Room With A View Celebration
To celebrate the completion of room with a view, a special 12 hour broadcast was put together for transmission on November 4th.
Leading from the front was our very own Rebecca and Kevin who between them put together the twelve hour extravaganza.
Rebecca Loader Writes:-
Saturday November 4th Arrived bright and cold, the day was the culmination of a lot of hard work put in by Kevin and myself, weeks beforehand, many Sunday afternoons had been spent, slaving over a computer to design the leaflets, which were distributed to all the patients, along with the competition leaflets.
First of all there was the format of the day to be considered, how would we allocate the 12 hours then came the names for the shows, the lunch bunch was originally to be called music while you masticate, could accidentally be said wrong !!! The requests top twenty had to be carefully worked out, once it had been compiled, the record times had to be worked out and then all added up to see how long it would take to play them, approx. 74 mins which means it was allocated 90 mins, we then had a problem what were we going to do with the odd half an hour between 4.30pm and 5pm. We came up with room with a view a short documentary show about why the whole day was being staged. Kevin would interview PJ. and it would be linked with appropriate music, was it to be live or recorded, it was decided to do the show live. A leaflet went up in the studio's asking for volunteers for the day. once this was completed, shows were allocated, presenters informed, play list were then produced for the shows, we tried to link all the records in the lunch bunch as they had a food theme to each other. All lists were done apart from the morning experience show well it was Kevin's and myself's show, we could do that at the last minute. next came the jingles for the day ( full story on the jingles, next month ).
Sunday 29th October final adjustments to the main leaflet, photo's of various presenters had been digitised into the computer, lots of cutting and pasting to put them in the right place and it was ready. What colour paper shall we print it on ?. Then the poster was designed, yet again what colour to do them in, and finally the competition leaflet was designed, questions were devised, making sure we remembered to put a space for them to put their names and wards on. The drafts were finished, now all Kevin had to do was print them all off. Easier said than done, it was Sunday we had no paper, but not to worry Kevin would buy plenty on Monday.
Back to TopThe stress was beginning to show when on Monday evening Kevin phoned me by accident, thinking He was phoning someone else,, and he didn't even recognise me until said who I was, but the printing was under way, we were getting there.
Tuesday 31st October a telephone call at work, Kevin wouldn't be in Thursday as he was going to Manchester to do some filming for BUPA; on the Friday night and he wouldn't be finished until 1am Saturday morning, but he would be leaving Manchester on the first flight which was about 7.30am and would therefore just make it but he would be tired. The problem of getting the leaflets to me cropped up again, but Kevin said he would come up Wednesday evening to the hospital and help put the posters up around the hospital.
We went round the wards and asked to put posters up and asked some of the patients if they were still going to be in hospital on Saturday, once or twice I had to be very careful how I phrased it, as I found myself saying “Are you still going to be with us on Saturday ”,whoops not quite what I meant, most of them said they were going home Friday-did this mean everyone was getting chucked out at the weekend, would we have any listeners ? There was nothing else to do but get up very early on Saturday morning to go and see the patients before we started broadcasting.
Normal Broadcast evening.
Friday 3rd November, one day to go and I still hadn't done the play list for the morning experience, time was running out and a very worried Rebecca struggled to get through the day at work. 4.30pm phone call from Kevin, Oh no I didn't want to hear what he just said the earliest flight he could get was now leaving Manchester at 8.30am, which meant there was no way he could get to Ascot in time. the other problem was the CD with all the jingles had arrived at Kevin's house he had left a message for Dave to collect them, but he was worried Dave might not get the message, could I find out.
I got home phone call to Dave, still the answer phone, had he left the country ?. At 8.30pm David phoned good news he'd been to Kevin's house and collected the CD and he would also be in at the station early in order to meet the two people rule, but the bad news PJ was not very well and too ill to broadcast, so the evening session had to be juggled around and Kevin had no-one to interview on room with a view, but as they say the show must go on. I then managed to complete the play list for the morning experience, but had no idea what to talk about, but by now it was too late to worry after all I had to get up early next day.
The big day arrives armed with my bible-the red book full of everything I need to get through the day, plus the leaflets and competition forms, I get to the hospital at 8.30am Once my records are out I embark on the test of trying to sell the day to the patients, I started on ward 4 and the response wasn't too bad , I carried on round Dave caught up with me on ward 3 I was talking to Harold and Ian who were desperately trying to cheat by asking me what the answers to the questions were, I just told them to listen at 10 am. but they Kept on, so I said there wouldn't be any first record at 10 am if I didn't get back.
I go into studio 2 and try and keep calm it's 9.50 am ten minutes to go, a message has been left on the answer phone Kev's landed at Heathrow and on his way. Listening to radio two whilst getting ready I can't believe what I'm hearing the show is dedicated to 60's music and guess what the morning experience was a journey through time playing the same sort of music as they were playing in fact they played out on Only the lonely which was about the fifth record into my show. Why did it feel as though I was taking my test again, I thought I've done this for 3 years now I know exactly what I'm doing, but the little butterflies were still there,as I reminded myself this is the first show of the day, it rests upon me to make a good impression- help and hurry up Kevin.
