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Why not join Hereford Hospital Radio as a volunteer and help support the charity and our listeners.

Before you apply, please think carefully about these points.

Can you make the time for this voluntary work?
Can you travel to our studios?

If you give an email address, we will correspond by email. Please make sure it is a valid address and that you check your inbox regularly.

If you apply

You must be 18 or over.
We will ask you to come to an informal meeting.

If we are both happy to continue, you must be cleared by a Criminal Records Bureau check, which will take several weeks to process. If you do not hold British nationality, we may not be able to complete this check.

A Right to Work check is also needed to meet immigration regulations. We will hold your membership details on a computer database, in accordance with the Data Protection Act.

If we are both happy to continue, you will start a period of provisional membership, typically lasting 6 months. During this period, there will be a commitment to visit hospital patients and to visit our studios regularly.

If the provisional period is successful, you will be offered full membership. Full membership carries a commitment to visit hospital patients.

HEREFORD HOSPITAL RADIO (2013) 1. Introduction Hereford Hospital Radio (HHR) broadcasts to the Hereford County Hospital and via the HHR website, mobile telephone and Internet radio , 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. The output of the station demands a lot of hard work and involves a lot of people, but provides an excellent opportunity for many people, students and organisations to experience professional radio and training in an environment similar to that of commercial stations around the country. HHR is a unique asset to Hereford; in fact there isn’t another local radio station able to offer the training, support and concentrates on involving as many local inexperienced people as HHR. HHR broadcasts to approximately 3,000 patients and NHS staff each day. Such a large potential audience means we have to get it right, which is one of the reasons for the “codes” written in this booklet which all members of the station team must agree to. A team atmosphere is what we are trying to create, a positive working environment where everybody gets along, and supports each other. Most important of all however is the listener i.e. the patients and staff of Hereford County Hospital. HHR programmes are professionally managed, they involve all the work which radio stations in the BBC or independent sector have to do. Rules and regulations are very strict within radio, not only do we have to follow regulations set by the Radio Authority, the countries Broadcasting Act, the data protection act and regulations of the local authority we also have to agree to the conditions of PRS and PPL. Any problems, complaints, or un-professionalism could easily ruin the entire organisation both from a fund raising point of view and in-terms of public respect, these are the reasons why the codes in this booklet have to be followed, even though they may seem strict. The programming will be directly managed by the Broadcast Manager, Training Manager and Personnel Manager. You must ensure that you consult, liase with and inform either Manager, of any problems, and tell them any information concerning the output of the station. 2. Aims & Objectives of Broadcasting There are many reasons why we broadcast. Broadcasting itself is a way of communicating to our small community, it allows us to spread positive interesting local information, promoting the local people, groups, organisations and charities that would otherwise go unnoticed or not receive the publicity they deserve from other media groups. Our main objective, however, is to entertain and inform the patients, and lifts their day by a simple visit. Quite often the only visitor a patient may have all day is a HHR team member. Broadcasting allows us then to entertain the patients, giving them the entertainment they want and not what other people decide, with their requests and involvement in the programme. Preparation of programmes gives everyone the opportunity to get involved in all aspects, from administration to pre-recording programmes which benefit the listener and involve the community. Overall HHR programmes are for the patients to enjoy and participate in, both actively and passively – but by broadcasting professionally we are able to promote HHR not only to the hospital itself, but also to the whole borough and beyond, to people who don’t even know the station exists. 3. Codes of Broadcasting 3.1. Membership Agreement The information in this booklet constitutes Hereford Hospital Radio’s Membership agreement 2013, which must be signed by all members. 3.2. Punctuality The station can only run efficiently if all members attend regularly and on time. All presenters / broadcaster must arrive at least one hour (if preparation is necessary) or 15 minutes (if show prep. is complete) before their show is due to go live, firstly to ensure you have prepared for the show, and to be briefed by the Broadcast Manager, if necessary, about any changes to the format or running order etc… If you do not arrive on time your show slot allocation may be given to a replacement presenter or cancelled all together. Remember to allocate enough time to park as spaces are limited at peak times. 