The Hospital Radio Service first started it's broadcasting on 1st September 1975. It was originally called Radio St. Bernard's because it only broadcast to the patients and staff in St Bernard's Hospital. The 15 members of the original station were drawn from various walks of life and some of them had worked for other hospital radio stations before. The one thing they all had in common, however, was that they were all volunteers and to this day, all our members give their services free.

The output from the station changed a little over the years, with a wide variety of music played to suit all tastes and ages, plus up-to-the-minute news from our own local area, and from around the world, keeping people in touch and hopefully singing along. We have always tried to keep our programmes sounding as professional as possible, after all, as a nation, we are used to seeing and hearing some of the best TV and radio in the world. So just because people are in hospital, why should they expect to listen to anything less than perfect?

To this end we set up our own training course, leaning heavily on our more experienced members to share their knowledge with others to produce competent radio people. It must have been successful because, to date, we have had no fewer than 16 of our presenters move to professional radio or TV.

St Bernard's hospital did offer us one advantage over other hospital set-ups: our listeners heard our broadcasts over loud speakers as opposed to headphones, enabling staff to listen while still going about their work. With so many of our patients being long-stay, we became their link with the outside world, just like your own local radio. We started our Ward Radio Roadshows to take our presenters into the wards to to meet our audience face-to-face and to be available to do discos outside the hospital to raise funds to keep the station solvent.  Since then, Ward Radio has continued to serve the local community and publicise the hospitals in the form of its 'Roadshows' at local events - school fetes, fun-days and even the Hanwell Carnival.

In 1978, the hospital authorities decided to extend our service to include the new Ealing Hospital and Perivale Maternity Hospital. It was obvious that the name Radio St Bernard's would have to be changed as we were not broadcasting purely to St Bernard's anymore. After much debate, we picked the name Ward Radio which really did sum up our work. We were lucky to discover an American radio station called "Ward Radio" and they allowed us to use their jingles.

So that has been the development of Ward Radio over the past 30 years. The faces may have changed, but the high standards we hope have continued to bring a little joy and pleasure to our listeners.

As part of our 18th birthday celebrations, in September 1993 we broadcast to the Borough of Ealing (and beyond) via a medium-wave transmitter.  As well as Ealing, our programmes were picked up some 50 miles away, so it was a bit beyond our expected area. We were well received as a community radio for two weeks, broadcasting fourteen hours a day a mixture of music and speech-based programmes.

In 2006 and 2007, Ward Radio for the first time entered the National Hospital Radio Awards, and in 2007 picked up a Gold Award in the Best Newcomer category, as well as several other commendations.

Since 2003, Ward Radio, like so many other hospital radio stations, has been waiting with baited breath for a bedside patient entertainment system to be installed at Ealing Hospital.  Work started on the installation of a new bedside system in 2004, however this was never completed, and five years later in 2009 we are still waiting!

Meanwhile, existing systems have been decomissioned as wards are refurbished - leaving Ward Radio without an audience who could pick up the station.

Similarly, many of the loudspeaker systems in St Bernard's and other WLMHT wards have been decomissioned and not replaced.  Ward Radio was limited to broadcasting to selected Wards in Ealing Hospital and John Conolly Wing until 2007 when a severed cable cut off the service.

Despite our best efforts to get the cable repaired to maintain some listeners, health & safety issues with our Victorian basement studios eventually forced us to vacate them in October 2008.

However, all is not doom and gloom for Ward Radio.  Discussions with Ealing Hospital Trust have recently taken place regarding plans for bedside entertainment within the hospital.  As a result of these discussions, we hope to be able to re-launch a hospital radio channel in Ealing Hospital later in 2010.