Kingstown Radio
Encyclopedia
Kingstown Radio is a hospital radio
station based in Kingston upon Hull
, England
broadcasting on 1350 kHz and the hospedia system.
In July 2011, the station celebrated it's 50th anniversary!
in July 1961. However, its roots can be traced back to the 1950s when the Hull City Football Club and its supporters club, along with Kingston upon Hull Telephones Department
and local cable company Rediffusion
got together to discuss the possibility of providing football commentaries to hospital patients.
The idea was put into practice, with a landline being installed at Boothferry Park
, which was then fed into the Hull telephone exchange and onto the hospitals via the telephone lines. This became known as "Tigerfusion", so called because of Hull City AFC's nickname "the Tigers". The first match to be transmitted was Hull City
v Luton Town
which went out on 8 November 1952.
Towards the end of the 1950s, Ken Fulstow bought himself a portable tape recorder and used the tape machine to send recorded messages to other enthusiasts throughout the UK
and hit upon the idea of taping messages for people in local hospitals. In 1959, the "Hull Tape Recorder Club" was established and it was agreed that they would take messages to the patients. The organisation found premises above a small record/electrical shop on Hull's Hessle Road. They assembled a studio using an old radiogram, their own tape recorders and some odd furniture.
Members would visit the patients and take note of their requests on tape, they would then edit the messages and recorded music into a programme back at the studio. Fulstow later approached the Hospital administrators, Hull City Telephone Department and the Sports Commentary Association to see if it would be possible for the tape recorder club to make use of the existing landlines. It was agreed that they could use the landlines to broadcast the programmes, however, only permission for one hour a fortnight was given and this was on a trial period of three months. Luckily, the trial was a great success and so the club continued to use the facilities on a more or less permanent basis.
The first scheduled programme was transmitted on 16 July 1961 from the Hull Telephones Headquarters on Carr Lane. The first record to be played was "Temptation" by The Everly Brothers
.
The club were forced to leave the Hessle Road studio when the area came up for redevelopment, and so new premises were found in the old city area, near the River Hull
and River Humber junction at Wellington Street. The studio was a small attic room situated on the top floor of the building, which was to be home between 1969 and 1975. The premises were badly damaged by fire in 1972, when a visiting tramp lit a small fire in order to keep warm. For some time after that, due to somewhat inadequate roof repairs, presenters had to don raincoats and hats when using the studios in wet weather.
During this period, members of the tape recorder club came to the conclusion that the radio work was now starting to take over from the original purpose of the Tape Recorder Club. It was decided that the Hospital Broadcasting Service should be formed and registered as a charitable organization
. This finally happened in 1969 when the "Hull & East Riding Hospital Broadcasting Service" officially took over from the Tape Recorder Club.
Tribute must be paid to the generosity of the Hull City Telephones Department
who provided the telephone landlines (which carried the radio signal) free of charge. Without this generosity it is doubtful whether the new radio service could have survived those early years.
on 5 April 1970. NAHBO later became the "Hospital Broadcasting Association" and has a membership of over 200 stations.
Kingstown grew in strength and in 1975 the Wellington Street studio was vacated and the organisation moved to 98 Beverley Road, above the Red Cross
offices. The members described the new studios as "absolute luxury". Over £1,000 was spent renovating the building and providing new equipment. The first programme was transmitted on 5 March 1975.
On 28 November 1988 the organisation moved to custom built studios in the Kingston General Hospital on Beverley Road. The facility comprised two studios and a record
library. A caravan was also converted into a mobile studio, which was donated by the Hull Lions and is still a regular sight at the many annual events. At this time Kingstown took BBC Radio 2
as a sustaining service and used the ill-fated "Network News" hourly service from Chiltern Radio Network
.
, this allowed the station to broadcast its service on to a potential audience of 600,000 people until 2 January 1995. The service was transmitted on 87.8 MHz FM
from the Beverley Road
studios. The daytime programmes were actually presented from the Princes Quay
shopping centre, in the town centre and relayed to the main studios. A second FM broadcast took place between 9 July and 8 August 1995. The heavy cost of these broadcasts, licence and performing rights
fees were underwritten by the selling of advertising and sponsorship.
