It's quite the achievement to be recognised for 50 years service, in 2020 this milestone was reached by Hospital Broadcasting Service (HBS)
I joined HBS age 18 , part of the Friday night team as a request collector. I was lucky to be invited to attend a civic reception at Glasgow City Chambers to mark this, which as most events, had been pushed back 2 years during the pandemic. I was reunited with old colleagues, to celebrate this occasion, reminisce and hear about their current work. HBS is one of a few hundred radio stations in UK providing a radio service to hospital patients. The main hospital sites they serve are Queen Elizabeth University, Gartnavel General, Royal Alexandria(RAH) and The Beatson.
During my time at the station HBS weren't broadcasting over the internet at any hospital site, programmes are now broadcast 24 hours a day, though some of this is by automated system. We were different teams on various rotas , my job was request collection in the RAH in Paisley , then I took the request back to the station in Glasgow, looked out the songs and gave it to the presenter to be play. Going about the ward, meeting with patients. they were happy to have a chat, some don't get a lot of visitors so I'd make time to chat. After a few years I suggested an idea for sports news to be added to Friday show,I moved onto producing the sports content. HBS is privately funded, so to raise money we ran a number fundraising events. I was part of a team still just halfway through their development, now they broadcast online, they've come a long way.
The work at HBS helped shape my career, for someone looking to get in to radio, I would recommend hospital radio as a good place to start. HBS is still going strong after 50 years, I look forward to their next milestone and to follow their developments, perhaps a visit to the studios soon.
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