Rugby Hospital Radio is home to a father and son winning team at the national Hospital Radio Awards.   At the annual event the 300 member hospital radio stations are recognised by professionals from both Television and Radio with awards presented for the top 3 stations in a variety of categories.

Rugby Hospital Radio are two times winners of the category Best Specialised Music.   Iain Smith clinched the accolade in 2005 with his programme "Dream Lover, Mack The Knife & Things - The Bobby Darin Story".

Son Phil took the title in 2007 with "Elvis Uncharted" a weekly series playing Elvis's album tracks, B sides and rarities but not the UK hits.

Long Service Awards

Rugby Hospital Radio like every hospital radio station recognise the dedication of members giving any length of service.

For any member that achieves five years service Rugby Hospital Radio nominates them for an award from The Hospital Broadcasting Association, the national body of hospital radio volunteers.

Recently members received awards for service ranging from 10 years to 25 years - currently John Dawson our longest serving member has been a volunteer with us in excess of 35 years!

"We thought Dad was joking when he told us about the dog that collected requests.   How surprised we were to see a guide dog visiting the wards of St Cross, where Grandad had been poorly for several months, spending time at both St Cross and Walsgrave hospitals.   It made us so happy to see him wake up for a short while.

The dog was visiting each bed in turn and the man and lady with him were letting each patient pat the dog, who we learnt was called Victor.

At last it was our turn.   Grandad, who always seems to make friends with any dog, stretched to be first.   All the time Victor's tail was wagging and banging on the floor as Grandad had a fuss.

Then it was our turn, a great big wet tongue across our face as Victor gave everyone a kiss too.

Victor was guiding his owner Chris and colleague Caroline around the hospital to collect requests, so Grandad chose Shirley Bassey.   Soon it was time for Chris, Caroline and Victor to see the next patient so we had another kiss from Victor and this time Mum and Nanny joined in.

A final hug and cuddle and then Chris, Caroline and Victor were off with Grandad promising to listen to the programme between 8 and 9pm.   But the best thing for us was the smile on Grandad's face."

This is what our request teams aim to do. If, at each session, we put a smile on just one person's face then it has all been worthwhile.

We collect requests about an hour or two before the programme goes out.   This means there is less chance of the patients forgetting, as they could easily do if we collected a day or two early.

Request programmes are every weekday evening, 8 to 9pm and Saturday morning 11-30am to 12-15pm.

Iain Smith - Programme Organiser

Throughout the year Rugby Hospital Radio in addition to their daily programmes broadcast a series of special events.

Normally these are Bank and public holidays such as Easter and Christmas, however we also take part of various events within the Hospital of St.Cross.

Every Sunday afternoon we relay the service from the Chapel of St.Elizabeth located within the hospital.  This service is conducted by various churches from the local parish.

Rugby Hospital Radio has a state of the art studio facilty within St.Cross Hospital which is used to produce and present all our programmes.

We remain indebted to the generosity of The Friends of St.Cross for both their recent donation in purchasing our new mixer (pictured below) and their continued financial support with ward headphones and our music library.