Since the completion of the last RSL, the Kingston General Hospital has been demolished and the organisation has relocated to new studio at the Hull Royal Infirmary
on Anlaby Road, which has been equipped with a computerised play out system called "Myriad", re-writeable CD
recorders and MiniDisc
players. An additional studio was also built at the Castle Hill Hospital
, although it was rarely used, and was decommissioned in 2005.
In 1999, the service began broadcasting on Medium Wave 1350 AM
to the grounds of the Hull Royal Infirmary, and now also on the Hospedia system to the Castle Hill Hospital, Beverley Westwood Hospital and the Princess Royal Hospital. The station currently broadcasts from the Fulstow Studio's at the Hull Royal Infirmary, and can be heard with mostly live presentation between 9 a.m. and 11 p.m. and broadcasts non-stop music outside of these times. Kingstown's hourly news is provided by the Sky newsdesk also the source for the national and international sports reports used during sport programmes.
In 2011, the station celebrate their 50th anniversary!
The main presenters of Backpage Sport are Tony Sweeney, Louise Pitts, Stuart Miles and Mark Ash. Commentary is often provided on Hull City, from KC Stadium
in the city.
"Backpage Sport" was also the name of a sports magazine programme which aired in the 1990s on Tyne Tees Television
and is also the name of Manx Radio
's sports programme http://www.manxradio.com/progProfile.aspx?pID=1192.
The programme includes a mix of 'classic hits' from across the decades as well, as travel news intented for patients or members of staff leaving the hospitals, as well Crusin' 3 upbeat tracks from the 50's & 60's, Rock @ 6, 3 Rock Track back to back and tracks from the 'Drivetime Featured Artist'.
Line Up:
Mondays Julie G & Pete T do their 'unique version' of Drive
Tuesday: Tony 'Snake Hips' Sweeney
Wednesday: Richard Ellarby
Thursday: Pete 'Papa Smurf' Nick
Friday:
http://www.kingstownradio.karoo.net/.
More recently at the 2009 Hospital Broadcasting Association Awards, Kingstown Radio were commended in the special event section.
UK agent, Dave Langer. These were replaced by a further package and numerous sweepers
from the same supplier in 2005. They have also designed a simple, but effective red and blue logo
for use on signage and merchandise.
Hospital radio
Hospital radio is a form of audio broadcasting produced specifically for the in-patients of hospitals. It is primarily found in the United Kingdom.-History:...
station based in Kingston upon Hull
Kingston upon Hull
Kingston upon Hull , usually referred to as Hull, is a city and unitary authority area in the ceremonial county of the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It stands on the River Hull at its junction with the Humber estuary, 25 miles inland from the North Sea. Hull has a resident population of...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
broadcasting on 1350 kHz and the hospedia system.
In July 2011, the station celebrated it's 50th anniversary!
The Early Years
Kingstown was launched as a Hospital Radio stationRadio station
Radio broadcasting is a one-way wireless transmission over radio waves intended to reach a wide audience. Stations can be linked in radio networks to broadcast a common radio format, either in broadcast syndication or simulcast or both...
in July 1961. However, its roots can be traced back to the 1950s when the Hull City Football Club and its supporters club, along with Kingston upon Hull Telephones Department
Kingston Communications
KCOM Group , formerly known as Kingston Communications, is a UK communications and IT services provider. Its headquarters is in Kingston upon Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire, where subsidiary business unit KC serves local residents and businesses with Internet and telephony services...
and local cable company Rediffusion
Rediffusion
Rediffusion was a business which distributed radio and TV signals through wired relay networks. The business gave rise to a number of other companies, including Associated-Rediffusion, later known as Rediffusion London, one of the first companies to win a terrestrial ITV franchise in the UK...
got together to discuss the possibility of providing football commentaries to hospital patients.
The idea was put into practice, with a landline being installed at Boothferry Park
Boothferry Park
Boothferry Park was a football stadium in Kingston upon Hull, and was home to the football club Hull City for over 50 years from 31 August 1946 until December 2002, when they moved to the Kingston Communications Stadium....
, which was then fed into the Hull telephone exchange and onto the hospitals via the telephone lines. This became known as "Tigerfusion", so called because of Hull City AFC's nickname "the Tigers". The first match to be transmitted was Hull City
Hull City A.F.C.
