Early days 1982-83
LOCAL newspaper reporter Mike Wallbank
was one of an initial team of volunteers
who helped to launch Tameside's hospital
broadcasting service.
Following months of research and
discussions with the health authority
and hospital management in
late 1981-early 1982, tentative plans
for the radio project began to take shape.
The project co-ordinator was Joan Ryan,
the Voluntary Services Officer (VSO)
based at the hospital.
On 18 May 1982 Joan arranged a
public meeting at Ashton Town Hall
the launchpad for 'Radio Tameside' -
the project's working title.
Mike recalls: "A few weeks earlier my
paper, The Reporter had published a
story appealing for volunteers - and
inviting anyone interested to go along to
the meeting.
" I had had an insight into the world of
hospital radio a year or so earlier
when I had written a feature about the
long-established hospital broadcasting
service at North Manchester
General Hospital, Crumpsall.
"The dedication and commitment of the
volunteers, many of whom had been
working at the station for 20 years left a
lasting impression."
The gathering at Ashton Town Hall included
people of a fairly wide age range and from
many walks of life who, in many cases,
had already expressedtheir desire to be
involved, after reading the story
in the paper.
Joan set out a priority list of tasks which
had to be completed in order to achieve
the goal of a hospital radio station.
The hospital would provide the premises -
the rest was up to us.
Skills would be pooled, sub groups formed
and tasks assigned. The starting pistol had
been fired for what would be 16 months of
frantic fund-raising and studio building.
The health authority had offered
the use of a basement at the hospital and
the services of its clerk of works to
oversee its conversion. Teams of
volunteers designed the layout for what
would become the studio, admin area
and record library and much hard graft
followed, turning those carefully drawn
plans into the hospital's very own radio
station.
The project needed a name and image
which would capture the public's
imagination and win their support.
HEARTBEAT RADIO was born - and now
it was time to get the show on the road!
"As I recall, £15,000 was the amount
we had to raise to build and equip the
studios," Mike recalled.
"The funds came through a multitude of
sources but ultimately most, if not all,
came from the public of Tameside."
Generous donations came in from
organisations like the Hospital League of
Friends and the Rotary clubs of Tameside
and there were also many wild and wacky
fundraising events by our own volunteers
including a children's fancy dress
disco dancing marathon at Hyde Town Hall,
an all-weekend sponsored mop-a-thon
by the hospital cleaning staff
(The Domestics) and the
never-to- be-forgotten Stalybridge
street climb - plus pub crawls,
street collections
and our very first roadshows.
One of the earliest was at the 1982
Tameside Canals Festival, long before
Portland Basin was the leading visitor
attraction it is today.
By the late summer of 1983 presenter
auditions were being held to choose the
on-air team for the station's launch.
Finally, the reward for everyone's efforts
came to fruition. The big date was
announced: Saturday 22 October
would be our first day on air, broadcasting
via an internal 'inductive loop' aerial
system on 312 metres Medium Wave,
or in new money, 963KHz AM.
At 10am Heartbeat Radio went on air
for the very first time with a programme
called - what else! Good Morning Tameside,
presented by Geoff Heath.
The first record was the current No. 2
chart record They Don't Know, Tracey
Ullman's cover version of a song written
by Kirsty MacColl. (Culture Club were
No. 1 with Karma Chameleon!)
For those of us involved in the launch,
who were now responsible for maintaining
a regular programme schedule on
Saturdays, Sundays and Wednesday
evenings (eventually to be extended
throughout the week), life would never be
the same again.
The rest, as they say, is history...
Heartbeat Radio evolved into
8 Towns Radio
and by the end of the decade was a
thriving volunteer service
providing daily programmes
of music and chat,
quizzes and competitions,
local news and sport...
and much more besides!
Volunteers Bob and Annie sorting through some of the thousands of LPs and singles donated by the people of Tameside through our record appeal.
