|
Ron Heney with the wall of fame at Hospital Radio's new Stafford St premises.
Ron's life on the radio airwaves
|
Claire Allison -Aug 30 2012
He's been on the airwaves for 23 years, bringing a little bit of country to town. Features editor Claire Allison speaks to Ron Heney about Hospital Radio.
Hospital Radio and Ron Heney have been inextricably linked since the station's inception in 1988.
Ron was the man behind the idea of Hospital Radio, bringing back the concept from a trip he and wife Pauline took to Holland.
He had previously had a stay in hospital, in the days when every bed had a headset so patients could tune in and listen to various radio stations. With the options including - from memory - Radio Caroline, 3YA, 3YC and the Concert Programme, nothing much appealed to Ron, and he thought there was room for an alternative.
A Timaru boy, Ron went to Marchwiel School and Timaru College, then began working at Fairview Metal Windows in Coonoor Rd. While that wasn't to prove his career path, it did get him started in radio.
"I really had an interest in radio, and my boss at the time, the late Jim Smillie, was a radio ham, and he encouraged me to get my amateur licence at the age of 19."
Ron moved on to take a job with Electronic Enterprises, servicing everything from RTs to office equipment, from Oamaru to Ashburton.
A big country-music fan with a passion for radio, Ron had long been interested in semi-commercial broadcasting, but it wasn't until the trip to Holland and a visit to a hospital radio station there that he saw the concept's true value.
"So, with that under my wing, I came back home and approached the South Canterbury Hospital Board in November 1988 to apply to set up a station within the hospital."
In December 1988, the board approved a three-month trial, and the first one-hour Sunday morning broadcast of The Country Way took place in April 1989 - Ron had to make all the gear before the station could get off the ground.
In June 1989, a further three-month trial was approved, this time for two-hour shows on Sunday mornings and, by September, the station was running a three-hour show each week.
It was a two-man band, Ron and Peter Cooke, and very hands-on.
"In those days, we used to go and visit the patients before going on air to get their dedications and requests then, later on, we introduced a request form that could be handed out by nursing staff to the patients during the week, and we'd pick that up on Friday for the Sunday programme."
The feedback was immediate.
"Nursing staff would come to us and say, ‘Ron, I don't know what you've done to the patients, but it's so quiet up here now'. There was a noticeable change."
Peter left in 1991, and his place was taken by Bryan Blanchard. The radio station moved from the bottom of the Lindsay Wing (The Gardens Block) to the top, with stunning views of the sea and the mountains.
A Wednesday programme called Yesterday's Radio was approved in April 1992, and broadened the kind of music on offer and, about the same time, Ron joined the Radio Caroline team, and presented a Sunday evening show called Caroline Country.
"I had listeners from the Haast, fishing vessels at the Kermadec Islands, Taranaki . . . when that was chopped [in January 1996] it created more letters to the editor than the fluoridation issue. It got very hostile."
Hospital Radio broadened its horizons in 1996, when the station applied to install an FM transmitter. With the hospital doing away with the internal network and headsets, the station had to get an FM band and, for the past 15 years or so, has been broadcasting on 88.0FM in central Timaru, 107.5FM in Marchwiel, and 107.1FM in Geraldine.
The station's range used to be wider, with transmitters at Mt Horrible, Pleasant Point, Pareora and Temuka, but government decisions saw those scaled back.
The station has a team of about 15, who present programmes from 5pm to 10.30pm during the week, 9am to 6pm on Saturdays, and about 8.30am to 10pm on Sundays. It broadcasts automatically outside of those times.
"A lot of the music has been donated, and a lot of it is personal to the presenters. Most presenters use their own material, and they plan their programmes before they broadcast. There's usually as much time preparing the programmes as there is putting it on the air."
The station has the equipment to play cassette tapes, vinyl records and CDs, and programmes may use a mixture of all three.
"It's been a very gratifying experience, mostly to give health benefits; that was the reason for setting it up. And the secondary consideration was providing a vehicle to give to other people to come and broadcast to the community, offering their voluntary services. They couldn't do it working under any commercial station.
"So, in general terms, it's just supporting our community, which I love."
