George Holland (or "The Hairy Cornflake" to his friends) and David Rees both work for Epsom Hospital Radio. I have been a guest of George twice at the station. On my second visit (on 2nd November 2003), I had the pleasure of also meeting David. George and David are both occasional sports reporters for BBC Southern Counties Radio. I have incorporate a sports page on SCRAPS with a link to David Rees's sports website. Have a look here.

George has kindly sent me an invaluable and wonderful article about radio broadcasting and how you can get involved. You may desperately want to get into hospital radio yourself, have your sights set on other regional radio stations or be aiming for the BBC. Whatever the case, you can't do better than start here. Read on ......

My early radio listening memories go back to the 1970s when I used to go to bed listenig to Radio Luxembourg's Top 40 programme on Sundays and Tuesdays. Radio One also provided me with my weekly fix of the charts twice a week. In fact, quite a few presenters with Radio One started their radio careers with pirate stations such as Luxembourge, Radio Jackie and Radio London. Even Screaming Lord Sutch had his own pirate radio station - Radio Sutch. The Radio One charts songs were performed so brilliantly on Top of the Pops in those days. Who can forget Legs & Co who became Pans People and then Ruby Flipper.

My curiosity in to how radio works grew over the years, listening to various stations. One or two friends attained jobs at various local radio stations, some of them presenting shows at Epsom Hospital Radio. I even had the pleasure of listening to Epsom Hospital Radio while I spent a long weekend in Epsom Hospital back in 1988. Visits to various Radio Stations around the world and my short term stay in Epsom Hospital fuelled my curiosity still further.

I discovered that Epsom Hospital Radio started life as Radio South in October 1978, from a shed on the roof at the hospital. It then moved to a corner of the Woodcote Road car park, in a portakabin. The portakabin then moved to its present site by the tennis courts, still near the Woodcote Road block and with a name change to Epsom District Hospital Radio before it became Epsom Hospital Radio. In July 1999 we celebrated our 21st anniversary at the Playhouse Theatre in Epsom, with 400 people enjoying an Elvis, Roy Orbison, Buddy Holly and Meatloaf tribute night.

We are now looking forward to celebrating our 25th anniversary this October. Being a voluntary run registered charity, we rely on donations and funds raised from outside broadcast events. So if you are interested in booking our outside broadcast equipment with professional presenters, or joining us, we are always on the look out for new members. Full presenter training is given. We also need producers, engineers, tech-ops, ward walkers who obtain requests from patients, visitors and staff including admin staff. A £5 membership fee is charged per year.

The last piece of the jigsaw of EHR is now in place as we closed down our old portakabin studio in June 2000, sold our old mixing desk and with a kind donation from The Friends of The Hospital of a newly donated portakabin, we relaunched with a brand new mixing desk in February 2001. I have had some top name celebrity guests on my shows such as Sir Norman Wisdom, Doc Cox, Ray Lewis - a referee, and a few local sports personalities. I currently present the 6-8pm Sunday show. Our hospital radio can only be heard internally but some hospital radio stations can be heard in surrounding areas on short wave frequencies. Some even obtain short term licences to celebrate anniversaries.

Hospital radio comes under the umbrella of the Hospital Broadcasting Association and we get together twice a year for HBA conferences. Britain, Holland and Japan can boast having hospital radio in most of their hospitals but, surprisingly, Canada and USA do not have this at the moment. And, surprising, until recently most people in USA had never heard of such an entertainment for patients. But they think it a very good idea, so watch this space.

The origins of hospital radio in this country are a bit sketchy but having read a few hospital radio patient guides produced over the years, it would appear that at a football match at Fratton Park in Portsmouth a policeman stood on a wall and phoned back to the local hospital with commentary of the match. This happened in around 1947. So music and sport has certainly been the best medicine for quite a while.

Many presenters on professional full time radio stations (grown up radio) still present on their own local hospital radios and many presenters on the hospital radios harbour ambitions to go full time themselves. So, if you just want to do it as a hobby or get into the world of talking on the airwaves to millions, then why not give it a go?

I have helped on other hospital radios, I have presented on short term local community radio stations and taken part in many radio phone-ins. Also, it is good to listen to different stations, talk to people in radio, visit as many radio stations as possible, offer to help with admin, reading the papers live, make the tea, do work experience and even offer to help with the sports shows on location and in the studio. And, more importantly, attend courses. The BBC run some excellent courses and provide work experience. You can find details of their courses on the BBCi website. Try this BBC link as a starting point and navigate to the area that suits you. Also, join the Radio Academy, read the Guardian Media Section for vacancies, subscribe to Radio magazine and read Broadcast newspaper on Fridays for tips, ideas, jobs, articles and a general view of the industry.

Hospital radio is the best way to start, get noticed and then work your way up. A lot of people have heard me on various radio stations, BBC Southern Counties Radio sport and SCR newspaper reviews, Crystal Palace FC Matchday Radio, South London Radio, Flame AM Radio to name but a few. It is good fun, you meet a lot of people including celebrities and you learn a lot about yourself.

"Your voice is coming from my radio" is a quote from one of Ed Douglas's older listeners when he presented a show on Sunday afternoons on BBC SCR/Solent, he used it as a trailer to his show quite a few times.

You never know, one day your voice could be coming from my radio!

George Holland, contactable at .....
01737 350198 Home
01372 735735 ext 6333 Epsom Hospital Radio