Seventy Five Years On Air
75 for 75
A series of 75 articles with photographs capturing aspects of our rich history since 9th April 1951 when we began as an activity at Port Sunlight Boys’ Club.
Read all about the station’s rich history.
75 for 75 series 46 to 60
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President Roger Hazlewood received the keys from Frank Burns (Chief Executive of the Hospital Trust) for the New Larch House Studios.
Neil Jackson presented the first show from the officially opened studios in April 2001.
Chairman Mark Lloyd and Clatterbridge League Chairman Philip Owen were amongst those looking on.
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Gone are the days when the request team visited the wards with carrier bags! Now there is a swanky black tote bag labelled ‘Radio Clatterbridge Request Collector’ and each ward visitor has a binder.
In the bag are specially adapted patient radios plus spare batteries. Each binder contains request slips, recent request charts (which can help jog the memories of patients), a list of classical music excerpts and the all-important pen!
April Lloyd from the ward team is pictured about to enter Ward M1, complete with binder and bag.
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To mark our 50th birthday, members of the station plus representatives from the League of Friends and the Trust were all invited to a special buffet meal held in the Post Graduate Centre on the Clatterbridge site.
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Neil Southerin (our Station Engineer at the time) proudly displays the result of his labours supported by other members, as studios are created at our new home near St John’s Hospice in 1993 where we would remain until the end of 2000. At a total cost of £25,000, Clatterbridge League donated £10,000 and Wirral Hospital Trust and Clatterbridge Centre for Oncology shared the rest.
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A late 1980s AGM is underway in the communal meeting area of Larch House.
Then we move to the early 1990s, and Studio 2 is in use for a feature on up-and-coming Television programmes for the week ahead.
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In 2018 there was a concerted effort to take a photograph of every member and to create a poster for the main noticeboard. Those who could not make it down to the studios were asked to provide a photo of their own. Many of the newer members were especially grateful to put names to faces and the whole exercise was completed in September of that year.
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In 1993 it was all hands to deck as we moved into our new supposedly temporary home in a building close to St John’s Hospice.
In the first picture Andy Bonner, Dave Wilson and Roger Hazlewood are making a delivery to the new studios.
In the second picture Graham Johnson is somewhat submerged below the next delivery!
It had been an emotional farewell to the previous studios but there was a real sense of excitement about this next stage in our development.
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The Radio Clatterbridge membership and committee members from Clatterbridge Hospitals League of Friends were out in force for the official opening of the new studios in 1993.
Dave Wilson and Dave Harvey can be seen waiting anxiously at the door but all turned out very well indeed.
This was supposed to be a temporary move, and we never named the building, even though we remained there for over 7 years!
In the second picture Graham Johnson is somewhat submerged below the next delivery!
It had been an emotional farewell to the previous studios but there was a real sense of excitement about this next stage in our development.
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We moved into New Larch House in 2001. The building was the old boiler house, and we were given the same overall dimensions by the Trust as we had had in the previous building. Station Manager, Vic Charles, was eager to make Studio 1 the largest area. In the previous complex, the communal meeting area was by far the largest. False lower ceilings needed to be installed. Initially the two Technics turntables and cart machines were present and correct, but their days were numbered…..
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In 2001 members of Radio Clatterbridge took part in The Wirral Show. The show ran for 33 years from 1977 to 2009, and we had our own marquee when we participated combining a stall and an Outside Broadcast.
Visitors including children were given a chance to speak ‘on air’ and there was a special Winnie the Pooh raffle. In the pictures, Paul Johnston is on the mic, Helen Craven is blowing bubbles to entertain the kids, Mark Lloyd is selling raffle tickets and Paul Size is shaking a can with a new listener!
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Here are some of our old carts (endless-loop tape cartridges) which we played in the studio on cart machines. Historically, radio stations used these for announcements, commercials and jingles. See also no 28 in this series.
The format and mono cart machines were first introduced in 1959. Manufacturers went on to add stereo capability and further enhancements.
The carts above were still in use at Radio Clatterbridge in the early 2000s and include a message recorded for us by Olivia Newton-John.
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In 2000, as part of the National Lottery ‘Millennium Festival Awards for All’ scheme, Radio Clatterbridge received a grant for £2,300. Dave Harvey received the cheque from local celebrity Ricky Tomlinson and is pictured along with Mark Jones from Century FM.
Our submission for the grant was to tie up with the move to our brand-new studios which would also benefit from a grant from the Clatterbridge League of Friends and financial support from both the Wirral NHS Trust and Clatterbridge Centre for Oncology.
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On Sunday February 1st 2004 Clatterbridge Hospitals League of Friends were treated to a 50th birthday party, to spearhead an impressive programme of events for their Golden Anniversary.
It was held at Wirral Post Graduate Centre on the exact date that the League turned fifty. Banners lined the road around the hospital site, as arranged by Facilities Management
The League Chairman, Philip Owen, was interviewed by our Programme Controller Paul Johnston at a well-attended special buffet lunch provided by Wirral Hospital NHS Trust.
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To tie-in with our move to AM, all kinds of different promotional advertising was put into play. Radio Clatterbridge mugs were initially blue but other variations included red (as above) and black.
Radio Clatterbridge banners were put up around the site, and our very own pens are still going to this day. Both the mugs and the pens have been used as enticements when collecting the weekly Team of the Week staff requests. This feature began in November 2011, with the former Stroke Rehab ward being the first to participate.
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In 1998 to mark the final edition of ‘Mid-Morning Music’ after 25 years, members of the team congregated for a special Anniversary and celebratory show.
From 1973 until 1990 Dave Williams had been the sole presenter often assisted by other members. In 1990 Sid Jones and Dave Adams joined and gradually became co-presenters.
The three-hour programme had a large request team mainly comprising six-formers from local schools. Dave Adams took over as sole presenter in 1996 and invited Sid and Dave back for this special show two years later. In 1998 the programme became ‘The Saturday Crew’ which in turn became ‘In the Mix’ from 2011.
