Every week people contact Radio Nene Valley wanting to join the team to help
entertain the patients and
staff of Northampton General Hospital. Well, if you're interested - keep
reading!
Radio Nene Valley has been broadcasting to Northampton's General Hospital since
1971, providing a wide range
of programmes.
We currently have around twenty-five members from all backgrounds and of all ages,
and we are always
interested in hearing from new people who want to join us.
We aim to liven up the patients stay in hospital, to entertain and to try to relieve
some of the boredom and
bring to Northampton General Hospital, a hospital radio station that the patients
want to listen to.
We play 'Even More of the Music that YOU Request' and we hope to bring 'Bedside
Company at its BEST'. But to
do that we are always on the lookout for new members with new ideas and who can help
us to provide even more
entertainment to the hospital.
New members join for a variety of different reasons, whether it's presenting or
producing programmes, the
technical side of broadcasting, fundraising, ward visiting or one of the many other
important aspects of
running the station. But above all they join us to use their spare time to do
something interesting,
worthwhile and to benefit those people unfortunate enough to have to spend some time
in hospital.
Any new member who joins us will be given a comprehensive six-month training
programme to learn the skills
of presenting and producing programmes. They will be involved in the stations
fundraising, visiting wards
for requests around the hospital, helping with programmes and many more activities.
The training may sound
daunting but it provides excellent practical experience to a high standard on
professional broadcasting
studio equipment that has recently all been upgraded.
We are proud that a number of our previous and current members have gone on to
careers within local and
national radio and television.
Still Interested? Well, you need to be over 18 years old, have one evening a week to
spare and sometime
during the weekend. It's fun, but it's also a lot of hard work!
If you're still interested in Radio Nene Valley then please contact us for further
details and an
application form. Alternatively, you can download the application from the link on
this page.
Write to
Personnel Officer,
Radio Nene Valley,
Northampton General Hospital,
Cliftonville, Northampton, NN1 5BD.
Telephone 01604-545454 or
E-mail: personnel@radionenevalley.co.uk
Hospital Broadcasting in Northampton began in the early 1950s when the hospital
administrator at the time,
Stanley
Hill, broadcast live commentary of the Cobbler's home matches over the hospital's
internal radio system. On
Sunday
7th November 1971 the first faltering words were heard on Radio Titania, although there
were probably more
listeners
in the studio area than in hospital wards.
The idea for a hospital radio in the town had been floated by two lads who had already
tried and failed with a
similar
venture elsewhere. The first few months were a frantic melting pot of hare-brained ideas
and planning, but
gradually a
pattern emerged and long meetings into the early hours established a democratic
structure. Space for a studio
was provided
by an understandably cautious health authority, in the form of a vacant nurse's bedroom
on the top floor of the
old hospital
above the Billing Road entrance. These 150 square feet housed the studio, record
library, switching equipment,
office and
reception for several years until a second adjacent bedroom was also provided. The name,
of course, had to go,
being known
as "Radio Tit" was less than dignified.
For 12 years the station, which had become Radio Nene Valley, began to build itself a
reputation and a niche
within its role of providing a service to the community. In 1983 we moved to a brand-new
broadcast suite
(formerly the hospital kitchens). As hospital radio stations go, we're proud to be one
of the best resourced
with two presentation suites, interview studio, media library, reception area, workshop,
store and offices.
Our accommodation isn't the only thing to have changed since the 1970s. From somewhat
bodged together domestic
hi-fi equipment our current studios are based around professional broadcast equipment.
During Fifty years of piloting the airwaves we've had the luxury of trying many
different types of programmes.
Our schedules are ever changing to make sure we continue to reflect listener trends and
provide interesting,
informative and most importantly, fun interactive radio.
Money is obviously important to Radio Nene Valley, we need to generate in excess of
£3,000 per year in order to
keep our service ticking over, let alone expand into additional broadcast hours, invest
in equipment or produce
more innovative programming.
This revenue is raised through our own fundraising efforts. We also welcome donations
from anybody interested in
the work we do and encourage local and national companies to support our efforts through
Programme Sponsorship.
This has already proved successful, but it's an area which we hope to expand in the
future. If your company may
be interested in such a venture, or you know somebody who may be, then encourage them to
write to our Chairman,
Kevin Askew, for an information pack. After all, it costs nothing to ask. Over the
years, Radio Nene Valley has
become a much-respected service within the local community and its work is often praised
by both the listeners
and governing bodies alike. We've collected a tidy number of awards including the
mayor’s award for Community
Service and an award in the Chronicle & Echo New Year's Honours List for our outstanding
service and support to
the community. Its thanks like this, along with the warm response we get when visiting
the wards to collect
requests, that helps make it all worthwhile. Our membership is made up of around 25
unpaid volunteers who come
from all walks of life and range from school leavers to pensioners, this in turn is
reflected within our
extensive range of programmes and music. Every week we work hard at keeping our public
profile as high as
possible as the average stay of a patient is only a few days.
Those who've been associated with the station since the early days are proud that their
pioneering work
continues to go from strength to strength and whilst the people and programmes change
over the years our goal
remains the same and we think we've got what we're doing just about right.
