Spotlight
“Well, this year has certainly been very different for us, as it has been for most people. When the first lock down started earlier this year it had a big impact for us at Hospital Radio Colchester. Straight away we were no longer able to visit patients in the hospital wards. This is one of our core activities. We make visits to the patients to have a chat with them and collect song requests which we then play on our flagship show ‘The Request Show’ in the evening between 8:00-9:00 pm. No longer being able to do this has been very difficult indeed. We have, however continued to provide our service to the listeners in the hospital 24 hours per day, 7 days per week all throughout 2020, albeit with some very different working practices in place. For me personally, I am fortunate enough that I was able to be set up at home with the technology to be able to remotely connect to the hospital radio system and pre-record my shows. I currently present a midweek breakfast show between 8:00-10:00 am on Wednesday mornings. During the initial lock down, very few people were allowed to go into the studios because of social distancing restrictions. As time has moved on however, and the restrictions being eased some of us have been able to go to the studios and do some live shows over the summer. Since the second lock down in November, I have reverted to doing my shows from home. We are still unable to visit the hospital wards but it is credit to all of the volunteers that our service is still continuing 24/7”
