Victoria Infirmary Radio History |
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For many years, the patients of the Victoria Infirmary could hear Paisley Hospital Radio coming through their bedside headphones but, after a while, the radio system fell into a state of disrepair and Paisley HR did not have sufficient funds to bring it back up to scratch. Sadly, in 1990, Paisley Hospital Radio closed down due to an absence of financial backing, which left the Vicky without any radio at all. Five years later, in June 1995, radio enthusiast Alan Hall was visiting his mother in the Victoria Infirmary and noticed the bedside radio units. Curiosity drove him to have a listen to hear if there was any sound coming through the headphones. Unfortunately, there was nothing to be heard, and this gave Alan the idea to start up his own hospital radio station.
The first step he had to take was to write to the Trust to see if they liked the idea of having an internal radio service. Luckily they did, and a survey of the patients and staff found that such a service would be appreciated. However, Alan had to find a team of volunteers to get the staion up and running, as it would be too much of a challenge to take on himself. Many weeks of blood, sweat and tears went into actually getting VIR "on the air"Meanwhile, six experienced hospital radio members were on the lookout for a hospital that did not have a radio station so that one could be set up. A couple of hospitals were contacted, one of which was the Victoria Infirmary who told the aforementioned six people that Alan Hall was looking for a team. Everyone met at the Trust HQ and the core staff of Victoria Infirmary Radio, as it was soon to be known as, was born. We were promptly given a room in the old nurses home to set up the radio station which, at the time, housed our studio, office and reception area. Many weeks of blood, sweat and tears went into actually getting VIR "on the air". About half a mile of cable was laid between our studio and the main control panel in the basement of the hospital, every single handset in the wards was repaired to receive two radio channels and the dayroom speakers were repaired ready to begin test transmissions. The first ever VIR programme was broadcast on the night of the 30th September 1995The first ever VIR programme was broadcast on the night of the 30th September 1995, with the first ever record played being “Feelin’ Groovy” by Simon and Garfunkel. Many hours of programmes continued after that with presenters bringing in their own music as we did not have any of our own. The ever poular request show had its first airing a few weeks later, and the first request played on that was “Coward of the County” by Kenny Rogers. The station kept broadcasting for many months from our makeshift studio until we received a generous grant of £20,000 from the Greater Glasgow Health Board Lottery to buy brand new studio equipment. This we did and were able to build a brand new state of the art studio. The makeshift studio was been converted into a fully functional production studio, used for making trailers and jingles and for reading the news. It could even be used for running separate programmes from our new studio!
On September 2nd 1996, we had what even to this date was one of our most important functions. We invited various members of the hospital staff, as well as people from the community to our official openening. The ceremony, including Plaque unvieling was kindly carried out by Derek and Ellen Jameson (of BBC Radio Two at the time). The evening was a tremendous success, with Derek and Ellen enjoying themselves also - they stayed to participate in our request programme, reading out the record dedications. It had taken a year to get this far, but the work had only just begun... See also: The Photo Gallery for pictures of the studios today |
