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" ...

with

the Beatles The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatles, most influential band of al ...

. It is one of the oldest

radio station Radio broadcasting is transmission 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 radio ...

s in the UK.

History

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

youth group Youth Group is an Australian rock band based in Newtown, New South Wales. Built around the vocals of singer Toby Martin and production of Wayne Connolly, the sound of Youth Group is reminiscent of indie rock artists such as Teenage Fanclub, Pa ...

. 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, in its later forms also called a gramophone (as a trademark since 1887, as a generic name in the UK since 1910) or since the 1940s called a record player, or more recently a turntable, is a device for the mechanical and analogu ...

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

Digital technology Digital technology may refer to: * Application of digital electronics * Any significant piece of knowledge from information technology Information technology (IT) is the use of computers to create, process, store, retrieve, and exchange al ...

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

CDs The compact disc (CD) is a digital optical disc data storage format that was co-developed by Philips and Sony to store and play digital audio recordings. In August 1982, the first compact disc was manufactured. It was then released in Octo ...

! 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

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applications enabled Radio Clatterbridge to fit a new studio for the new millennium. New

computer A computer is a machine that can be programmed to Execution (computing), carry out sequences of arithmetic or logical operations (computation) automatically. Modern digital electronic computers can perform generic sets of operations known as C ...

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 a voluntary act of an individual or group freely giving time and labor for community service. Many volunteers are specifically trained in the areas they work, such as medicine, education, or emergency rescue. Others serve ...

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 Ward may refer to: Division or unit * Hospital ward, a hospital division, floor, or room set aside for a particular class or group of patients, for example the psychiatric ward * Prison ward, a division of a penal institution such as a priso ...

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,

Claire House Children's Hospice Claire House Children's Hospice is a children's hospice in Merseyside. The hospice helps seriously and terminally ill children from 0–23 years by providing specialist nursing care and emotional support. It has provided care for children and yo ...

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 healthcare professionals. The patient is most often ill or injured and in need of treatment by a physician, nurse, optometrist, dentist, veterinarian, or other health c ...

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