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.
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 3-1. Today, those commentaries are
still broadcast but now to five 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.
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 cite where
a weekly request show was broadcast by two of the commentators, Frank
Lowery and Tom Taylor, using recorded borrowed for the occasion from a
local record store.
Sadly Tom died in 1966 but others took his place and the request programme
continued with its success.
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.
Fund raising tool place and money was raised to convert the building and
within six months the request programme move to the General. At the same
time the service was connected to the wards in the General and also to
Hunters Moor and Sandringham hospitals.
Other programmes were introduced including folk and classical music, the
latter being presented by the arts reporter for the local newspaper, Phil
Penfold.
A couple of years later the service was connected to hospitals ‘over the
water’ in Gateshead. The Queen Elizabeth, Dunston Hill, Bensham General
and Whickham Cottage.
Over they years these hospitals closed and moved into an extended Queen
Elizabeth. Likewise Sandringham Hospital in Newcastle 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.
As the years went by the volunteers worked hard to raise money and by the
time of the station’s 30th birthday in 1981 had raised sufficient money to
refurbish its studios with state of the art equipment.
To celebrate the thirtieth, the station did a 60 hour non stop sponsored
broadcast raising £3,000.
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.
It was in 1990 that the station decided to raise £35,000 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 stations programmes were
broadcast from a small studio set up at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in
Gateshead.
More money was raised as the work progressed and although not all of the
£35,000 was raised the station managed to achieve what they wanted and
studios were ready by September 1991, allowing full time to redecorate and
train the staff in time for the 40th birthday celebrations in October. The
official opening of the refurbished studio centre was performed by Simon
Bates in February 1992.
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 and was made possible by
purchasing a smart piece of computer technology called Myriad from
PSquared.
Again, an expensive period for the station, having to buy the transmission
equipment required by 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 transmission was been welcomed by
both the patients and staff.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!
Now ten years on since the introduction of the AM broadcasts, Radio
Tyneside is having to raise a lot of money again. Because of the
re-development of the General Hospital, the building that houses the
station is to be demolished. The Trust have kindly offered us a new
building at the RVI. It can be found just left of the entrance from Queen
Victoria Road, and is the old hospital lodge.
The building is currently used by Speech Therapy, but when the building
work being carried out at the RVI, they will move and the building will be
handed over to us.
This building is grade two listed and the Trust have agreed to update the
internal part of the building which will give us two on air studios plus a
production studio. There will be an office, store room and reception area.
Also the staff will have their own kitchen and eating area, something that
has been lacking in the current building. This move will cost Radio
Tyneside around £40,000 to complete and we have already raised quite a lot
of money thanks to the generosity of many individuals, organisations and
businesses.
We are looking forward to the move although their will be sadness to be
leaving what has been our home for the past 40 years.
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A
brief history of our station from 1950 to now!
