2003 Our Presenting Stars and Backstage Information

• Patient Power Initiative
  At Heatherwood

  This was was a UK wide initiative to provide television telephone and radio at the bed head of every patient in a hospital with 150 beds or more.

  Throughout the year a flurry of emails between the trust the league and the patient power company produced broken promises, meetings missed, stress, complaints, and no end in site for the radio which still needs to be connected to the new terminals.

  The email below in which our loan radio's are taken of the ward at the end of November adds to the frustration for the radio and League of Friends.

  Ward 1

  When we went on to ward 1 last night and asked the sister for permission to collect requests, she gave us a large bag of radios (which are now in the engineering room) and said that we could have them back as the patients now had *****. Stan and I explained that the **** units could not pick up Radio Heatherwood yet and she replied that she had been told by the Infection Control officer to remove all radio units (i.e. our radios) as they are not cleaned regularly (as the ***** units are). I asked her if this just applied to ward 1 (as I knew they had problems with infections in the past) and she replied that the Infection Control officer will be going to all wards soon. Hence her view was that all radios would be removed from all wards.

  Obviously the implications for us could be great - is there anything any of us can do to help?

  On receipt of the email the chairman of the league contacted the Chief exec and as the year came to a close, we were still without any service to the new bedhead units.

• New Playlist

  The introduction of the computer and the use of the live assist program required us to review the adverts and jingles to be played out.

  A new playlist with all the breaks were broken down into the various types.

  The playlists now reflect the Rhapsody service each hour. In our live sessions we need where possible to mimic the automated service.

  The highlighted pink Patient items are always to be played in the places marked. ( numbers shown are examples only ),In addition you should choose one of the yellow items to be played as well.

  A minimum of two items per break.

  Back to Top

• League Information Leaflet

  The league of friends information leaflet came up for renewal in March 2003.

  This was revised to show the demise of the loan radio service, although it claimed we were on hospicom, it hadn't actually happened, we would have to wait another 11 months for this to take place.

  The list of loan radio sponsors still remained on the leaflet.

MP3 Sampling Problem

When we first started converting our cd's to mp3 there was no indication our services later would be heard in stereo,plus cost of hard disk space was also an issue. We therefore only sampled the discs at 80k. This was more than adequate for the sound quality, if heard in mono or via our am service.

Over the Xmas and new year whilst installing the music on the rhapsody computer the professional soundcard was not able to cope with this low sampling rate very well. 8000 items were not going to be able to be used satisfactorily.

The professional standard which was emerging to be used would be 128k, we tried some songs at this new high rate and the card was ok.

Whilst we launched the service with the old files, From May until October work was in hand to resample all the songs again but at the new higher rate.

The improvement in quality of the sound is quite noticeable.

Email to staff advises of changes:-

What's in the new library ?

The new library is made up of 12144 items of various types. All cd's from the library were ripped but not every track or cd made it onto the final database. In addition cd's were supplied by individuals and these have also been added in. You will find that songs which appear on the computer will not be found on any other medium in the studio. When searching for requests looking on the library computers should include a search on the studio machines as you may be surprised.

Additional comedy items have been added to the library as well as new categories.

Why have you not put all the songs from the cd's on the computer ?

It has been decided to limit the songs from artists and Cd's to a representation of that artist or that classic cd so as to allow for further additions to the computer. What you won't be aware of is that in the new year a copyright bill which will become law in the spring will mean that all songs held on computers by hospital radio stations will be liable for a fee to the PPL. In our case a library of 12,000 records means that we might have to find £4000.

How did you decide what category a song will appear in ?

All songs which made the British pop charts will be a 99% be included in the decade in which it was a hit. Additional songs from an artist which would be classed as Heatherwood listeners choice will end up in the miscellaneous category ( Say middle of the road ) orchestra's and bands and Traditional. Other songs like Country and western are easy to define. The children's category is in fact all those comedy favourites from over the years.

Eva Cassidy for instance will have her chart hits in the 2000 category but because of her popularity a number of her songs will appear in Miscellaneous.

1940's Category

Be aware the 1940's can include items which were actually hit's before the forties.

All other decade categories have had their songs checked and with confidence you should be able to rely on the fact that it is a 50's.60's.70's.etc hit.

Films and Shows can actually include hits from a decade as well as being a hit from a film. If the song is recognizable as the film theme etc it will be in films and shows and not the decade it was chart hit.

What do I do if I find a song that doesn't play or sounds noisy etc ?

As you can imagine we don't have the time to listen to every song all the way through after it was converted. we only listen to the first part of the intro and the end of the song. If you select an item and it sounds a problem, mark it on your playlists and leave a note in my tray and I will investigate.

When will Rhapsody Be Broadcasting the new library ?