3.3. Running orders All presenters are required to produce running orders or show prep, by a deadline, of one hour before the programme is due to go live. The running order will include all the spoken content for your show. This is the normal procedure with any other radio station as your running order would normally have to be approved or already scripted for you. We operate a move relaxed policy; however, it is your responsibility to ensure that you have enough quality show prep to cover your show. Simply randomly choosing a news item from a website will not be tolerated as you need to ensure that the content of the story is suitable for broadcast on HHR. This is a condition of broadcasting with HHR and will be monitored by the Broadcast Manager. If running orders are not produced by the deadline set, or followed, you will not be allowed the opportunity to broadcast with HHR. And a replacement presenter will be found. 3.4. Programme codes Ofcom publishes a set of codes, which all broadcasters must agree to. They can be found and read via the Ofcom website at http://stakeholders.ofcom.org.uk/broadcasting/guidance/programme-guidance/bguidance/ . By signing the Membership agreement you will be accepting personal liability for breaking any of the codes set by Ofcom and those set in this agreement. 4. Health & Safety In the event of a fire or fire alarm do not continue to broadcast, you may if you wish leave a piece of music or CD running or switch over to the computer if you know how and have time, but the priority is to get out to a safe area. 5. Equal Opportunities, Grievance & Disciplinary Procedures The above procedures are in place to protect all members and ensure that everybody involved in the organisation including listeners are treated fairly, the policies must be followed and are listed around Northern Air’s working areas and in this document. 6. Smoking, Eating, Drinking There is no smoking allowed in any of HHR rooms / studio or on NHS property. This includes the gardens and car parks. For the interest of Health and Safety and the protection of equipment we ask that food is not consumed in the studio or whilst using equipment and only consumed in the reception area. During broadcast situations HHR accept that it is necessary for broadcasters to have some sort of refreshment whilst in the studio, however you must make sure that you do not take a drink near any equipment or near any worktops which the equipment is on. Mints / lozenges / boiled sweets may also be taken into the studio during broadcast times only. You must ensure that all sweet wrappers, empty / half drunk cups, glasses, beakers are taken out of the builiding before leaving. 7. Guests / Visitors Guests and visitors may only come onto the premises if their visit is arranged with the Broadcast Manager or Personnel Manager giving at least 24 hours notice. Guests including family and friends can not observe a full show unless otherwise agreed, and can not be put on air unless they have been booked in to do so. All guests must be supervised whilst on HHR premises. Members of HHR must always be courteous to all guests whilst they are in our company. 8. Children Children are allowed on the premises only by prior arrangement and if they are accompanied and supervised by a parent or nominated chaperone. Children must not be put on air unless otherwise arranged with the Broadcast Manager and the child’s parents/ guardians. 9. Advertising Advertisements must not be broadcast on HHR; we are a hospital broadcasting service and not an advertising agency, or a commercial station. The station is answerable for the output and by signing this agreement so are you. 9.1. Advertising in kind Hopefully many local companies will donate prizes to be given away or may offer to sponsor a programme; these companies expect recognition for this. If a prize on your show is donated by a company you must recognise the company at least twice during that show but no more than three times per hour; the script you would use is loosely. The prize for this competition is a ………….. Kindly donated by …………. of Hereford. You must not directly advertise the company, their telephone number, or the price the item would cost if purchased commercially. 9.2. Advertisements for Community, Voluntary groups or charities. From time to time we will be receive emails and telephone calls from community groups, voluntary groups and charities for promotion of events etc… All advertisement of this kind must be passed on directly to the Broadcast Manager to confirm with the organisation, and if necessary get clearance to broadcast the item. 10. Competitions. Only competitions which are pre-planned, agreed, and are on your running order can be used on air. The rules of the competition must be written down and made easy to understand, you must regularly inform the audience of the competition rules frequently whilst on air. Never make any false promises for prizes – or over exaggerate the prizes. 11. Station Ids Station Ids must be played when scheduled at 20 past and 20 to the hour – they add continuity and an identification to the station. 