A look back at 1993 at Radio Heatherwood and all the events of the
year.
January to March
The year starts with another recruitment drive for staff, two adverts
are placed in the news extra on the 8th and 15th January.
The station manager posted the RHSG diary of events on the 18th
January and within two days the charity buzz is half filled and many
places are booked on all the one day trips.
On Tuesday the 19th January The Barbershop Harmony club of Staines
came in to record some selected songs and were interviewed by the
station secretary.
Roger Hawkes is appointed Team leader for Fridays.
At the end of January Dave Smith was invited along to Charters school
to speak to pupils as part of their GCSE studies. Pupils have to set
up a radio station. Copies of the code of conduct were supplied along
with the display of the Radio History files.
The Sweethearts ball organised by Tom Beaumont and Roger Hawkes was a
resounding success with all tickets sold. £877 was raised from the
ball. Captain Beaumont of Ascot Racecourse has written to the station
praising the organisation of the ball and how much he enjoyed the
evening.
This years appeal for Grand Draw Prizes has been coordinated by the
station secretary, by the end of February the station has secured nine
prizes for this years draw.
The station has increased it's staff to 24 presenters due to the
response to this years recruitment advert, this is the largest amount
of staff since 1986.
A former patient on ward three has donated £10 for another loan radio.
Mrs Oram was the patient but the husband asked that the radio be
marked in memory of Ron Challen.
Trotter's independent traders struck again on Sat 13/3 when members of
the station manned the charity market stall at Bracknell Market,
bargains on offer included Eric Clapton's Guitar, Bruce's wig, Fanny
Cradock's cooking utensils. A total of £300.21 was realised.
At the league of friends meeting on 15/3 the league agreed to take on
the responsibility for the maintenance costs of providing the loan
radio's.
The March toy fair on Friday 5/3 raised £97 for the league and £48 for
the radio. Our thanks to Taffy and Co. for their continued help.
On 2nd April 1988 Radio Heatherwood started broadcasting on the Am
band courtesy of our inductive loop frequency. We celebrate 5 years
this month in providing that service.
The new ward on the EMI unit, which will be 17/18 beds, is not added
to the inductive loop system. A failure by the hospital to grasp the
benefits of extending the system.
The bed head system on the EMI wards has no service on channel three.
It is likely this will remain for some time.
A new venue has to be fixed for the toy fairs, sadly the one's
proposed this year have to be changed. The first will be held on
Sunday 18th July 10:30 am till 3pm at Charters school Sunningdale.
This is a larger hall, it is hoped that more people will attend.
At the end of the first month of mug give-away's the response has been
encouraging and 14 mugs have been sold as a direct result.
The month of April was a busy time for ye olde secretary as a special
presentation was organised for the ladies of the trolley shop who
celebrated 21yrs of providing the trolley shop around the wards.
Gordon Young went along to the presentation representing the radio
staff on Tuesday 4/5.
The charge for using music on the bandstand this year was £15.98. A
member of the radio staff has donated the money for this. This year as
an added crowd puller to the bandstand we put up the sale of all the
records which had come in since March.
At the league of friends committee meeting of 17/5 the league approved
the purchase of further supplies of the mugs.
A new look play list has been produced and signals the change from the
old style which has been with us since 1989. The new sheet takes into
consideration the facility to offer different promotions and the
equipment check which I hope will help monitor each studio's equipment
status during every show that is broadcast.
The am service suffers at the hands of T... security( cowboys ) cut a
cable in the casualty department and don't tell anyone. They drill
through a wall severing the cable which supplies SCBU, and
Out-patients. The damage caused to the cable in A/E by T... security
has produced a bill of over £350 for the hospital to pay.
The new ward in EMI, ward 15 has the bed head units connected with one
channel not working and the other three obviously connected up wrong
and loud enough on one channel to wake the dead.
The few remaining spaces on the studio walls, get six new frames. The
frames contain pictures of each night's presenters and will be
regularly updated.
On Saturday 19/6 the Station manager and his band of cut throats at
the Bee-line, press ganged over forty pensioners into a weeks holiday
at Scarborough. Pensioners had to suffer 7 days at the hands of these
desperado's enduring quiz's, country & western singers, comedians,
and trips to local beauty spots. All these events have been captured
on a video nasty which will be available at £9.99, from your local
Bee-line bus driver. The first reports on this diabolical act, are
that the pensioners are willing to endure this again as soon as
possible.
On 28/6 Gordon Young completed five years service with the radio
station. Those who attended the skittles evening witnessed the
presentation of the long service certificate and a £10 argos voucher
awarded to Gordon and Roger. All long serving members of the station
who complete 5, 10, 15, etc. years will receive a long service
certificate.
July to September
The Toy Fair at Charters School on 18 July; visitors stood a chance of
winning a Sega Megadrive games machine donated by the Rothwell
company. The toy fair raised £200 for the league of friends the next
one will not be until December 12th.
The supporters group left for Weston-Super-Mare on Sunday 25/7 and
apart from the high winds a good time was had by all. The sandwiches
at lunch time though really did contain Sand in the wiches and in the
hair and in the eye's and in the parts that other beers cannot reach.
