This will hopefully be the first of many blogs about my radio show ‘A Game of 2 Halves – with Rob & Chris’ at Watford Hospital Radio but seeing as it is the first I think I’ll just give you a quick insight to my time so far at WHR and the birth of mine and Chris’s show.
I joined the station in November 2009. The reasons for doing so are many. Firstly, I was incredibly bored, at the time I was working in an office 9 till 5 and although I would spend my weekends going up to Cambridge to see my incredible girlfriend, my activities during the week after work were limited and repetitive. I needed something interesting and fun to do.
Secondly, volunteering always looks great on a CV, plus it’s very fulfilling, knowing that you might make one patient’s time in the hospital that little bit less stressful make it’s completely worth it. However, there was and always has been one overarching reason as to why I wanted to join WHR.
I want to work within the Media Industry!
‘What better way to get work experience than hospital radio!’ I thought to myself.
And it’s true, it is a superb way to get work experience, and to anyone who is looking at working in the media I highly recommend it. Not only is it a great way of building up your confidence behind the microphone, but it allows you to breed your creativity by planning and producing your own show, every single week.
But of course, they don’t give you a show as soon as you turn up. Plus, with the sudden influx of new applicants wanting to join the station, you may not get to do a show at the time you want. But before you have to worry your little head about that, every applicant has to go through training.
The training is of course, great fun. For many, like me, it’ll be the first time you get to go behind the mic and because of this you’d be wise to think that they’d give you a few test runs before they think about putting you on air to the patients. But you’d be wrong. Instead, they throw you straight into the deep-end by putting you live on-air while telling you how it all works. It can be a little daunting at first, but it is completely the right way of going about it. Largely because any of those nerves that may be simmering at the surface regarding going live on-air disappear almost immediately, but also you learn a whole lot quicker by actively doing it.
My training at WHR was somewhat stuttered by the snow making near impossible on occasions to get to the hospital, but eventually I had completed my training and by early February I had my very own show.
Before, ‘A Game of 2 Halves – with Rob & Chris’, the show was called ‘Thornley’s Folklores’. The show was based around playing Indie Folk & Acoustic music, and I had done the show by myself for around 2 to 3 months. It was a good show, and I thoroughly enjoyed doing it, but I always knew something was missing. A co-host!
Chris joined WHR a few months after myself and was in the middle of his training when we first met at the AGM meeting. It was decided there and then that doing the show together would benefit both of us. A few weeks later we had completed our first show together, after concluding that the show was a success we made the line up permanent.
Since then, the show has evolved into what we now call ‘A Game of 2 Halves –with Rob & Chris’.
The basic premise of the show is that we plan an hour each, I do the first hour, Chris does the second, each with there own unique style. My hour involves Music with a Theme, the themes range from Covers, to World Cup songs and from summer hits to Glastonbury’s finest.
Chris’s hour consists of all the requests made by the patients prior to the show, and in both hours we have games, quiz’s and banter filling up all the gaps.
Of course, it is still a work in progress, and it will only ever get better with the more shows we do (this week we came up with a jingle). But despite all the little mistakes that happen and the lack of structure to the show, it’s a really fun show to do, and I can only hope it’s as fun to listen too.
Anyway, I’m going to wrap up for now, and let you get on with your day. Be sure to visit this site regularly as I will hopefully update it with all sorts of stuff that might interest you. As for my WHR blogs, there’ll be another one next Friday.
Also, please do use the comments box below to give me feedback regarding anything to do with this blog or the show. Maybe you have an idea as to what theme of music I can play, or maybe you want to hear about something in particular regarding hospital radio. Whatever it is, I’ll be happy to hear your feedback.
Thanks for reading.
P.S. You'll note on the righthand side to this page there is a poll where you can vote for which song you think should open the show next week. Only takes a second, and even if you don't think you'll be listening next week, vote anyway. Thanks
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