Welcome to Hospital Radio Reading

Since 1957, Hospital Radio Reading (HRR) has been broadcasting to – and entertaining – the patients and staff at the Royal Berkshire Hospital in Reading. Our station is run entirely by volunteers, broadcasts 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and provides a combination of live and pre-recorded shows which can be heard free of charge via the Hospedia entertainment system at patients’ bedsides, online via this website or on the TuneIn app.

Our purpose is to brighten up the day for patients and staff with cheerful chat and the best selection of music for all ages, together with specialist music programmes, comedy, Reading FC commentaries , short stories, and hourly news bulletins. Our full programme schedule can be found elsewhere on this website.

All of us from HRR would love to hear from patients, staff or even relatives of the patients who have specific music requests or dedications. Patients can contact us – free – on *800 from the telephone on any Hospedia bedside console, staff can call us on 8508 (internal) and anyone can phone in on 0118 322 8508. Requests can also be sent via this website and you will also find our pages on Facebook, Twitter and other social media.

Our station’s day to day running costs are raised by our volunteers through fundraising and donations. If you would like to help us by making a donation please make sure to visit our donation page. We are a registered charity (Reading Hospital Broadcasting Service) and our charity number is 244974

CHAIRMAN’S INTRODUCTION

It is my privilege to welcome you to the HRR website and to encourage you to investigate the FREE radio service that HRR provides by pressing the orange button on your bedside handset. Once you see Hospital Radio highlighted in pink on the screen you need to press the tick button (towards the top right on your handset). That usually works but, if the words Hospital Radio do not appear in the bottom left-hand corner of your screen after a few seconds, you may need to pick up the telephone (to the left of the screen) and press the green button to speak to the operator. And don’t hesitate to ask the ward staff for headphones if you don’t have any of your own. Another way of hearing us is to press the little button at the bottom of the handset, between the loudspeaker and headphone symbols, and (in most wards) you can then hear us on your console’s built-in loudspeakers (but please make sure you use the headphones late at night!)

I hope that listening to our programmes will help to make your stay in the RBH is as pleasant as possible in the circumstances. And, on behalf of all of us at HRR, may I wish you a speedy recovery.

Gerard Rocks