| The
Story of Radio Tyneside |
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 The Idea Is Born
It was back in early 1950
that six Newcastle United fans were sitting
in a pub when they came up with an idea of broadcasting match
commentaries to the Royal
Victoria Infirmary which was conveniently
situated just around the corner from St James' Park.
This was already going on in another part of the country where match
commentaries were either broadcast live or recorded and
re-broadcast
later in the evening.
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 The
First Broadcast
An
approach to the club resulted in a 'yes' and the first match was
broadcast live on Saturday
6th October 1951. Newcastle took on
Wolverhampton Wanderers and beat them 2-1.
Today
those commentaries are still broadcast but now to four hospitals
in Newcastle and Gateshead and also the commentary is relayed across
the ground to the seating areas which houses the blind and partially
sighted fans.
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 A
Weekly Request Show
Over
the years the station expanded and in the sixties we obtained a
small room above the old Rediffusion
shop in the centre of the city
where a weekly request show was broadcast by two of the commentators,
Frank Lowery
and Tom Taylor,
using records borrowed for the occasion
from a local record store.
Sadly Tom died in 1966 but others took his place and the request
programme continued its success.
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 Moving
to the Newcastle
General
In 1970,
Radio Tyneside was offered the old workhouse in the Newcastle
General Hospital. Size-wise this was like a palace
compared to the room
they had, but it did need a lot of work doing to it before it could be
used for broadcasting programmes.
Fundraising
took place and money was raised to convert the building and
within six months the request programme moved to the General. At the
same time the service was connected to the wards in the General and
also to the Hunters Moor
and Sandringham hospitals.
Other
programmes were introduced including folk and classical music,
the latter being presented by the then arts reporter for the Evening
Chronicle, Phil Penfold.
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 On Air in
Gateshead
A couple of years later the service was connected to hospitals 'over
the water' in Gateshead. The Queen
Elizabeth, Dunston
Hill, Bensham
General and Wickham
Cottage. Over the years these hospitals closed and
moved into an extended Queen
Elizabeth Hospital. Likewise, Sandringham Hospital
in Newcastle was closed when the Freeman
Hospital was built.
In 1973, under new management, Radio Tyneside started recruiting
volunteers that allowed the station to increase its broadcasting hours.
By 1975 it was on air seven days a week every evening and all day at
weekends. |
 The 30th
Anniversary
As the years went by the volunteers worked hard to raise money and by
the time of the station's 30th anniversary in 1981 had raised
sufficient money to refurbish its studios with state of the
art equipment.
In celebration of the thirtieth anniversary, the station did a
60-hour non-stop
sponsored broadcast raising £3000.
Over the next ten years, Radio Tyneside went from strength to strength
increasing the number of volunteers and the hours of broadcasting,
including a breakfast show. |
 Redevelopment
It was in 1990 that the station decided to raise £35000 to completely
gut, rebuild and refurbish its building which would include two
studios. Permission was granted by the hospital authority to go ahead
with the plans. At the outset the volunteers were not too confident
that this money could be raised but by the end of the year the station
was 75% of the way there. It was decided to go ahead with the
plans and they were helped on their way by a kind offer from local
building company Mears Construction to do the structural changes at a
reduced cost.
Work started in February 1991 and all the station's programmes were
broadcast from a small studio set up at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital
in
Gateshead. |
 Simon Bates
Opens
the Studios
More money was raised as the work progressed and, although not all of
the £35000 was raised, the station managed to achieve what they wanted
and the studios were ready by September 1991, allowing full time to
redecorate and train the staff in time for the 40th Anniversary
celebration in October.
The official opening of the refurbished studio centre was performed by
BBC Radio 1 presenter Simon Bates in 1992. |
 Medium Wave
Service Begins
The next big event in the history of Radio Tyneside came in early 1997
when the station was invited by the Radio Authority, along with Stoke
Mandeville Hospital Radio in Aylesbury, to run an experiment of
broadcasting hospital radio to the patients and staff via an AM
transmitter.
The experiment got up and running in the November and it was also the
start of 24 hour broadcasting by the organisation, made
possible
by purchasing a smart piece of computer technology called Myriad from a
company called PSquared. This was another expensive period for the
station having to buy the transmission equipment required. Again, local
businesses, the WRVS and the League of Friends in the hospitals helped
us pay for it all.
The investment paid off when the Radio Authority announced the
experiment had been a success and offered Radio Tyneside a five year
licence to continue the AM broadcasts. This type of broadcasting has
been welcomed by both the patients and staff.
|
 The
50th Anniversary
In October 2001 we celebrated a milestone - 50 years of broadcasting!
We had a weekend of special live programmes followed by a birthday
party where many of the people who have been associated with Radio
Tyneside were invited.
There was even a taxi painted with our logo which could still be seen
driving around Newcastle a few years after our birthday!
Fourteen years on since the introduction of the 1575AM broadcasts
we are broadcasting online and also have an app on the iPhone, another
way of hearing the station. |
 Leaving the
General
Hospital
The biggest change to affect Radio Tyneside took place in May 2009.
Since 1970 we had broadcast from the Newcastle General Hospital
but we
had known for a while that we were going to have to move because of
redevelopment of the hospital site. Initially we were told that we
would be moved to the RVI
and would be in the old porters lodge at the
entrance from Queen Victoria Road.
Then then bombshell came when we were told this would not now happen as
the lodge was to be used for other purposes. Back to square one as the
Estates Department searched for suitable premises. |
 New
Broadcasting
Centre
In March 2009 we asked to look at a house situated
near the rear
to the RVI.
On viewing we couldn't believe our eyes as the building was
much bigger than the one we had. We were over the moon, but a lot of
work was needed to convert the rooms into studios.
Thanks to some hard work by the staff we had raised money for the move
and, with some financial help from the Trust, the building was
converted and the move took place. We never went off air but for a
couple of weeks we provided non-stop music whilst the move took place
and in June 2009 we were back to normal in what can only be described
as one of the best hospital broadcasting centres in the UK. |
On
Hospedia, On 1575AM and Online
The move
also let us expand our service. At the time we were heard on the wards
on Hospedia and to the staff via our medium wave transmitter. Having
new equipment, we decided to start broadcasting via the internet and
found that a number of patients were listening to us after they had
gone
home. It also gave us the opportunity to promote a number of health
related information to a wider audience such as stop smoking advice and
during the swine flu epidemic we broadcast information that made our
listeners aware of the symptoms to look for. We continue to
broadcast this information plus blood donor sessions in the community.
In
January 2011 we extended the service further to those who have an
iPhone, where they can download an app onto their phone and hear Radio
Tyneside. |
60
Years and Onwards
We are
proud of what we have achieved over the past 60 years and everyone
associated with our organisation, past and present, would like to thank
the local businesses, organisations and individuals who have helped us
over the years to allow us to be where we are today.
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