On Monday 16th February, from 10am, you can meet and talk to some of the people who provide voluntary services within Grantham Hospital, including representatives of the team from Radio Witham, at the Volunteer Roadshow.

Find out how many people provide voluntary services within the hospital, what sorts of jobs they do, and how the volunteer sector enriches the services provided at Grantham Hospital.

Another new year dawns, and Radio Witham is poised to make 2009 quite an exciting year.

Among our plans for the new year, we're looking to recruit more volunteers, particularly those aged between 16 and 25, although volunteers of all ages are welcome to apply to join us to make life in Grantham Hospital that little more enjoyable for patients and staff.

We'll be sending a delegation to Blackpool for the HBA's conference in March. This is a great event, where hospital radio workers from all over the country get to meet each other, swap ideas, and reward stations who are performing well. This leads into Hospital Broadcasting Week, where we'll be joining stations up and down the country in promoting what we do.

Many other events for 2009 are still in the early planning stages, but we'll let you know what we'll be up to here in the near future.

On Friday 25th June 2008, Grantham Hospital flung open its doors to the general public to have a look at some of the fantastic work that goes on in the various departments.

Members from Radio Witham were present, representing the League of Friends, to talk about the function of hospital radio, and how we integrate within the hospital.

Radio Witham's volunteer presenters give their time freely, to entertain patients in Grantham Hospital. We're always glad when someone new walks through the doors to help out. Some presenters go on to work at the station for a very long time. Some presenters are forced to give up due to other commitments, with a view to returning when circumstances change.

After a great many years service, Keith Langdale-Brown has decided to retire from the team. Over the years he's done a great deal for the station, including a spell as station manager, which he handed over to Julie Cox in the 1990s. He then continued as station engineer until passing the batton (or should that be screwdriver?) to Steve Caddy last year. Finally, and by no means least, Keith has presented or introduced hundreds, if not thousands of programmes, including Radio Witham's jazz programme, classical music, and the cornerstone of Radio Witham's programming, the weekly church service. We thank Keith for his fantastic work.

To continue all the work that Keith was doing has required the efforts of three people. Tom Stevens has been presenting jazz and big band music on a Friday evening for a few months now, having joined us last year. Steve Caddy moves from a Monday evening to step into Keith's shoes on a Sunday, to introduce the church service and present classical music. Filling the hole on a Monday evening, we introduce Rob Mason, who left Radio witham in 2000, when he moved away from Grantham, but after several years with Hospital Radio York, we welcome him back.

Radio Witham has won an award for its documentary programme "Spire Story", in the "Best Speech Package" category of the Hospital Broadcasting Association's awards.

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Radio Witham at Grantham Hospital, along with other Hospital Radio stations in the East Midlands, has joined forces with Trading Standards East Midlands to warn local residents about doorstep criminals who ‘cold call’ at people’s homes, and to offer advice on how to deal with such callers.

A series of ‘infomercials’ have been produced by Trading Standards together with an interview of nationally recognised doorstep crime consultant, and former Detective Chief Superintendent, Brian Steele, which will be played to hospital patients and visitors over the coming six months.

TSEM Regional Community Safety Project Co-ordinator, Nicola Schofield said, “We are delighted to have support now from the Hospital Radio Stations in the region as partners in this work. The aim of the radio campaign is to send a strong message to the wider community, as well as those in the vulnerable group, urging them to be extra vigilant. The radio initiative is part of an ongoing, major initiative throughout the East Midlands to tackle this abhorrent crime. Deceiving people on their own doorsteps is despicable and lives can be ruined and yet this crime often goes unrecognised or unreported. By raising awareness, encouraging reporting, looking out for the more vulnerable and older members of our community and exercising proper doorstep skills, doorstep crime can be avoided”.

In 2000, Radio Witham was awarded the top prize for best non-music (speech) progamming at the Hospital Broadcast Association's annual awards.

This year we're hoping to repeat this success, as our entry for "Spire Story - St Wulfram's Church" has been shortlisted for the "IRN Best Speech Package" at this year's HBA awards. This means that we've been placed in the top 10 entries in this national competition.

Spire Story tells the story of St Wulfram's church in Grantham, and includes a guided tour of the church and also the tower itself, including interviews with the steeple keeper and captain of the bell ringers.

The awards ceremony is on Saturday 29th March at the Queens Hotel in Leeds, and some of Radio Witham's presenters will be be there.

Radio Witham is proud of its extensive music library, which has been built up over the last 30 years to include just about anything that any patient could ever request. The problem is, keeping track of where nearly ten thousand 7 inch singles, five thousand LPs, and two thousand CDs are on the shelves!

Since 1994 we've been using a computer to keep a record of our records, and every few years we sort though the index to keep the list up to date, retiring vinyl where we have new CD copies, removing duplicates, adding newly donated records and CDs. 2008's sort out is a bit of a major one, because we've decided it's time for some new shelves, as our existing shelves are over 20 years old and are now completely full. Hopefully, after all this hard work, we'll be able to locate records quickly as and when they're requested by the patients and staff of Grantham Hospital.

We hope to have some pictures of the work in progress soon...

Radio Witham has had a busy December, settling in to our new studio facilities, which will help our presentation team to continue to produce award winning programming.

On the subject of awards, Radio Witham has sent off a number of entries in various categories for the Hospital Broadcast Association Awards, which will be held on 29th March 2008, at the Queen's Hotel in Leeds.

The new year brings some new programmes, including the best of the 1990s, and a return to our focus on the 1950s. After more years service than we dare to count, Keith Langdale Brown is stepping down from presenting Jazz music, and Tom Stevens is our new Jazz presenter. Keith isn't quite disappearing from Radio Witham though, as he continues to introduce the church service, and presents classical music on a Sunday afternoon. You'll find our new programme schedule on the menu on the left, or by clicking here.

Welcome to the all new and improved site for Radio Witham. We're still working on a few things, adding pictures, etc, so keep coming back for the latest news...