Hull City Association Football Club is an English association football club based in Kingston upon Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire, founded in 1904. The club participates in the Football League Championship, the second tier of English football...
v Luton Town
Luton Town F.C.
Luton Town Football Club is an English professional football club based since 1905 at Kenilworth Road, Luton, Bedfordshire. The club currently competes in the fifth tier of English football, the Conference National, for the third consecutive season during the 2011–12 season.Formed in 1885, it was...
which went out on 8 November 1952.
Towards the end of the 1950s, Ken Fulstow bought himself a portable tape recorder and used the tape machine to send recorded messages to other enthusiasts throughout the UK
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
and hit upon the idea of taping messages for people in local hospitals. In 1959, the "Hull Tape Recorder Club" was established and it was agreed that they would take messages to the patients. The organisation found premises above a small record/electrical shop on Hull's Hessle Road. They assembled a studio using an old radiogram, their own tape recorders and some odd furniture.
Members would visit the patients and take note of their requests on tape, they would then edit the messages and recorded music into a programme back at the studio. Fulstow later approached the Hospital administrators, Hull City Telephone Department and the Sports Commentary Association to see if it would be possible for the tape recorder club to make use of the existing landlines. It was agreed that they could use the landlines to broadcast the programmes, however, only permission for one hour a fortnight was given and this was on a trial period of three months. Luckily, the trial was a great success and so the club continued to use the facilities on a more or less permanent basis.
The first scheduled programme was transmitted on 16 July 1961 from the Hull Telephones Headquarters on Carr Lane. The first record to be played was "Temptation" by The Everly Brothers
The Everly Brothers
The Everly Brothers are country-influenced rock and roll performers, known for steel-string guitar playing and close harmony singing...
.
The club were forced to leave the Hessle Road studio when the area came up for redevelopment, and so new premises were found in the old city area, near the River Hull
River Hull
The River Hull is a navigable river in the East Riding of Yorkshire in the north of England. It rises from a series of springs to the west of Driffield, and enters the Humber estuary at Kingston upon Hull. Following a period when the Archbishops of York charged tolls for its use, it became a free...
and River Humber junction at Wellington Street. The studio was a small attic room situated on the top floor of the building, which was to be home between 1969 and 1975. The premises were badly damaged by fire in 1972, when a visiting tramp lit a small fire in order to keep warm. For some time after that, due to somewhat inadequate roof repairs, presenters had to don raincoats and hats when using the studios in wet weather.
During this period, members of the tape recorder club came to the conclusion that the radio work was now starting to take over from the original purpose of the Tape Recorder Club. It was decided that the Hospital Broadcasting Service should be formed and registered as a charitable organization
Charitable organization
A charitable organization is a type of non-profit organization . It differs from other types of NPOs in that it centers on philanthropic goals A charitable organization is a type of non-profit organization (NPO). It differs from other types of NPOs in that it centers on philanthropic goals A...
. This finally happened in 1969 when the "Hull & East Riding Hospital Broadcasting Service" officially took over from the Tape Recorder Club.
Tribute must be paid to the generosity of the Hull City Telephones Department
Kingston Communications
KCOM Group , formerly known as Kingston Communications, is a UK communications and IT services provider. Its headquarters is in Kingston upon Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire, where subsidiary business unit KC serves local residents and businesses with Internet and telephony services...
who provided the telephone landlines (which carried the radio signal) free of charge. Without this generosity it is doubtful whether the new radio service could have survived those early years.
The Seventies
In the early 1970s Ken Fulstow laid the Foundations for the "National Association of Hospital Broadcasting Organisations" http://www.hbauk.co.uk/public/about/?cmd=10, the inaugural meeting being held in the HullKingston upon Hull
Kingston upon Hull , usually referred to as Hull, is a city and unitary authority area in the ceremonial county of the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It stands on the River Hull at its junction with the Humber estuary, 25 miles inland from the North Sea. Hull has a resident population of...
on 5 April 1970. NAHBO later became the "Hospital Broadcasting Association" and has a membership of over 200 stations.
