Royal Free Radio

Formerly Radio Enfield, Royal Free Radio is a voluntary Hospital Radio broadcasting service for patients in Chase Farm Hospital, Enfield, the Royal Free Hospital, Hampstead, London and North Middlesex Hospital, Edmonton, London . It broadcasts programmes of record requests, local news, interviews, quizzes and other items of interest 24 hours a day. There are special request programmes for the patients in Chase Farm, the Royal Free and North Middlesex Hospitals, which are broadcast Sunday to Friday from 8-10pm. The station is operated by volunteers in their spare time, who present programmes, collect requests, manage the record library and keep the equipment working. Radio Enfield is funded by donations and various activities such as fetes, discos and other public events. The station is a member of the Hospital Broadcasting Association.
History
The station started broadcasting to Chase Farm on 24 May 1970 from a converted storeroom in the hospital with a 2-hour weekly request programme on Sunday evenings. In November 1971, the station moved to its second home in Block 7 of Chase Farm, a brick built bicycle shed. The service was extended to Highlands Hospital, Winchmore Hill in March 1972 and to North Middlesex Hospital, Edmonton, London in January 1973. The hospitals were linked by landline to enable the same programme to be heard simultaneously.
Programmes were gradually extended to cover Sunday to Friday evenings to cope with the extra requests. Live football commentaries from Enfield F.C. and Tottenham Hotspur F.C. were introduced after the station moved home again in late 1978. The new studios were financed from a major fund-raising campaign, which included a car raffle organised by the Lions Club of Enfield and was formerly used as a teaching classroom. Two studios were built, enabling separate programmes to be transmitted to any of the hospitals in order to cope with the large number of requests received. At that time, programmes could also be heard at the Prince of Wales Hospital in Tottenham.
The link to North Middlesex Hospital closed in 1983, due to the escalating cost of renting the lines between hospitals, and Highlands Hospital closed some years ago. However, transmissions to North Middlesex Hospital resumed in 2016 thanks to funding from Enfield Community Support Fund. Radio Enfield has also completed occasional FM broadcasts to Enfield and the surrounding area covering the annual Enfield Autumn Show, under licence from Ofcom.
Broadcasts were extended to cover the Royal Free Hospital in Hampstead in 2016 after Chase Farm Hospital became part of the Royal Free London NHS Trust.
Over its 45-year + history, Radio Enfield has won a number of prestigious national awards, notably for its outside broadcasts. Many of Radio Enfield's former members now work professionally in Radio - both on air and behind the scenes.
Radio Enfield Today
Following redevelopment at Chase Farm Hospital, the station moved studios again at the end of 2006. The final programme from the former teaching classroom was broadcast on Friday 1 December, being a compilation of programme highlights since the station began. The station moved to the new home, at the base of the Maternity Block, which was partly financed by the Leagues of Friends, over a weekend and was back on the air on Monday 4 December 2006 as usual. The teaching classroom studios were demolished in March 2007.
In 2015, Radio Enfield had to move studio for the fourth time as part of the major Chase Farm Hospital redevelopment and the station now broadcasts to Chase Farm, the Royal Free and North Middlesex hospitals from a new base on site. The previous studios were demolished in February 2016.
Amongst the annual events the station takes part in are the Enfield Autumn Show, the Enfield Scouts Town Park firework display, various quiz evenings and local fetes.
The station now uses a computer play out system to broadcast to the patients for 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Radio Enfield takes IRN's Sky News feed on the hour, every hour to keep patients updated with the day's news.
Royal Free Radio Website

Main Menu

See Also

Main Menu