Radio Clatterbridge is a community hospital radio station based at Clatterbridge Health Park, Wirral, UK. It is also a registered UK charity. The station notably carried the earliest surviving recorded broadcast

interview An interview is a structured conversation where one participant asks questions, and the other provides answers.Merriam Webster DictionaryInterview Dictionary definition, Retrieved February 16, 2016 In common parlance, the word "interview" re ...

with

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. It is one of the oldest

radio station Radio broadcasting is the broadcasting of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based rad ...

s in the UK.

History

Radio Clatterbridge began life as a group of boys from a local

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. As an aid to providing some vital rest and recuperation, the boys decided to visit sick patients at Clatterbridge General Hospital. Their genius was to play them songs at their bedsides using a portable

record player A phonograph, later called a gramophone, and since the 1940s a record player, or more recently a turntable, is a device for the mechanical and analogue reproduction of sound. The sound vibration Waveform, waveforms are recorded as correspond ...

. The idea was so popular that it soon became possible to buy permanent

gramophone A phonograph, later called a gramophone, and since the 1940s a record player, or more recently a turntable, is a device for the mechanical and analogue reproduction of sound. The sound vibration waveforms are recorded as corresponding physic ...

s and "broadcast" the songs back to the patients, via a simple land-line system. Soon the new radio station was broadcasting a number of programmes every week. One of those, Sunday Spin, created musical history. Presenter Monty Lister recorded the first broadcast interview with a new up-and-coming band, called The Beatles in 1962. This was marked with a special anniversary reunion in 2002. As the Swinging Sixties moved into the Seventies, so the Radio Clatterbridge premises moved into Larch House. The station remained in these studios for nearly two decades.

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was first introduced during the late 1980s, as the station (now equipped with two studios) began playing its first

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! Before long Radio Clatterbridge was on the move again. This time it was only temporary. In 1993 the charity made its home near to St John's Hospice. The temporary move lasted for nearly a decade. Radio Clatterbridge finally made its permanent move into the old boiler house in 2001. The charity's new home had to be developed from scratch. A series of successful community grant applications enabled Radio Clatterbridge to fit a new studio for the new millennium. New

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equipment in 2003 enabled the station to do something it had never been able to do before. Radio Clatterbridge now provides a round-the-clock service to the health park.

Today

Staffed by about 30

volunteer Volunteering is an elective and freely chosen act of an individual or group giving their time and labor, often for community service. Many volunteers are specifically trained in the areas they work, such as medicine, education, or emergency ...

s, Radio Clatterbridge provides an important and unique service to patients and staff at Clatterbridge Health Park. It is heard via a landline service wards throughout Clatterbridge Hospital, Clatterbridge Centre for Oncology. In November 2011, the station began broadcasting to the remainder of the site on 1386 AM (Medium Wave). It means that for the first time, patients at St John's Hospice in the Wirral,

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and Elderholme are able to hear the service along with their visitors and staff. Ward visitors regularly collect requests which are played on air. These are supplemented by requests received from

patient A patient is any recipient of health care services that are performed by Health professional, healthcare professionals. The patient is most often Disease, ill or Major trauma, injured and in need of therapy, treatment by a physician, nurse, op ...

s' relatives around the world via the charity's website. Radio Clatterbridge also receives requests for patients via both Facebook and Twitter.

References

External links

* {{official website, http://www.radioclatterbridge.co.uk/ Charities based in Merseyside Hospital radio stations Radio stations in Merseyside