The feedback has been encouraging; the station has been recognised in community awards in 2005 and 2007 and, each year, loyal listeners join the DJs for a shared-plate get-together, providing an opportunity to put faces to some of the voices on air and at the end of the phone.
"We get marvellous feedback from people, and our family of listeners is growing. We don't get every listener along; some are quite happy just to listen, a lot of people don't even phone in.
"In my occupation, doing Freeview installations, I meet a lot of people who say they listen to Hospital Radio, or they know people who do."
Ron recognises that many of the station's listeners are older people, and says that can be a wee bit of a worry; that younger people don't know, or aren't interested in the easy-listening music being played.
"So it's a niche market in that respect, as to how long it's going to last, I don't know, but as station director and technical director, I'll keep doing it as long as I'm able."
Being self-employed has meant Ron's been able to juggle work and his radio commitments, but says that's really been possible only through the support of his wife and family.
And being busy, he has made one decision that has enabled him to focus on the job at hand.
"I don't clutter my life with cellphones or pagers. I'm busy enough with the phone at home. I had a cellphone, but there was many a time in my work I'd lose it in the ceiling of the house I was working in. I'd have the van all packed up, and then realise the cellphone wasn't on my person . . . So I thought, no way am I cluttering my life with that. I see people, and that's their entire life, centred on that screen. This way, I can concentrate on one job at a time."
A big job recently was moving the station from its home in the hospital's Gardens Block to new premises on Stafford St, after an assessment of the earthquake risk in the block.
"So I really have to thank all the presenters for their time and effort, and all the setting up here, all those people involved with the move, it's been wonderful."
It's very different being at street level, and Ron says they're missing the spectacular views, but they've kept on transmitting. Losing the altitude offered by the multi-storey hospital block has meant they've lost some coverage, particularly to the south end of Timaru, but he's hoping that within the next week or so they should be back to full coverage.
Just a few years ago, the station celebrated its 20th birthday; the poster marking the occasion hangs on the wall in the new premises.
"We'll see what the next 20 years brings ... who knows? It's quite time consuming, but it's gratifying to know that I've got everybody behind me; their support is crucial. But it's certainly a very enjoyable experience."
He's been on the airwaves for 23 years, bringing a little bit of country to town. Features editor Claire Allison speaks to Ron Heney about Hospital Radio.
Hospital Radio and Ron Heney have been inextricably linked since the station's inception in 1988.
Ron was the man behind the idea of Hospital Radio, bringing back the concept from a trip he and wife Pauline took to Holland.
He had previously had a stay in hospital, in the days when every bed had a headset so patients could tune in and listen to various radio stations. With the options including - from memory - Radio Caroline, 3YA, 3YC and the Concert Programme, nothing much appealed to Ron, and he thought there was room for an alternative.
A Timaru boy, Ron went to Marchwiel School and Timaru College, then began working at Fairview Metal Windows in Coonoor Rd. While that wasn't to prove his career path, it did get him started in radio.
"I really had an interest in radio, and my boss at the time, the late Jim Smillie, was a radio ham, and he encouraged me to get my amateur licence at the age of 19."
Ron moved on to take a job with Electronic Enterprises, servicing everything from RTs to office equipment, from Oamaru to Ashburton.
A big country-music fan with a passion for radio, Ron had long been interested in semi-commercial broadcasting, but it wasn't until the trip to Holland and a visit to a hospital radio station there that he saw the concept's true value.
"So, with that under my wing, I came back home and approached the South Canterbury Hospital Board in November 1988 to apply to set up a station within the hospital."
In December 1988, the board approved a three-month trial, and the first one-hour Sunday morning broadcast of The Country Way took place in April 1989 - Ron had to make all the gear before the station could get off the ground.
In June 1989, a further three-month trial was approved, this time for two-hour shows on Sunday mornings and, by September, the station was running a three-hour show each week.
It was a two-man band, Ron and Peter Cooke, and very hands-on.
"In those days, we used to go and visit the patients before going on air to get their dedications and requests then, later on, we introduced a request form that could be handed out by nursing staff to the patients during the week, and we'd pick that up on Friday for the Sunday programme."
The feedback was immediate.