Kingstown grew in strength and in 1975 the Wellington Street studio was vacated and the organisation moved to 98 Beverley Road, above the Red Cross
International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement
The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is an international humanitarian movement with approximately 97 million volunteers, members and staff worldwide which was founded to protect human life and health, to ensure respect for all human beings, and to prevent and alleviate human...
offices. The members described the new studios as "absolute luxury". Over £1,000 was spent renovating the building and providing new equipment. The first programme was transmitted on 5 March 1975.
The Eighties
Gramophone record
A gramophone record, commonly known as a phonograph record , vinyl record , or colloquially, a record, is an analog sound storage medium consisting of a flat disc with an inscribed, modulated spiral groove...
library. A caravan was also converted into a mobile studio, which was donated by the Hull Lions and is still a regular sight at the many annual events. At this time Kingstown took BBC Radio 2
BBC Radio 2
BBC Radio 2 is one of the BBC's national radio stations and the most popular station in the United Kingdom. Much of its daytime playlist-based programming is best described as Adult Contemporary or AOR, although the station is also noted for its specialist broadcasting of other musical genres...
as a sustaining service and used the ill-fated "Network News" hourly service from Chiltern Radio Network
Chiltern Radio Network
The Chiltern Radio Network was the parent group of several radio stations which operated two radio brands in the UK in the 1990's.-Branding:The two main brands were:...
.
The nineties onwards
On 6 December 1994, Kingstown Radio, as it was now known, took to the FM band with a Restricted Service LicenceRestricted Service Licence
A UK Restricted Service Licence , is typically granted to radio stations and television stations broadcasting within the UK to serve a local community or a special event...
, this allowed the station to broadcast its service on to a potential audience of 600,000 people until 2 January 1995. The service was transmitted on 87.8 MHz FM
FM broadcasting
FM broadcasting is a broadcasting technology pioneered by Edwin Howard Armstrong which uses frequency modulation to provide high-fidelity sound over broadcast radio. The term "FM band" describes the "frequency band in which FM is used for broadcasting"...
from the Beverley Road
Beverley Road
Beverley Road is one of several major roads that run out of the city of Hull in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It runs North from Hull city centre and carries the designation of A1079. Upon leaving the city boundaries, Beverley Road continues north towards the town of Beverley becoming the...
studios. The daytime programmes were actually presented from the Princes Quay
Princes Quay
Princes Quay is a shopping centre in the heart of Kingston upon Hull, East Riding of Yorkshire, England. The centre is unusual in that it is built on stilts over Prince's Dock after which it is named...
shopping centre, in the town centre and relayed to the main studios. A second FM broadcast took place between 9 July and 8 August 1995. The heavy cost of these broadcasts, licence and performing rights
Performing rights
Performing rights are the right to perform music in public. It is part of copyright law and demands payment to the music’s composer/lyricist and publisher . Public performance means that a musician or group who is not the copyright holder is performing a piece of music live, as opposed to the...
fees were underwritten by the selling of advertising and sponsorship.
Since the completion of the last RSL, the Kingston General Hospital has been demolished and the organisation has relocated to new studio at the Hull Royal Infirmary
Hull Royal Infirmary
Hull Royal Infirmary is one of the two main hospitals for Kingston upon Hull . It is situated on Anlaby Road, just outside of the city centre, and is run by Hull and East Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust....
on Anlaby Road, which has been equipped with a computerised play out system called "Myriad", re-writeable CD
Compact Disc
The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...
recorders and MiniDisc
MiniDisc
The disc is permanently housed in a cartridge with a sliding door, similar to the casing of a 3.5" floppy disk. This shutter is opened automatically by a mechanism upon insertion. The audio discs can either be recordable or premastered. Recordable MiniDiscs use a magneto-optical system to record...
players. An additional studio was also built at the Castle Hill Hospital
Castle Hill Hospital
Castle Hill Hospital is an NHS hospital to the west of Cottingham, East Riding of Yorkshire, England, and is run by Hull and East Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust.-History:...
, although it was rarely used, and was decommissioned in 2005.