12. Presenter / Show Promotions All presenters must produce a promotion for their show to be broadcast on other shows; the promo is usually 30-60 seconds in length and advertises the features of the show, and the day and time you are on air. Broadcasters must play the promos scheduled at 20 past and 20 to the hour. 13. Presenter Jingles You may wish to produce jingles for regular features on your show, these again add continuity and a professional sound to your show and features. Jingles must not however, use voices which are heard on the radio station i.e. other presenters. All pre-recorded items must be cleared for use by the Broadcast Manager before broadcasting. This will include any voice that has been used for any reason up to the signing of this agreement. 14. Pre – recorded programmes Pre-recorded programmes, such as local news or events may be produced and scheduled for certain shows at certain times. These must be broadcast if scheduled during your show. 15. Transcriptions It is important that copies of pre-recorded items are kept as evidence in case of any complaints. HHR keeps all live output for a period of time in case of complaint or misconduct by the member. You should also keep a written record of the work you do for the station including running orders, scripts, transcriptions of any pre-recorded items, listings of the contents of any material on CD, record, YouTube, website or any digital media or minidisc. You must provide the Broadcast Manager with a copy of details of any planning work and pre-recorded material you have produced before broadcasting. 16. Fault reporting You may find that if you are very unlucky a fault may occur when you are broadcasting hopefully it will not be anything major. If anything happens with the equipment or anything else that shouldn’t happen, email a report of the fault to the Broadcast Manager or Chief Engineer so they are able to investigate, repair and inform the other broadcasters of the fault. 17. Weather Local weather ONLY should be read after the news using the appropriate jingle. The weather report should be taken from the BBC website only, using the link on the HHR website to help you. 18. Live phone calls Live telephone calls are an option for presenters if they are pre-arranged and agreed by the Broadcast Manager in the case of interviews. For competition phone-ins Presenters must state if their competitions involve live callers this will be done as part of their running order. When taking any live calls there are a few rules to follow: • Do not say or ask the caller anything which will invoke a negative reaction. • If you sense any anger or they swear once you must cut them off straight away. • You must not encourage them to give personal details including like their home address or telephone number, why they are in hospital, any legal, religious or political views they may have, or any serious grievances they may have against anybody. However, live phone calls from patients is one of the most important services HHR provides. It allows the listeners to be more involved in the station, and is of immeasurable benefit to their recovery – patient / NHS staff callers are a must! 19. Live interviews Pre-recorded interviews should be considered before live interviews, recording equipment and editing facilities will be available to all members at any time – so there is no excuse. If live interviews are necessary you must arrange the interview with the Broadcast Manager and when doing the interview make sure that you keep the interview as interesting as possible, and. more importantly do not let the interviewee take control of the interview as can often happen. Select your subject well remember that even though you may find a subject interesting the audience may not, and may even turn off. 20. Features It is important to have regular features in each show to keep the audience interested, and make them part of the show, the managers will work on features with you if necessary. 21. Work – supporting others A strong team of members is required to assist each presenter in a variety of roles, from answering telephones, getting patients involved etc….. We feel it is only fair that presenters support other presenters and ask presenters to commit at least as much time as they do in studio to supporting other broadcasters. We are after all a team, and a team needs all the players to play their part – remember we are all volunteers, and it must not always fall on a few to do the ground work. Our success is your success, make sure you support our station. 22. Aggression Broadcasting can be very stressful sometimes for everybody involved, please try to bear this in mind especially when dealing with other people. We need to create an enjoyable working team environment focusing on producing a superb impression to the patients and staff. A negative atmosphere is easily reflected over the airwaves (as previous experience has shown). If you have any problems with anybody involved in the station the grievance procedure is in place to deal with the problem. 23. Requests / dedications Of all the services HHR provides, requests are probably the most important of all. The station exists mainly for the patients, and it has been proved time and time again that a simple message, dedication or request can lift a patient and aid their recovery. It’s not unknown for ex-patients to keep in touch with the station, long after they have left hospital – purely because of the request service. You should strive to vary the form of the requests, from written requests whilst ward visiting, talking to patients or family members and friends to recording patients or staff on the ward and by telephone. 