The Story of Hereford Hospital Radio - Part 3

Many of the older hutted wards were demolished, and an entire new major building housing most of the main wards was created.

But sadly, things were not meant to last. The three hospitals in Hereford; the County, the General and the Victoria Eye hospitals would merge and be under one roof at a much expanded base at a new building at the County. During 2002, our block at the hospital during the major rebuilding works of the hospital was to be refurbished; better than having no home at all, and we would keep our studios, space that many hospital radio stations were losing under redevelopment of services. Originally, we were told that we would need to be off air for just 6 weeks whilst the work was being done. But 6 weeks, turned into 6 months, then a year, and on and on. The hospital was also going to move to a new commercially run system, with bedside TV's/radio for most beds at the County. These were bad times for us as we were not on the air and had to wait to find out if and when we could be included on the service. Many HHR members moved on to other things in the mean time, and we lost many members who could not wait to return on the air. But at least we could now move in to our newly refurbished studios, which were a great improvement.

Our main studio soon after the refurbishments. Note we were still using vinyl for some output, although nowadays its only played rarely due to computerisation.

Eventually after a break of three years we were able to go back on the air but with many fewer members and with fewer listeners too ! In the interim, time off air had given us time to raise much needed funds to improve our studios and equipment. We were still able to broadcast on the older 'Nursecall' system, but many patients were not aware of this, as they really only took note of the TV and radio system by the bedsides.

Finally in 2007 we were able to finally get back on air with the full commercially driven radio system as well as the trusty Nursecall system, and we were able to increase our profile in the hospital again, gaining new members and listeners.

Now with two new studios, more members, a fully computerised playout system enabling us to be on air 24 hours a day, which will keep the station in action when no presenters are present, things are brighter than ever !  Most of our songs are stored on computer so we have much more room in the studios than previously. Ward visiting has increased with more members and more patients and staff are getting used to seeing us on the wards. After our time away we can now provide an even better service to the patients of the County Hospital ! Projects included the re-development of Studio 2, to enable more production work to take place, and to act as a backup studio.