In 1999, the service began broadcasting on Medium Wave 1350 AM
AM broadcasting
AM broadcasting is the process of radio broadcasting using amplitude modulation. AM was the first method of impressing sound on a radio signal and is still widely used today. Commercial and public AM broadcasting is carried out in the medium wave band world wide, and on long wave and short wave...
to the grounds of the Hull Royal Infirmary, and now also on the Hospedia system to the Castle Hill Hospital, Beverley Westwood Hospital and the Princess Royal Hospital. The station currently broadcasts from the Fulstow Studio's at the Hull Royal Infirmary, and can be heard with mostly live presentation between 9 a.m. and 11 p.m. and broadcasts non-stop music outside of these times. Kingstown's hourly news is provided by the Sky newsdesk also the source for the national and international sports reports used during sport programmes.
In 2011, the station celebrate their 50th anniversary!
Backpage Sport
Backpage Sport is the name of Kingstown Radio's sport strand which airs Saturday 3pm-6pm. There is also a lively debate programme which takes place Tuesday evenings 7pm-9pm.The main presenters of Backpage Sport are Tony Sweeney, Louise Pitts, Stuart Miles and Mark Ash. Commentary is often provided on Hull City, from KC Stadium
KC Stadium
The KC Stadium, often shortened to the KC, is a multi-purpose facility in the city of Kingston upon Hull , England. Conceived as early as the late 1990s, it was completed in 2002 at a cost of approximately £44 million. It is named after the stadium's sponsors, telecommunications provider KC,...
in the city.
"Backpage Sport" was also the name of a sports magazine programme which aired in the 1990s on Tyne Tees Television
Tyne Tees Television
Tyne Tees Television is the ITV television franchise for North East England and parts of North Yorkshire. As of 2009, it forms part of a non-franchise ITV Tyne Tees & Border region, shared with the ITV Border region...
and is also the name of Manx Radio
Manx Radio
Manx Radio is the national commercial radio station for the Isle of Man.The station began broadcasting on 29 June 1964, almost ten years before commercial radio was licensed in the United Kingdom. The Isle of Man, having its own government and laws, was not subject to the rules prohibiting...
's sports programme http://www.manxradio.com/progProfile.aspx?pID=1192.
Drivetime
"Drivetime" is the name of Kingstown Radio's evening programme, which is broadcast weekdays from 5pm until 7pm.The programme includes a mix of 'classic hits' from across the decades as well, as travel news intented for patients or members of staff leaving the hospitals, as well Crusin' 3 upbeat tracks from the 50's & 60's, Rock @ 6, 3 Rock Track back to back and tracks from the 'Drivetime Featured Artist'.
Line Up:
Mondays Julie G & Pete T do their 'unique version' of Drive
Tuesday: Tony 'Snake Hips' Sweeney
Wednesday: Richard Ellarby
Thursday: Pete 'Papa Smurf' Nick
Friday:
Achievements
In 2007, Kingstown won the Silver Award for Sports Output, and four commendations for presentation and production at the Hospital Broadcasting Awards, held in NorthamptonNorthampton
Northampton is a large market town and local government district in the East Midlands region of England. Situated about north-west of London and around south-east of Birmingham, Northampton lies on the River Nene and is the county town of Northamptonshire. The demonym of Northampton is...
http://www.kingstownradio.karoo.net/.
More recently at the 2009 Hospital Broadcasting Association Awards, Kingstown Radio were commended in the special event section.
Branding
Before the medium wave launch, Kingstown purchased some sung idents from the Thompson CreativeThompson Creative
Thompson Creative is an American radio jingle production company formerly based in Dallas, Texas.-History:In 1986, broadcasters Larry and Susan Thompson set up Thompson Creative with the idea of updating the "traditional" jingle sound...
UK agent, Dave Langer. These were replaced by a further package and numerous sweepers
Radio sweepers
A radio sweeper is a short, pre-recorded sample used by radio stations as segues between songs that give listeners a brief station identifier or promo, generally 20 seconds or less: "You're listening to the soft sounds of [NAME] radio. Easy listening throughout the Bay area." For example.Dry radio...
from the same supplier in 2005. They have also designed a simple, but effective red and blue logo
Logo
A logo is a graphic mark or emblem commonly used by commercial enterprises, organizations and even individuals to aid and promote instant public recognition...
for use on signage and merchandise.
Slogans
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