Hello everyone, I hope you are well and that 2024 is treating you well so far. I wanted to write to you today to tell you about my weekly radio show. For those who don’t know, I presented a show on ArroweSound Hospital Radio for a while, almost 2 years in fact now that I think about it, time flies when you’re having fun eh. I thought I’d share a little more information on this.
I discovered from talking to friends in other countries that hospital radio is something of a British institution. If I’m wrong and you also have it in your country, let me know. This is exactly what it sounds like. Radio programming designed for patients and hospital staff to keep them informed and entertained throughout the day. In the UK, many well-known broadcasters started out in hospital radio and it is a great testing ground, a place to learn the basics of radio presenting and gain experience.
ArrowSound is the station for Arrowe Park Hospital on the Wirral in Merseyside. The most famous part of Merseyside is obviously Liverpool but the county actually covers both sides of the Mersey Estuary. Arrowe Park is a fairly large hospital and it was opened in 1982. When I was a child, I often visited the accident and emergency department. I was always falling from trees or having various mishaps, breaking bones and even cutting my finger once (no kidding). The staff kindly sewed it up. I’m happy to report that the finger is functioning normally and I’m glad that’s the case, otherwise I wouldn’t be able to play the guitar very well today.

ArroweSound celebrated its 50th anniversary last year because it began life as Radio-Catherine in 1973 at Sainte Catherine Hospital in Birkenhead.
I joined the station in 2022 and do a weekly show on Thursday evening 7pm – 9pm (UK time) but it is broadcast via the Internet, so that everyone can listen to it around the world. I’ve had feedback from people in Australia, Scandinavia and elsewhere, which is really lovely. The show is called Midweek Pick N Mix and it reflects my eclectic taste in music. Each week I choose an artist to feature and talk about in detail. I recount their lives as best I can, tell anecdotes and play a few songs from them throughout the show. It could be a famous artist like Paul Simon, Tina Turneror maybe someone less known like Nick Drake. I love researching these topics and I love music history, so it’s truly a labor of love.

A lot of people have asked me if they can get the show as a podcast and unfortunately the answer at the moment is no, due to music licensing. We stream commercial music and we do not have a license to use it for podcasts. Copyright laws still haven’t caught up with the podcasting phenomenon, even in 2024.
So I decided that in the future I would write a short article about my Artist in the spotlight here on the blog and include a playlist of their music to accompany it. I hope this is something you enjoy.
Listen to the radio show if you are interested and able. You can listen to it via the website, on the TuneIn app or via a smart speaker like Alexa Or Google Home. You can simply ask them to “play Arrowesound Hospital Radio”.
This might be something for those who enjoyed my music show. Radio Rathole and I’m happy to respond to requests and read messages. We have different ways to contact us via the website.
Take care and I’ll talk to you again soon.
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