In 1966, a group of friends – mainly in their late teens and 20s – decided to get together to
do something in their spare time for the community.
After long discussions, it was decided that they would work in pairs to visit hospital patients who would
otherwise have no visitors.
This situation occurred especially during the summer months when holidaymakers being taken ill during their
stay were left behind by families and friends who had to return home.
The group approached the hospital authorities to discuss their project and were met with great enthusiasm.
In order to try to reach as many patients as possible, the idea of a closed-circuit broadcasting system was
born, and when it was discovered that a few areas of the country already had their own hospital radio
systems in place, meetings with some of them were arranged.
The Hospital Authority agreed to provide accommodation, originally at Devonshire Road hospital, but then
decided there would be more room available at Victoria Hospital.
And so it was that in February 1967, the group of friends took over three rooms in the hospital basement,
to begin transforming them into Victoria’s very own radio station.
One room was to be divided into two small studios, another into a record library, with the third room
becoming a reception area.
This proved to be a mammoth task for the original group of friends, and so an article was published in the
Evening Gazette to attract additional volunteers to help with all the painting, joinery, electrical and
building work necessary to fit out the new studios.
When the work was complete, the studio was linked to the existing radio equipment which had been relaying
football commentaries from Bloomfield Road since 1953 to patients in Victoria, Devonshire Road and La
Sagesse (now South Shore) hospitals.
On the first Saturday in August 1967 everyone was ready to greet Ken Dodd, who had agreed to officially
open the new Radio Victoria.
Much to everybody’s relief, all went well and Doddy stayed most of the afternoon, talking on the radio
and visiting the children’s wards where he distributed his famous tickling sticks to the kids!
Radio Victoria’s studios were again refurbished in 1979 and the station welcomed another local
celebrity, Violet Carson (better known as Coronation Street“s Ena Sharples), to re-open them.
And four years ago, the studios were moved lock, stock and barrel from their original basement home to make
way for Victoria Hospital’s multi-million pound Phase 5 development.
We now broadcast from more compact, but more modern, premises elsewhere on the Victoria Hospital site, and
our thanks go to a number of local and national companies – including Tesco, Yorkshire Building Society and
BNFL – who generously contributed to our fundraising efforts to buy new broadcasting equipment for the new
studio.
If you have any past photographs of Radio Victoria or of past presenters, please contact us (studio@radiovictoria.org.uk).
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