Before we can ask Rhapsody to play from the new songs we have to construct the new daily playlists geared around our program schedule. These are not ready yet, I am working on them and the six week rotational schedule will I hope be ready for an upload during the second week of November. The new daily playlists will consist of 70% of fixed material every time the show airs the balance will change every time. Anyone who was unfortunate enough to be here beyond 6 weeks would still find it hard to detect that we were repeating an output.

The Rhapsody part of the update has had an enormous amount of time spent on it to change the way the items are delivered. The launch program was very much a manual operation with any changes to the output having to be changed individually.

Any material which is produced by staff can be entered into a cart and will immediately appear in all programs which might choose that kart. This is vitally important if we are to improve on our local events and news sections.

The further development of the program output on Rhapsody and the move to voice tracked programs in total is very much dependant on individuals training and development.

October 2003

Welcome to our Picture board

Some captured moments of our volunteers,during this year.

Our Stars of 2003

2003 Year Twenty Seven Story Unfolds

2003 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

• 2003 Year Twenty Seven Summary
• 2003 Rhapsody On-Air
• 2003 Our Stars & Backstage Information
• 2003 Archive News Stories
• 2003 Staff Newsletter
• Story Of the Archive
• Radio Video Archive
• History Site Map

And in the End

The year 2003 was an incredibly busy time for yours truly dealing with all the technical aspects of implementing the Rhapsody service. It felt I was permanently chained to one pc or another as we wrestled with all the issues.

It's only now looking back, do I realize how much of a cost this was to my own life at the time.

Rhapsody did get underway despite all the problems and issues and overall writing this now has convinced me, that had we not pushed as much as we did to get this off the ground, the radio service would have died some years ago.

This year saw the increased use of email requests from around the world which was nice.

When a presenter calls it a day it's always sad as you loose a good friend and colleague and the departure of Laraine this year, was a blow to us as she was a good influence on the staff and a natural broadcaster.

Low spot in the year has got to be the underlying problems with the patient power company and the lack of commitment by the trust to respond to our concerns. Members of staff were being hounded by patients about the new system and even ladies on the league trolley shop were picking up comments.

This was a technically challenging time for everyone. Our presenters rose to the challenge and together we all made the grade.

From the introduction of the first computer for the library in 1989, 14 years later the computer has become the major contributor to the output of the station.

The vinyl library including singles LP's and cd's still has a part to play. Patient requests still call for items, which will never be added to the wave database(Rhapsody).

2003 Rhapsody On-Air, ends the sound of silence.

P Davidson-Smith Secretary July 2011

Archive Gems

Just some extra's we found:-

• Volunteers

  An un-authorized press release by the local voluntary services led to a member of the radio staff writing a release for the local free paper.

  Radio recruitment was suspended this year whilst we concentrated on training all staff in the new technology.

  The un-authorized press releases produced 14 applications sent out to potential recruits 3 only were returned and 2 of them were not suitable, the remaining person was interviewed and started and left within 4 weeks.

• Patient Feedback

  Email Requests

  Subject: I would like to send a message to My Friend/Relative in Heatherwood

  I have just found out that my father has been admitted to Heatherwood hospital, yesterday morning I believe His name is Dennis Davies. I was wondering if you could dedicate a song to him. I am sure he would appreciate any music you could pick for him (rap excluded)! I spoke to him on the phone a couple of hours ago and he was in good spirits and was saying how well he has been looked after.

  I am unable to visit him due to the tyranny of distance as I live in Melbourne, Australia, and have done since 1981, unfortunately I have been unable to come back to the UK since then but he has been over several times and met up with his grandchildren, Hannah, Garth and Karla. We wish him all the best, a speedy recovery, and a lot of love naturally.

  Thanking you in anticipation

  Gillian Davies

• Patient Feedback

  Subject: I would like to send a message to My Friend/Relative in Heatherwood

  Hello

  Would you please play anything Scottish for my Uncle, Gus Stewart, who is a diabetic (don't know what ward)

  Andy Stewart would be a good choice

  Jimmy Shand

  Thanks,

  Kate Cranmer Hamilton, OntarioCanada

• Donations Fall

  A review of donations into the radio in May this year shows that donations fall to just £7 from a norm of £85 to £150.

• Laraine Bids Farewell

  In July Laraine finds it difficult to juggle her jet set lifestyle and her commitment to the radio.
  She Writes:-

  I've really enjoyed my time at Radio Heatherwood and have seen remarkable changes - all down to you PJ - you have my admiration for your work and dedication.

  I hope to keep in touch but it is highly possible that Robert and I will live abroad within the next few years.

  Who knows what the future will bring, life is a journey.... and all that.

  Dave Replies:-

  Just to say Laraine, until you move, we would be always happy to see you at Radio Heatherwood, even if it is far between. We know it must be very hard to say goodbye to something you have enjoyed and put your heart and Soul into, it has been rewarding to us all to have had you as a friend and co-volunteer.

  We wish you both well for the future, a little tear for your goodbye, smile and Laughter will remain with us for the good times you have helped to provide at Radio Heatherwood

  Dave.xx