After 58 years of local broadcasting, Crewe’s hospital radio station will end on Sunday, marking the end of an era that has given much to patients, the community, local and national radio and overall given great pleasure to the more than 440 presenters and technical staff who have been involved with it, writes Stewart Green).
Programmes have included celebrity interviews, carol services, quiz nights, coverage of local events, Crewe Alexandra FC home matches to both bed-ridden hospital patients and the blind at the Gresty Road stadium, talking to local people and most of all the many request programmes delivered each week to give messages to patients in the Crewe Memorial, Coppenhall and Leighton hospitals.
Started in 1966 as an experimental one-off football commentary, it evolved into a regular broadcast on 7th January 1967 when it started covering Crewe Alex home matches, with equipment loaned by the North Staffs Hospital Broadcasting Service.
In November 1968 it started broadcasting regular programmes from a new studio, featuring requests from patients.
The new shows included all the features the station has continued to broadcast. A request programme, interviews with local people and the start of an annual mayor’s interview, which was originally the Crewe mayor changing to more recent times when it became the mayor of Cheshire East. The schedule only slowed down when covid struck the world and forever changed the way programmes were made and broadcast.
New technology and other changes over the years within the hospital have meant a decrease in listener figures to a point where it is not worth broadcasting to so few and it was decided to close the station.
The football commentaries will continue as the equipment at Gresty Road, will still provide commentaries for the blind supporters who attend the matches, and there are podcasts and local community stations in the area.
On Sunday, the final schedule will start at 11.30am with a special programme looking back over the years of broadcasts including archives from some of the first studio shows, celebrity interviews, concert recordings and some of those many presenters who have appeared on the station.
At 1pm Dave Roberts will present his final show of music memories followed by the final football commentary from Gresty Road when Crewe take on Bromley.
At 5pm Ben Ridsdale, the current chair of the society, will broadcast until 7pm when the final programme will be a nostalgic look back at the broadcasting lives of some of the presenters – Stewart Green, Bob Squirrell, Linda Rose and Dave Roberts and others – join together for one last live broadcast.
Hospital Radio is only available on the Leighton Hospital wi-fi system.
People can log onto the patient wi-fi network, which gives them free access to the internet, and search for listen.radioleighton.org.uk.
