In 1990 the first loan radio's were added to ward 10 in an effort to
provide listening facilities for patients as the old style bed head
system was beyond repair.
By 1992 the loan radio service had received enough sponsors to expand
the service to more wards.
The aim now was to have a loan radio put into each and every locker.
Previously the radio's were kept in a box at the nurses station, this
system didn't work very well and so with each radio a leaflet was left
explaining the service.
In addition to providing the radio's, we would also sell replacement
batteries, at £1 for the red seal or 80p for the blue seal.
The yellow radio's which were purchased from the Tandy shops became a
familiar site on the wards.
Gordon Young was instrumental in maintaining these and also promoting
the service at this time.
The loan radio service provided an excellent opportunity for patients
to be involved with the radio service by sponsoring a radio.
The feedback below shows some of the sponsors of the radios for this
year as well as general feedback letters with donations.
The first radio's placed on ward 10 in 1990 were purchased from
Dixon's but these didn't last long,they were either stolen or damaged.
They were FM/AM radio's.
The new style radio's yellow flavour radio's as called were purchased
from the Tandy stores. Am only, they had their tuning control removed
and were fixed to Radio Heatherwood's frequency of 999kHz AM.
To keep track of the radio's and to also to appeal to the user front
plaques carried the name of the sponsor and each radio was initially
etched with a serial number. This was later changed to a stuck on able
label which was added to the body of the radio. After we found that a
number of these labels were removed we added a label inside the
battery compartment.
1992 Year Sixteen Story Unfolds
1992 was a very busy year for the station management and as the year
unfolded there was much to do and organise
For further information about this year:- Follow the links
In addition to the removal of the tuning control, and the labels stuck
to the units, battery compartment lids were attached by cord to the
units, headphones were strapped to the units to prevent the theft of
the headphones. However this didn't prevent the removal of the
headphones in some cases.
Costs
The maintenance costs were usually centred around the replacement of
either damaged or missing headphones.
The loan radio service continues until 2004, when circumstances forced
it's closure.
Radio Heatherwood along with the league of friend initially
sponsored 25 units between 1990 and 1991 as years went by this
increased as the service was extended to other wards.
Gordon Young
Gordon was instrumental in the early success of the loan radio
service. As well as doing all the work behind the scenes he
also sponsored a number of radio's
