of a certain age and are not that familiar with Chappell Roan or CMAT, but we always try to find the right track. It reminds me of “who do you think you are” and instead of searching for a long lost relative, it’s finding an old friend in the form of a song.

I know sometimes the thought of volunteering can be daunting, what would you do? Which organisation? Have I got the time? All valid points but just to see a smiling face on a person in a hospital bed or a kind message received for playing a track for them, in my opinion makes it all worthwhile. More details are on the hospital website.