Radio St Helier

Entertaining the hospital's patients for over 40 years

Radio St Helier has broadcast across the hospital for over 40 years now. In that time, we have gone from a small room shared with the chaplain to our own purpose-built studios with the latest radio broadcast technology.

Our history

After an agreement with the hospital management, the founder of Radio St Helier, Mike Button, presented the first programme from the corner of the then Chaplain's changing room on 6 June 1970 - and Radio St Helier was born.

As the membership grew, more programmes were broadcast and eventually the station took over the room completely and turned it into a fully functioning radio station. This lasted until the late 1980s when the service was outgrowing the space it had. A search for bigger premises was undertaken.

A major fundraising project was launched and over three years, with the assistance of the community and local businesses, £125,000 was raised. A purpose-built radio station was created which was officially opened on the station's 21st anniversary on 6 June 1991.

On 6 June 2009, we officially launched our computer based playout system. This allows us to broadcast 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

In 2010, we celebrated our 40th birthday by broadcasting to the local area on FM and to the rest of the world via our website stream.

Radio St Helier today

The service is run entirely by unpaid volunteers who provide a variety of programmes to patients at both St Helier Hospital and Queen Mary's Hospital for Children. Inpatients can listen to the station for free on channel 5 of the internal bedside radio units on the majority of the wards.

Radio St Helier broadcasts live programmes in the evenings (7pm - 10pm on weekdays) and at weekends (9am - 10pm). At other times, a computerised system provides a mix of music, comedy, news and entertainment for listeners.

The station broadcasts a wide variety of specialist programmes such as the Christian and gospel music show "The Journey" and the "Supa Dupa Cool Saturday Show", a radio show just for children at Queen Mary's Hospital for Children.

They have an extensive record library catering for every taste in music including light orchestral, military, jazz, country and western, classical, rock and pop.

The radio station is totally self-funded and raises its income by providing a service at events in and around the local area with its outside broadcast units.

Contact the team

If you would like to find out more about Radio St Helier, contact the team on 020 8296 2259, visit their website at www.radiosthelier.co.uk (opens in a new window) or email them at requests@radiosthelier.co.uk.

You can also find them on Facebook (opens in a new window) and find them on Twitter (opens in a new window).

Registered charity number 279541.

Key contacts

If you are interested in getting involved with Radio St Helier, or would like to make a donation to support their work, please call 020 8296 2259 or visit the Radio St Helier website.

You can also find them on Facebook (opens in a new window) and find them on Twitter (opens in a new window).

The presenters visit hospital wards to collect music requests from patients - these are at the heart of the programmes - make a song request by email or make a song request online.