solo4652 Posted January 26 Share Posted January 26 (edited) Anybody here have recent experience of hospital radio presenting? I'm struggling with it. I've recently started presenting a weekly show on my local hospital radio. Steve's Funk, soul and Groove show. It's taken quite a while to learn how to operate the desk, upload songs to the system, "clean" (adjust sound levels/clipping) song tracks before playing them and so forth. Yesterday was my third show and my co-presenter/mentor said he'd just received marketing information about listener numbers. Approximately 25 people per show. Which makes me seriously wonder whether all the time and effort is worth it. - Getting out on the wards to gather requests is not encouraged at all. Post Jimmy Saville, hospital managers are very wary of random people wandering around wards. High level of DBS needed. Ward volunteers are too busy to be the radio's outrunners, apparently. - Although requests are welcome, they are invited through the station website/chatbot, social media. I've only ever seen 3 requests come in and they were all from other presenters. - Which makes it seem that the radio station exists primarily for its presenters, rather than for hospital patients and staff. - I asked how easy it was for patients to listen to hospital radio in their beds through the bedside media monitor, "Oooh - we've had problems with the technology. Don't think it's working at the moment, actually" - If you're a patient and you want to listen to some music, you'll use Spotify or YouTube. - Much of the time, I seem to be an audio engineer rather than a presenter. Maybe I'm living in the past by thinking that Hospital Radio is/should be about contacting patients directly and playing their songs for them. Edited January 26 by solo4652 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wateroftyne Posted January 26 Share Posted January 26 3 minutes ago, solo4652 said: Anybody here have recent experience of hospital radio presenting? I'm struggling with it. I've recently started presenting a weekly show on my local hospital radio. Steve's Funk, soul and Groove show. It's taken quite a while to learn how to operate the desk, upload songs to the system, "clean" (adjust sound levels/clipping) song tracks before playing them and so forth. Yesterday was my third show and my co-presenter/mentor said he'd just received marketing information about listener numbers. Approximately 25 people per show. Which makes me seriously wonder whether all the time and effort is worth it. - Getting out on the wards to gather requests is not encouraged at all. Post Jimmy Saville, hospital managers are very wary of random people wandering around wards. High level of DBS needed. Ward volunteers are too busy to be the radio's outrunners, apparently. - Although requests are welcome, they are invited through the station website/chatbot, social media. I've only ever seen 3 requests come in and they were all from other presenters. - Which makes it seem that the radio station exists primarily for its presenters, rather than for hospital patients and staff. - I asked how easy it was for patients to listen to hospital radio in their beds through the bedside media monitor, "Oooh - we've had problems with the technology. Don't think it's working at the moment, actually" - If you're a patient and you want to listen to some music, you'll use Spotify or YouTube. - Much of the time, I seem to be an audio engineer rather than a presenter. Maybe I'm living in the past by thinking that Hospital Radio is/should be about contacting patinets directly and playing their songs for them. I've emboldened what I consider to be your answer. Onwards and upwards, as they say. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SumOne Posted January 26 Share Posted January 26 (edited) I think it might have had it's day. You'd probably be better off on an internet funk and soul station that can reach global audiences (Something like: https://funky.radio/) or record shows and upload them to somewhere like soundcloud, or have a focus on specific artist/label with interviews/info each week and record it as a podcast series that you put on spotify. It doesn't take much home equipment nowadays, I used to do an electronic music internet radio show - just basically needed to hook up the decks and mic to the computer with a decent internet conncection, could see live chat and who/where were listening and interact. Right now, I'm listeing to a Reggae recorded radio show https://dubmatix.podbean.com/, he's also got it available on 40x various other internaet radio stations that schedule the show (sindication I guess). I don't know how many 100s of listeners that'd pick up via streaming, but there are >2,000 downloads from most of his weekly shows, so I guess the total of listeners per show is well into the 10,000's and global. Saying that though, I'd imagine that Hospital radio with the traditional radio station operating the desk, working live with audience participation etc. is still probably a good route to local radio and is a different experience than recording a show. Edited January 26 by SumOne Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
casapete Posted January 26 Share Posted January 26 Some good points above. I would add that the availability of bedside televisions to many patients now will have impacted upon radio listening figures. Am guessing these will also have access to internet radio too. 😕 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigRedX Posted January 26 Share Posted January 26 I was involved with Student Radio in 1979/1980 and if it wasn't for the fact that the programs were also piped directly into the student union common room and bar, a broadcast audience of 25 would have been something we could only dream of. So in some ways nothing much has changed. However both Student and Hospital Radio have always been great ways to learn both the technical aspects of putting together a program and presentation. That's something I think many producers of podcasts and internet "radio" would benefit from. As a listener nothing puts me off quicker than mis-matched levels and poor presentation technique. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
solo4652 Posted January 26 Author Share Posted January 26 31 minutes ago, SumOne said: I think it might have had it's day. You'd probably be better off on an internet funk and soul station that can reach global audiences (Something like: https://funky.radio/) or record shows and upload them to somewhere like soundcloud, or have a focus on specific artist/label with interviews/info each week and record it as a podcast series that you put on spotify Perhaps I should say that the main reason I was interested in Hospital radio was to do some voluntary work with my spare time, for the good of others. I'm not really interested in reaching a global audience with my own show via podcasts or Spotify recordings. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TimR Posted January 26 Share Posted January 26 Stream it live. Have cards around the wards. Have phone ins. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
solo4652 Posted February 13 Author Share Posted February 13 (edited) Update: Decision made - I've told the radio station that it's not for me. For the most part, I enjoyed presenting the shows, and the banter with my co-presenter/mentor. I haven't enjoyed the sound engineering aspects, however. You were expected to choose the songs from the station's stockpile of 68,000 songs. That done, you'd have to listen to each chosen song and "clean" it to check for sound levels and possible clipping, using Audacity. During the show, there would be an almost anal concentration on the clock to ensure you weren't running over or under time, even though the clever desk would make automatic allowances for that. It would have all been worth it if there was anybody listening. But, there wasn't, and I couldn't see any viable plan to engage patients and staff more. Last week I did a show and, as I left, I found myself thinking' "Well, that went pretty well but, really, what was the point of that?" So, I've said Thanks, but no thanks. Edited February 13 by solo4652 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
acidbass Posted February 13 Share Posted February 13 Sounds like good experience for someone if they wanted to pursue a career in local radio or beyond. I would suggest that your reasoning of helping the community might be better served by another activity however! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
solo4652 Posted February 13 Author Share Posted February 13 1 hour ago, acidbass said: Sounds like good experience for someone if they wanted to pursue a career in local radio or beyond. I would suggest that your reasoning of helping the community might be better served by another activity however! Yep. Helping out at a Bike Repair Cafe next week. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.