24. Recording broadcast We are required to record the whole of our transmission output, in case a complaint is made against us. If a complaint is made against you regarding something which you have broadcast live, you will be required to attend a hearing regarding the complaint and will be asked to provide a transcript of your show prep and running order. If the complaint is made to a Manager, HHR will follow the above process, and depending on the seriousness of the complaint could lead to disciplinary action 25. IRN / Sky Radio News Independent Radio News should be used at the top of each and every hour and be the only source of current news, as they are accountable for the news content they broadcast. If a news bulletin is not available – use the station theme and add a track to your running order. The only exception to this is providing local news or live sport reports. 26. Security With people coming and going around the station security is of sincere importance. All members of the station team must take responsibility for their own valuables and personal belongings. Theft will be treated extremely seriously resulting in legal action; anybody found stealing will be automatically dismissed. Whilst in the station and hospital building, you must wear your identity badge at all times. The hospital security has a policy of checking badges – especially since dubious members of the public have in the past impersonated membership of our station – wear your badge! Webcams provide support and help us with security but they cannot be relied upon as a means of live monitoring. If you leave the door open to provide air flow you must accept full responsibly for the security of the building. 27. Property belonging to HHR. Property belonging to HHR must not be taken off the premises in any circumstances other than by prior agreement, i.e. recording equipment etc. CD’s, Minidiscs, records and any other form of audio material, whether scheduled for broadcast use or not is not to be taken off the premises without the authorisation of the Broadcast Manager. 28. Copyright material Hereford Hospital Radio is licensed to broadcast and record published music, the licences include Performing Rights Society and Phonographic Performance Ltd. These licences do not account for unpublished music or music from music and sound effect libraries. You must accept personal responsibility for broadcasting or recording any piece of music outside of these licences 29. Location For security reasons we are unable to give out the location of the studio on air. 30. Personal issues Presenters should not mention issues which are personal to them and irrelevant to the listeners for example in-depth details of their relationships with a person etc… 31. Links and speech items Try to make your links as interesting, informative and as relevant as possible. You do not need to announce the title and artist of every song you play, if it is a popular track then it should be known anyway. Instead of just announce the songs, try to think of some interesting items to say maybe little pieces of information about the artists or song, where it was in the chart? and in what year? what else was happening around that time? Has somebody told you a funny story about somebody? Have you seen anything in the papers or on T.V. that is relevant to your listeners? Is there anything coming up on television, at the cinema or in the Hereford area? Overall try to make your spoken items as interesting and as relevant to the patients as possible – we don’t want to be another hospital radio station which simply plays and announces chart hits all day long. 32. Telephone calls The only telephone calls which should be taken in the studios are calls from listeners requesting either songs or dedications. Any other calls such as complaints, press releases, calls from organisations, authority bodies i.e. Police, local authority, etc… must be reported to the Broadcast Manager by informing the caller that the Management will be informed – do not give out home telephone numbers of any member to non-members or the public in general. Your personal mobile telephone should be fully turned off when entering a studio – not just in airplane mode (should your phone have this function). Mobile telephones can create feedback on microphones and speakers used in the studio whenever data is sent to them or from them. Turn it off and put it somewhere safe. 33. Contact names & addresses of people involved – data protection. It is important to keep an accurate record of the contact details (name, address, telephone number) of everybody who has been a contributor to the station, this includes interviewees, guests, prize winners, anybody who features in a pre-recorded programme or item, plus the names of anybody who gave permission for that person to go on air i.e. press relation departments, parents of children etc… To comply with the data protection act all contact details must be kept confidential, you must therefore hand in any contact information to the Personnel Manager who will file them as necessary. 