Conquest Hospital Radio

Broadcasting 24hrs a day 7 Days a week Across the Conquest Hospital and on-line to the world. Bringing you local community news for the East Sussex area.

About Conquest Hospital Radio

Conquest Hospital Radio is a self-funding registered charity and has been broadcasting to patients for 40 years in 2015. It started in the 1970’s and initially four enthusiasts recorded programmes at home and then broadcast them using a tape player that was installed in a cupboard at The Royal East Sussex Hospital that was in Cambridge Road near the town centre. At about the same time a similar operation began at St Helens Hospital in Frederick Road off The Ridge near Ore.

In 1976 the two groups merged and established a studio at St Helens Hospital and The Hastings and Rother Hospital Broadcasting Service was born. Soon landlines were in use taking the station to the Bexhill, Buchanan, Royal East Sussex and Eversfield Hospitals. By 1984 a suite of two studios, a music library and an office were in use at St Helens Hospital. The programmes were then made up by playing vinyl records and reel to reel tape recorders and now we use CD’s, mini discs and an automated twenty four hour computerised playout system.

So we have gone from a tape player in a cupboard to a modern day fully computerised radio studio in The Conquest Hospital on The Ridge where we moved to when the hospital opened in July 1992.

We have a dedicated team of volunteers who present programmes and outside broadcasts, visit the wards to collect and play patients requests, raise funds, maintain the record library and provide all the backroom organisation that is essential to the smooth running of the station.

Now spanning four decades Hospital Radio Hastings continues to provide comfort and entertainment for the patients of The Conquest Hospital.