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A meeting was held in August
1974 to see if there was enough support to start a Hospital Radio
Station in Exeter. The meeting was chaired by local policeman Terry
Roberts who was a member of Plymouth Hospital Radio.
Terry had already previously
tried to start a station in Exeter at the old RD&E in Southernhay
Hospital but the Health Authority turned it down. But with the building
of a new Hospital at Wonford Terry tried again and was very determined
to start a station in the new building, this time the Health Authorities
agreed and backed Hospital Radio Exeter.
A dedicated team of people at
the meeting offered their services to make the stay of people in
Hospital more bearable through the medium of Radio plus the visiting
service that was offered by visiting the patients on all the wards and
collecting requests and dedications.
So HRE as it is fondly known
was born and a lot of fund raising had to be organised and we were well
supported by the League of Friends who gave us £500 to buy our first
mixer we went on air in December 1974.
The first broadcast from
Hospital Radio Exeter was made on the 22nd of December which was
transmitted by the use of BT Landlines to the RD&E Hospital’s in Wonford and Heavitree and then we added on the Exeter Eye Infirmary and
the Princess Elizabeth Orthopaedic Hospitals.
From the broom closet
studios, which were located in the old Wonford Hospital our programmes
were broadcast at the start for just 5 hours per week over two days
Sunday’s and Wednesday and then gradually adding on extra hours and
extra days (we now Broadcast 24 hours per day and 7 days per week) the
original studio just consisted of one broadcast studio, a very small
office, and a library; all of which covered about only 100 square feet.
With the building of the new
hospital in the early 90’s, it was clear that H.R.E. would either have
to move, or cease to be. Luckily the Hospital Trust agreed to locate us
in the new block, so it was business as usual. At the same time all the
Hospitals were located to the Wonford site and in April, 1994 H.R.E.
moved to its current location, boasting two studios, an office, racks
room, music library, and a reception area. It was a studio envied by
many other hospitals in the country (and still is). When we moved we
also decided to renew the equipment, and after a massive appeal, were
able to fit out the studio to an exceptionally high standard. We
purchased all new equipment, including 2 state-of-the-art "Alice Air
2000" mixing desks. Which are used prominently by professional stations.
In 2003 we changed our On
Air name so on the wards we broadcast as Isca Radio and provide our
service on the Patientline TV sets – our service is a free service and
all our members our volunteers with no expenses being paid at all, in
fact our members pay to belong to this unique service.
Fundraising is still an
important part of Hospital Radio and we have been lucky in the past to
obtain a lottery grant, but we still have to do all of the fund raising
to improve and maintain the service that we offer.
Our state of the art
equipment have made us very successful in creating professional
broadcasters/ journalist who started at Hospital Radio Exeter and are
now on various BBC Radio/TV and Independent Radio stations as either
Broadcasters or behind the scene plus some are working as journalists
working for various papers.
In 2008 we reverted back to our Original name:
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