34. Celebrities It is a fact that celebrities / famous people / influential people are of interest to the patients, however members must not approach any person of this kind directly, there is a formal procedure in which to ask a “celebrity” to get involved in some way, i.e. seeking permission from their agent or press office of the place they work….. You must inform the Broadcast Manager or a member of the committee of any approaches of this kind. 35. Use of telephone / Studio email The telephones or email is available for members of the station team to use on station business. Please check with the presenter of the show to make sure that the phone is available, and it is not needed for a live call or competition. When using the telephone please remember to keep the length of the call to a minimum – you may be stopping patients from getting through. Presenters should also inform members of the station team who are answering calls, of the times in which he/ she will be setting competitions, or asking for requests. 36. Alcohol / illegal substances Members of HHR will be automatically dismissed if they are found to be under the effects of alcohol / illegal substances whilst working for HHR – alcohol is not permitted at any time whilst working in the station or hospital. 37. Tidiness Please ensure that you tidy away everything you have used whilst working on the premises, including cups, plates, paper, equipment, leads, music, used running orders…… at all times we ask that you help make the working areas look tidy even if it isn’t your mess, this may mean using the vacuum cleaner, or washing up, etc…….. KEEP HEREFORD HOSPITAL RADIO TIDY. 38. The rota There will be a rota on display to show who is in, doing what and when. The rota includes presenters, and the support team. We ask all presenters to contribute time to supporting other presenters, this can be anything from answering telephones, making drinks, welcoming guests, sorting out CD’s or records required for the show, driving the desk for another presenter……. This usually means contributing as much time supporting as you do broadcasting. 39. Equipment Do not under any circumstances alter settings, remove leads, open up equipment, take out parts, swap leads, etc……. on any of the equipment at all, you must report faults using the faults procedures and make any suggestions directly to the Chief Engineer. 40. Publicity It is important that all members of the team get involved in publicising the station, this may mean simply by word of mouth, writing items or most importantly of all supporting fund raising events. 41. Public Relations Members of the station must inform the station management of any contact with publicity agents i.e. newspapers, television companies etc… press releases will be made by the station on occasions, but suggestions will be welcomed. 42. References All members are entitled to a personal written reference and statement of achievement, regarding their work with Hereford Hospital Radio, please ask the Broadcast Manager to produce one for you. 43. Training Training will be offered to all members who and have shown their full commitment to the station and the patients of Hereford County Hospital. Broadcasting is a privilege, a reward for services rendered, not a right. Training sessions will normally run during weekends, and members should liase with the Personnel Manager, Broadcast Manager or Training Manager as to suitable dates and times. Training will be given to members in the following order: • Team member collecting requests etc. and full commitment to station policy and output. • Sessions on the desk, with Training Manager – booked training sessions. • Driving the desk during request programmes. • Presenter reserve list. • Programme Presenter. 44. Demonstration tapes Demonstration tapes / CD’s / Minidiscs must not be made on air – we are a hospital broadcasting service, NOT a recording studio. We accept that members wish to further their radio careers via our service, but we expect you to provide the service we require whilst you are on air. Presenters are more than welcome to use the facilities the studio provides, to compile Demonstration tapes after pre-production work and training sessions, by booking the studio, again mainly at weekends – the Broadcast Manager will advise you as to when the studio will be available to you. Advice and assistance on how best to promote yourself in the radio industry will also be available on request. 45. Lone working No member is permitted to be at the studio alone after the hours of 9pm and before 6am. This is in line with the Lone Worker Policy that is operated by the NHS Trust and is for your safety. Any presenters who’s show finish at 9pm should inform the Broadcast Manager if there is any unusual delay in leaving the building. 46. Members agreement Before you can broadcast with Hereford Hospital Radio, you must agree to the information in this document, and the information in Ofcoms publications. Hereford Hospital Radio hopes that all members of the organisation enjoy the unique broadcasting experience which we provide, in a local, team spirited, supportive environment. The station management reserve the right to adapt or change any part of this document or other documents. 
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