"Nursing staff would come to us and say, ‘Ron, I don't know what you've done to the patients, but it's so quiet up here now'. There was a noticeable change."
Peter left in 1991, and his place was taken by Bryan Blanchard. The radio station moved from the bottom of the Lindsay Wing (The Gardens Block) to the top, with stunning views of the sea and the mountains.
A Wednesday programme called Yesterday's Radio was approved in April 1992, and broadened the kind of music on offer and, about the same time, Ron joined the Radio Caroline team, and presented a Sunday evening show called Caroline Country.
"I had listeners from the Haast, fishing vessels at the Kermadec Islands, Taranaki . . . when that was chopped [in January 1996] it created more letters to the editor than the fluoridation issue. It got very hostile."
Hospital Radio broadened its horizons in 1996, when the station applied to install an FM transmitter. With the hospital doing away with the internal network and headsets, the station had to get an FM band and, for the past 15 years or so, has been broadcasting on 88.0FM in central Timaru, 107.5FM in Marchwiel, and 107.1FM in Geraldine.
The station's range used to be wider, with transmitters at Mt Horrible, Pleasant Point, Pareora and Temuka, but government decisions saw those scaled back.
The station has a team of about 15, who present programmes from 5pm to 10.30pm during the week, 9am to 6pm on Saturdays, and about 8.30am to 10pm on Sundays. It broadcasts automatically outside of those times.
"A lot of the music has been donated, and a lot of it is personal to the presenters. Most presenters use their own material, and they plan their programmes before they broadcast. There's usually as much time preparing the programmes as there is putting it on the air."
The station has the equipment to play cassette tapes, vinyl records and CDs, and programmes may use a mixture of all three.
"It's been a very gratifying experience, mostly to give health benefits; that was the reason for setting it up. And the secondary consideration was providing a vehicle to give to other people to come and broadcast to the community, offering their voluntary services. They couldn't do it working under any commercial station.
"So, in general terms, it's just supporting our community, which I love."
The feedback has been encouraging; the station has been recognised in community awards in 2005 and 2007 and, each year, loyal listeners join the DJs for a shared-plate get-together, providing an opportunity to put faces to some of the voices on air and at the end of the phone.
"We get marvellous feedback from people, and our family of listeners is growing. We don't get every listener along; some are quite happy just to listen, a lot of people don't even phone in.
"In my occupation, doing Freeview installations, I meet a lot of people who say they listen to Hospital Radio, or they know people who do."
Ron recognises that many of the station's listeners are older people, and says that can be a wee bit of a worry; that younger people don't know, or aren't interested in the easy-listening music being played.
"So it's a niche market in that respect, as to how long it's going to last, I don't know, but as station director and technical director, I'll keep doing it as long as I'm able."
Being self-employed has meant Ron's been able to juggle work and his radio commitments, but says that's really been possible only through the support of his wife and family.
And being busy, he has made one decision that has enabled him to focus on the job at hand.
"I don't clutter my life with cellphones or pagers. I'm busy enough with the phone at home. I had a cellphone, but there was many a time in my work I'd lose it in the ceiling of the house I was working in. I'd have the van all packed up, and then realise the cellphone wasn't on my person . . . So I thought, no way am I cluttering my life with that. I see people, and that's their entire life, centred on that screen. This way, I can concentrate on one job at a time."
A big job recently was moving the station from its home in the hospital's Gardens Block to new premises on Stafford St, after an assessment of the earthquake risk in the block.
"So I really have to thank all the presenters for their time and effort, and all the setting up here, all those people involved with the move, it's been wonderful."
It's very different being at street level, and Ron says they're missing the spectacular views, but they've kept on transmitting. Losing the altitude offered by the multi-storey hospital block has meant they've lost some coverage, particularly to the south end of Timaru, but he's hoping that within the next week or so they should be back to full coverage.
Just a few years ago, the station celebrated its 20th birthday; the poster marking the occasion hangs on the wall in the new premises.
"We'll see what the next 20 years brings ... who knows? It's quite time consuming, but it's gratifying to know that I've got everybody behind me; their support is crucial. But it's certainly a very enjoyable experience."