The Isle of Wight

Hospital Broadcasting Association.

Station History.

Bringing Music, Dedications & Local news to the bedside.

The Start of the Association

It all started when a group of people got together over the summer of 1971 to discuss the possibility of forming a hospital broadcasting service on the Isle of Wight. Mr Lyon of BBC Radio Solent offered expert advice and after discussions with St. Mary's hospital everything started to progress. Fund-raising began and donations started coming in from organisations and companies on the Island, as well as individuals.

A view of the workhouse. With the HBA studios in the mid-right wing.

The Friends of St. Mary's Hospital donated £300. The senior training officer of 'Messrs Plessey' offered to ask his apprentices to build a ten channel mixer unit which would be needed for the station to operate. Suitable accommodation was found ( a small ground floor box room in the old Victorian workhouse part of the hospital) and six months work began on building soundproof walls and on installing double glazing.

Equipment started to arrive and the volunteer engineering staff which included Plessey apprentices started to install it under the direction of Mr Barker, one of the technical engineers of the BBC transmitting station at Rowridge. For the last two weeks volunteers worked around the clock to have everything ready for the start of broadcasting and a visit by the Earl Mountbatten of Burma, Governor of the Isle of Wight. At 3.00pm on the 2nd February 1972 the Isle of Wight hospital broadcasting associations studio went 'on air' for the first time and at 3.35pm the voice of Earl Mountbatten (who had arrived a short while earlier) was heard by patients and staff of St. Mary's. He gave a congratulatory message and best wishes to all the patients.

The Early Studio.

During the broadcast, the Earl Mountbatten of Burma recalled an event some 40 years earlier. When, as Fleet Wireless Officer of the Mediterranean, he had been asked by the Commander-in-Chief to arrange for the whole fleet to hear the King's broadcast to the Empire on Christmas Day. There were no means of receiving the BBC transmission directly in Malta. It was achieved by building one of the "new fangled " short wave sets and re-transmitting it to the fleet.

A few weeks later on the 17th March, the Isle of Wight County Press published a report on the associations AGM. It was noted that there was a financial balance of £172.33 and donations totalling £779.80 had been received during the previous year. Mr J Barker, station engineer reported that since the opening there had been only one problem.... when it had been discovered that they had been 'switched off' somewhere in the hospital and had been broadcasting for three days to 'thin air'.

The committee for that first year of broadcasting (1973) read as follows; Life president, Earl Mountbatten of Burma; Vice president, Mr Keech; Chairman, Mr Lyon; Hon secretary, Miss C Russell; Hon treasurer, Mr Bunnell; Engineer, Mr Baker; Administrator, Mr F Primmer; Programme organiser, Mr Holbrook; Station director, Mr J Primmer; Presentation manager, Mr Cherrill; Ast Studio director, Mr Rayburn; Ast engineer, Mr Chubb; Public relations officer, Mr Leppard.

HBA's 2nd Birthday Party. Mayor of Medina Councillor George King {left}, Nursing Staff, and DJ Peter Bradley.

Over the following years the service was extended to include Whitecroft Hospital and then The Royal Isle of Wight County Hospital. In 1975 Frank James hospital, after a period of refurbishment, also started to receive programmes.

Sadly, some years later, the station played a key role in covering the Islands memorial service on the death of our president, and Island Governor at the hands of IRA terrorists.

Members of:-

Contact us for more details.... UK 01983 534396

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This document and site is maintained for The Isle of Wight Hospital Broadcasting Association (I.O.W.H.B.A).
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