Conquest Hospital Radio offers cheer during the pandemic

And you don’t need to be a patient to enjoy music and chat shows provided by local DJ’s which are helping to bring some cheer during the pandemic.

Conquest Hospital Radio now broadcasts online via the website www.conquesthospitalradio.co.uk and even has its own app which can be downloaded from iOS and Google if you search for CHR conquest hospital radio.

Mr Gentry said: In all the 40 plus years of the hospital radio in Hastings and Bexhill, there has never been a more pressing time for us to go beyond just playing music and entertaining those who are hospital bound.

“The Conquest is part of the local community and as such has been right in the middle of everything that has been connected with the current pandemic.

“We have played a role throughout since the first lock down in helping with information, support and music for everybody.

“We kept going from day one and with a mixture of live, recorded and syndicated shows plus the good old back up of the CHR juke box, and this also enabled the station to get out important information to the whole community, via the web to include our dedicated Facebook pages.

“When things were looking like returning to some form of normality, bearing in mind the patient numbers in this part of the country, at that time, were extremely low, we could and did start to think about Christmas and New Year, what specials we could put together to make this a much happier time of the year.

“One of the happy tasks that I was able to do, was to allow visitors into the studio. Apart from a couple of fund raising events for various parts of the hospital and Hastings Old Town Carnival, with FM’s Andy Knight talking about carnivals past, visitors had been kept to minimum for obvious infection control reasons.

“One of the events that I was looking forward was the Christmas Morning session with the Major – Cllr Nigel Sinden. This had been part of the schedule for the past three years.

“Although Nigel had been a frequent visitor to CHR, we both felt that Christmas Morning was something special.

“Right up until the last minute everything was going to plan, and then as we all know the figures just rocketed and I had to bring back no visitor rule.

“Thanks to our Technical Station Manager – Mark we managed to bring out a show, based on an edited 2019 performance, with dated adverts removed, but some of the visitors from that show still included.

“Another aspect of the Christmas Line up was to be the Christmas Extravaganza – with Jeff and guests, this can only be described as “three hours of fun and games“, and just what the doctors would have liked for the patients and the staff.

“However, working with a reduced staff, what we did produce were a lot of live shows with “special” themes for Christmas and to make it as happy time as possible.

“This year again we joined up with many of the other Hospital Radio Stations for the New Year Extravaganza providing a total of 33 hours of entertainment.

“The event saw several of the Hospital Radio Stations getting together and putting out a combined show, which has now grown to cover the UK and Ireland.

“Throughout the whole of the period, we have maintained the continued broadcasting for we very much hope the patients, staff and visitors to the Hospital and the community.

“I am very proud of what the team has achieved throughout this time.”

See also: Award winning Hastings baker is back in the kitchen during lockdown