J1 and we're off, I nearly said good evening, instead of good morning, but not too bad, but I wish the nerves would settle down I wish they didn't make records so short in 50's, it's not even 10.30 and we've now just moved into the 60's. It's Kevin he's arrived, shattered and suffering from severe hangover, but at least he's made it.
We need to hit the news at 12.00 with radio two , now which clock shows the right time, and will the records fit together OK, so that we don't overrun. It's close we've made it, we get the news as they go into the jingle at the beginning. Oh is that it our bit over and done with, I've just started to relax and enjoy myself. No rest for us, records to put away just time for a spot of lunch before collecting the competition entry forms, that will be a real; test; did anyone listen and did they bother to enter.
Back to TopOff to ward 4, Derek and Bertie had a little help with their entries, after all they seemed to be the only ones aware of the event. but ward 3 was definitely the ward to go on to boost our confidence; Harold had his form completed, ready and cut in half ready to hand over, but Ian in the bed opposite had forgotten to enter and was a bit miffed, so Harold said he could copy the answers, but if Ian won he would smash Ian's mug !!.
Maureen saw us go into the female side of the ward was waving her entry form at us and Ann in the bed next to her was equally enthusiastic, we also managed to collect a few more entries- it worked we didn't have to check, we did have entries, we even had enough to do a proper draw As there was two mugs to give-away, it was congratulations to Derek on ward 4 and Maureen on ward 3, off I went with the prizes.
Kevin was now feeling the effects of his hangover and was in need of some help, off he went to casualty.
The waiting time was 1 hour-did this mean we were stuck here for that long. The nurse said she would have to get someone to unlock the drugs cupboard, a few minutes later a doctor came out and shouted where is he, I think he must have had a sadistic streak, poor old Kevin had been shouted at when he was in a bad state.
It's the request show one mug for each half an hour was being given away, so off I went to deliver the first one, all the way to ward 5, back again another mug drawn, this time its off to ward 4, it's a good job I took the battery bag with me as a lady is in need of a battery- sales up today. Lisa comes off air at 3pm, Kevin now is beginning to try and sort out what he is going to do in room with a view without PJ to interview, a few minutes rest then it's off to help Lisa collect requests for the 5pm-6pm request show, via the vending machine for a much needed chocolate boost, oh my legs are starting to get tired. It's 4.15pm, my heart sinks ,the next part of the competition needs collecting at 4.30pm, back to the studio collapse on the floor- exhausted, it's so cold outside, but as the wards are so hot I don't think I could wear a coat.
Lee says he'll help me collect the competition entry forms, on ward 4 an elderly man says to me instead of me asking the question he would ask me a question and if I got it right he would give me £5, he said what was the song that Eddy Nelson sang. I said I didn't know, could I go back and look it up, no he said that would be cheating, oh well there goes £5, he also gave me some advice on having a long and happy marriage, he had been married for 61 years and when he said how long do you think you'll be married for, I said I've no idea I wasn't even close to getting married yet, that was where the conversation ended as he had no answer to that. Once again Maureen on ward 3 was listening and was most impressed with the requests top 20 she thought it was a very good idea. Harold had asked his granddaughter to listen to the radio to get the answer to the last part of the competition as he didn't want to miss out as he was having a wash at the time. Entries collected, we rushed back and managed to announce the winner as Kevin goes off air, back out to deliver prizes, it's so nice to go out and see people listening and enjoying the broadcast. As I arrive back at the studio, Lisa does another mug draw why did the winner have to be on ward 10 off to see Donald who said he won a mug exactly two years ago. I asked him how he knew he said it was his birthday week so I asked when it was he told me 9th November in fact that's the day after mine, his wife- said oh no not two Scorpio's together.
The last mug draw of Lisa's show took place and yet again it was to ward 10, but all too soon it was 6pm, is that our bit really over and done with, it went so quickly, all those weeks of thinking of nothing else. All my energy has been zapped, time to go home, it's Saturday night, I'll think I'll just collapse in front of the telly, but guess what's on “ it's casualty !! aargh I think I've seen enough of hospital life for one day.
Kevin & Rebecca would like to thank Lisa, Dennis, Caroline, Lee, Keith and Dave for the input into the days broadcast which turned out to be a much bigger success than we could have imagined. We would also like to thank PJ and Dave for asking and giving us the chance to do this and having the faith in our abilities to put it all together.
PS Rebecca would also like to thank British Airways for getting Kevin to Heathrow on time and in one piece.
1995 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
Archive Gems
Just some extra's we found:-
In addition to doing all the back room preparation, Kevin Rebecca and Lisa all contributed to producing some new jingles for the event and a new CD was available for all to use.
1995 The Story Continues!
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