WELCOME TO RUGBY HOSPITAL RADIO CHARITY NUMBER: 512419
Rugby Hospital Radio celebrates 50 years on the air
Volunteering
Contact Details
Contact Details
Are you passionate about what we're doing? Let us know! We are always looking for volunteers to help us make our vision a reality.
We need presenters, fundraisers, technical expertise, administrators and organisers to keep the charity and the station going.
You’ll bring benefit to hospital patients by helping maintain a service that provides them with information, reassurance and entertainment.
If you are able to make a regular commitment, we’d like to hear from you. Please note the minimum age for joining the service is 18.
Contact Details
Contact Details
Contact Details
Charity Number:
512419
Contact Details:
The Hospital of St.Cross
Barby Road
Rugby
Warwickshire
CV22 5PX
Telephone: 01788 663493
Email: secretary@rugbyhospitalradio.co.uk
Visit our Facebook Page.
Our History
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Our History
Our founding was in 1972 when a group of teenagers from a Rugby youth club began broadcasting to patients in St Cross. Initially, they were only able to broadcast for a couple of nights a week using disco equipment, which they had to set up and take down each time.
The broadcasting service steadily grew and in 1981 the hospital allowed the station to use a room in the roof space of the Victorian building as a permanent studio.
In 2010 we moved out of the attic to a new location on the hospital site, which has now been converted into an impressive studio, and in 2012 we celebrated our 40th anniversary.
Our Thanks
John Dawson
Our History
Supermarket Collections
We would like to express our gratitude to the local community for your generosity and goodwill in helping Rugby Hospital Radio.
If you have put some coins, or better still notes into the tins when our volunteers have been collecting at Tesco, Sainsbury's and Asda, you’ve helped keep us going, so thank you very much indeed.
Local Business Sponsors
Several local businesses sponsor programmes; their help is a valuable source of regular funding.
Our most grateful thanks to the following companies:-
John Dawson
John Dawson
John Dawson
John Dawson joined Rugby Hospital Radio in 1972 just a few months into the project.
He played a big role in developing the service into a registered charity and proper radio service with full programme schedule and held the position of ‘Station Controller’ for a number of years in the 80s.
His Wednesday evening show “Making Tracks” is the oldest RHR programme and has aired more episodes than any other. He also has another programme “Country & Folk” which started in the 1990s on Mondays. In total he has presented over 4,750 programmes on Rugby Hospital Radio and is still going.
John, along with help from wife Barbara and daughters Chris and Carolyn put in years of work building, cataloguing and maintaining our music library and database. For this reason, in John’s 50th anniversary year we are naming the library as the Dawson Library in recognition of the family's help.
John himself is receiving the first ever award for Outstanding Contribution to Rugby Hospital Radio.
Quote from Jim Austin, Chairman:
"This award for John is really well deserved. For someone to have been constantly volunteering and supporting the same charity for over 50 years is phenomenal. John has always been one of those people we can rely on for help and advice, and he always has the best interests of Rugby Hospital Radio and the patients at heart. We know he also values the support he gets from his family, so it's wonderful that we have been able to honour them all with the naming of our music library".
Latest News
John Dawson
John Dawson
Rugby Hospital Radio is broadcasting live again with a special ‘socially distanced’ arrangement. Now they are asking the public to send requests for relatives and friends in the hospital.
“The hospital management were very keen to find a safe way to bring us back to site”, says Chairman Jim Austin. “We are very grateful to site manager Janine Beddow and her team at St Cross and UHCW Trust volunteer coordinator Kristine Davies for their help.
Contact our Secretary with your requests
Telephone: 01788 663493
Email: secretary@rugbyhospitalradio.co.uk
Photo Gallery
Photo Gallery
Opening of The Richard Green Studio.
Pictured Mike O'Connor, Phil Smith, James Austin and Mavis Green.