Radio station seeks new members By Sol Mead

Mid Downs Hospital Radio (MDR) with studios at the Princess Royal Hospital is seeking to recruit new members to participate in the running of the station including becoming presenters. The station broadcasts to patients, visitors and staff across the PRH complex on 1350AM. It also can be heard online around the world through the MDR website and also via the TuneIn app and Amazon’s Alexa with programmes that include music, entertainment, news and community and health information.

The station has been broadcasting for 46 years and is a charity registered with the charity commission and is run entirely by unpaid volunteers. We now want to recruit more people to get involved in different elements of the station’s operations ranging from managing its finances through to production and technical work in maintaining our broadcasting services, in addition to new presenters.

MDR’s track record of recruiting new presenters shows that many people join us without any experience of putting together a radio show, talking over a microphone or operating a studio desk, but with our hands on training they have gone on to present their own show and take part in outside events. Many presenters who have joined hospital radio have also gone on to make a career in radio/television, which shows that hospital radio has long been the starting point for well-known broadcasters. For instance, Charlotte Wright, who is Political Editor on BBC TV South East, started out with MDR. Anyone interested in volunteering with MDR please contact John O’Sullivan on membership@mdr.org. uk. There is also further information on the website: www.mdr.org.uk