On Saturday 7/8 Kathleen on ward 4 handed over 53 gold seal batteries
as a donation, her daughter in law bought them in and suggested we
made some money on them. We reciprocated with a mug and a booklet.
The bandstand proved a real winner for the sale of records and
bric-a-brac: £116.64 raised from the sales. The draw tickets only
realised sales of £88.60 which is a lot lower than in previous years.
The weather was good and I'm sure all those who were there for the day
enjoyed the experience.
3M donated £50 . " oooh Carla Davis was responsible " for
bringing the cause to their attention.
Due to the success of the charity stall in March this year, we have
booked the stall at Bracknell market for Saturday 26th March 1994.
" Ooh Carla Davis " has finally been given the title of Team
leader for Tuesdays after months of trainee status. We wish her well
in her new role and hope that she will stay for many years to come.
When selling tickets people would often just slap some money on the
table and say here is a donation.We would write out tickets for the
children's ward.Their chances of winning a prize were greatly
improved.It was nice to see they benefitted this year.
A competition to find the best Grand Draw jingle, results in some
enterprising entries.
The results of the best grand Draw jingles this year:-
Rene Yvette - Total 180 votes
54321 let's rock - Total 157 votes
Announcer - Total 121 votes
Mastermind - Total 107 votes
All those presenters involved with this years Grand Draw Jingles
received a special certificate.
Sunday 19/9 and a coach load of pensioners were kidnapped to be fed to
the lions at Longleat.
On Monday 13/9 the AGM of the league took place, no surprises apart
from the departure of Gavin Fawkes the former chairman who has retired
from the league.
A second letter has been received from Daisy Latham 13/9, impressed
with our service she has just done a collection for a friend who sadly
passed away. A sum of £16 which was left over from the flowers
purchased, she has persuaded the relatives to have a loan radio in the
name of their loved one ( Rose Pedrick ).
A letter has been received 13/9 from Mrs Dorothy Portsmouth, Please
accept enclosed cheque for £15. I should like you to put £10 towards
another radio as you did for my dear Fred.
On Saturday 9/10 a visitor to ward 8 was reminded of the wonderful
service the radio had given him whilst taking a stay on the general
wards. After taking one of our booklets he promptly handed over £10
for a loan radio to be put out on the wards with the name of Pete
Ashton.
Having survived the lions of Longleat last month the RHSG spent Sunday
17/10 touring the wilds of the Cotswold's all in the cause of Radio
Heatherwood.
The annual staff recruitment for 1994 is brought forward to October
with the advert for more volunteers being placed in the news extra
24/10.
Sunday Broadcasts Survey- ( RESULTS ) There were no obvious conclusion
from these responses: some people said scrap Sundays, some said don't;
some people said allocate cover others disagreed with this idea.
Looking at the people who have supported Sundays in the past it is
clear that it is always going to be a struggle getting cover with the
current numbers. It has, therefore, been decided to suspend Sunday
broadcasts until such time as we have adequate staff to properly cover
it. In the first week of the month, please announce on-air that there
will be no Sunday Broadcast as advertised in the booklets.
Following the huge success of this years Sweethearts ball the
organisers Tom Beaumont and Roger Hawkes have decided to stage another
ball on Friday February 11 1994. at the paddock restaurant Ascot
racecourse. The ticket price this year will be £8 ea. which will
include fish chips, or chicken & chips plus a sweet and a free
glass of wine. The services of Mark Porch and his "strolling
players" "skint til Pay-day " will be the local band
providing a varied music choice. The disco " Big Sound
experience" with Ricky rhythm should once again provide a
contrast of entertainment to suit all tastes.
Tom Beaumont former member of Fridays has decided he can no longer
live without the Friday night stonks and has decided to return on
Friday 26th November. Tom an active member in the past is the man
behind the Sweethearts ball and is due to play an active part in the
mark two version next year.
We have received another £21 from the friends and relatives for two
radios in memory of Kathleen Liddel who passed away recently: she was
a regular visitor to the hospital.
The Victoria hall fund has responded to our request for assistance
this year by donating £225 for the first years Radio Authority
licence.
Thursday 18th November was a really bad night for Kevin because it
slipped his mind that a patient on ward one had passed him an envelope
for the station controller. It wasn't until the Saturday evening when
Dave almost threw it away: we then realized a donation of £250 was
contained. This donation is the highest ever received from a patient
listening to the service. It also transpires that he was the mug
winner on the Tuesday evening. The patient responsible was Lee Perkins
of Slough.
Saturday 11/12 a cheque for £30 for three radios in memory of Betty
Lacinski this brings the total units sponsored for the year to 11.
Saturday 18/12/93 and Fred Henniker in once again on ward 3 and
donated another £1.
The Grand Draw Raised Gross £1568.80 Nett £1314.32
The charity buzz was started in 1987, this year the charity
buzz went to Great Yarmouth. 88 trippers on two coaches had a
grand day out all in aid of Radio Heatherwood.