History
By Meridian Radio stalwart, Mike Bartlett.
The early years.
Originally what was to become hospital radio was not a planned event. Members of Friends of hospitals in the areas of Woolwich and Greenwich were separately trying to create a light musical entertainment on the ward. This took various forms, often with acapella singing or a couple of acoustic instruments and a vocalist entertaining the patients. In those days of course a patient’s stay in hospital was normally much longer than today in addition to convalescence often following an operation or illness.
However, recorded music was the future and enterprising young men like some of our earliest members Frank Blaby and Bert French were already looking to the future. The main hospitals involved at that time were The Brook and The Memorial Hospitals, both on Shooters Hill, although other hospitals were doing something similar across the country. A very confident band of individuals would take turns to visit wards at both of these hospitals to play recordings and talk about the music they played. Sometimes an old wind up gramophone that played large shellac discs at seventy eight revolutions per minute (they were known as 78’s) was used, but both tape players and the more familiar vinyl records became more common.
This was extended to include the showing of cine film, often silent and photograph displays with a talk. Eventually a Photography Club was formed in addition to a Gramophone Club.
The photography club mainly at the Brook hospital occupied a room beneath one of the wards where the birth of broadcasting within that hospital began to take shape. Unfortunately we have little detail of this initial growth at the Brook Hospital but we know that members produced Radio and TV shows that were broadcast to the wards. The TV was mainly chat and news and items similar to those shown on the wards as cine film, but now with a sound track.
At the same time the Gramophone Club had succeeded in wiring the wards to enable them to play recorded music from a central point to headphones and in some cases speakers around the Memorial Hospital wards.
An alliance was soon on the cards between the two factions, by sharing their expertise and manpower they could bring greater coverage with further benefit to patients supplying programmes to both hospitals.
The Brook Hospital TV & Radio Club and The Memorial Hospital Radio Friends were to become The Woolwich Hospitals Broadcasting Service (WHBS) in the early 1960’s. Funded mainly by their respective hospitals Leagues of Friends the programmes would travel from one hospital to the other via a GPO (now British Telecom) land line. Equipment consisted of headphones known as David Browns which would not have looked out of place in a second world war film. They were heavy but they did the job however the engineer of the time Bob Froomes really had his work cut out.
The Royal Herbert Military Hospital was placed midway between the two hospitals on Shooters Hill and at their request were brought on stream to enjoy what was now the radio station with the call sign WHBS. They in turn paid for their own connection and landline.
The studio at the Memorial Hospital was to become the main area of broadcasts. Students from Erith Technical College volunteered and constructed a purpose made building in a courtyard at that hospital for the League of Friends. It was equipped to the best standard affordable at the time with ex BBC equipment with large ‘pots’ (potentiometers or volume controls) and became nicknamed Radio Uganda by many presenters off air. Remote control for the tape machines was a piece of string and the turntables played 33rpm long players (LP’s), 45rpm singles and the old style 78’s. This studio was officially opened in 1966.
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