17th October 2017

York Hospital Radio is looking for volunteer request collectors, and  assistants for its weekly sports shows

York Hospital Radio – the registered charity which broadcasts to patients in the York Hospital 24 hours a day, seven days a week – is looking for volunteer request collectors, to visit the wards, in addition to volunteers to provide backup help to its sports broadcasters.

The request collectors will be given full training, and will be responsible for visiting selected wards during the daytime, meeting suitable patients, and taking details of the music they would like to hear on the radio station. They will also share information about the station and simply have a chat with the patient concerned. The request collectors will then collate the music choices, ready to be broadcast later by the station’s volunteer presenters.

In addition, the radio station is also looking for volunteers who would like to help with its sports shows. These roles are not broadcasters, but help the presenters by collating information about scores and scorers, and by preparing audio clips from other sources for broadcast during the show. The sports show, Goal Line, is broadcast every Saturday afternoon during the football season, and midweek when appropriate, and covers York City matches whether home or away. A rota will be prepared for sports backup assistants, who will not be expected to attend every week.

Ian Clennan, chairman of York Hospital Radio, explained: “These newly recruited request collectors will enable us to offer even better shows for our listeners, as they will have chosen the music themselves. We all know that a stay in hospital can be a rather lonely experience, even with the very best efforts of all the staff, and getting a favourite record played – and just meeting a request collector – can really help to put a patient at ease, and give them something to look forward to.

“We know that our sports show is one of the most popular parts of our output, and we are looking for more people to get involved, to help to keep it as informative and professional as it can possibly be.”

The radio station now broadcasts online, as well as in the York Hospital, and all its programmes can be heard by selecting the ‘Listen Live’ feature on www.yorkhospitalradio.com or by downloading the York Hospital Radio app from your app store.

Ian Clennan added : “I am delighted that we can  now be heard online as well, which adds a whole new dimension to the service we provide.”

Request collectors and sports backup volunteers can be any age. Request collectors must be available during the day, and should be able to commit to regular visiting, though the frequency of the visits can be agreed with the radio station, to suit the individual volunteer. Sports backup volunteers must be available on Saturday afternoons.

Anybody interested in finding out more should email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or they can call 01904 628800, and leave a message.

York Hospital Radio broadcasts a request show each midweek evening, and also broadcasts outside broadcasts from a range of local venues, as well as commentaries on all York City home games. The station also presents many music shows, covering all forms of music from the 1950s to the current charts