Hereford Hospital Radio first began broadcasting in the city during 1972. The service run by volunteers provides music and entertainment to patients, visitors and staff at Hereford Hospital.
Due to covid restrictions the organisation has been broadcasting online since March 2020. The team returned to the studio’s this weekend for a spring clean ahead of their first Christmas back on air since the pandemic started.
Your Herefordshire Director Matt Healey who was a former member of the organisation from 1996-2002 popped over to see the team.
Chairman Chris Hughes told us “It’s been a long three years and we have had to record programme’s from home and upload them to the studio remotely to continue our output, but the team are massively excited to have their first Christmas back at the studio in three years, we provide a valuable service to the hospital and with a fully computerised playout system, we were able to keep the station running 24 hours a day. Today has been the first time that the volunteers have all been together since Covid”
The radio station has been a pathway and a start for many people to make a career in the media industry. Chris told us “We had Adrian Bodenham who later worked for Global, there is also Andrew Easton and Andrew Marston who now work for BBC Hereford and Worcester, Steven Davies is a BBC newsreader across the UK, plus Jenny Dunkerley who used to work for the Daily Star and Daily Express”
The longest serving member is Andy Williams who joined Hereford Hospital Radio in 1984. Andy told Your Herefordshire “I used to work for the RAF and was involved in the radio station there which was based in Wycombe, I ended up moving to Hereford and wanted to carry on with radio, the then secretary of Hereford Hospital Radio showed me around and I have been here ever since. I have presented various shows over the years and I have thoroughly enjoyed it. I have met so many fantastic people during my time here. One of my highlights was going around the ward’s and getting requests from the patients, our service helps people with their recuperation. I remember playing a song by Glenn Miller for a patient once and it made her day as she had met him during the war”
Your Herefordshire’s Matt Healey was a member of Hospital Radio from 1996-2002 “Before the era of social media there wasn’t much opportunity in the way of breaking into radio so I became a member at 14. I used to present a show on a Sunday evening from 6-8pm which was great fun, back then we had to use vinyl records and occasionally CD’s to play the music for the show. My ambition as a teenager was to present one show on a professional radio station which I achieved and I must have presented over 2,000 shows in total”
Healey continued “Looking back I ended up with a near twenty year run of working for all of the major radio stations across Herefordshire and Worcestershire doing a variety of roles before quietly retiring early last year. Hereford Hospital Radio was a great grounding for me and without it I wouldn’t have had the radio career that I had, Being on the radio in my early days gave me the profile to get DJ gigs around Herefordshire which I still do today”
The organisation is also on the look out for new members. Chris added “We are always looking for volunteers from around the local community. If anybody is interested in joining all the details are on our website which is www.hhr.org.uk, or alternatively you can call us on 01432 233033.
