The League of Friends of Grantham Hospital celebrated 45 years of providing the hospital with what they call "the icing on the cake" to the hospital's services.

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As a new year starts, it's time to take a look at the music that Radio Witham has played, by request, for patients in Grantham Hospital. Every year, our request chart seems to throw up surprises and interesting facts. During 2015, we played 55 more requests than we did in 2014. We plan to play even more in 2016. Our top 10 requested songs in 2015 were:

Number	Artist	Title
1	Doris Day	Move Over Darling
2	Abba	Mamma Mia
3	Johnny Cash	A Thing Called Love
4	Johnny Cash	Ring Of Fire
5	Three Tenors	La Donna E Mobile
6	Chris de Burgh	Lady In Red
7	Frank Sinatra	My Way
8	Michael Buble	Everything
9	Neil Diamond	Sweet Caroline
10	Roy Orbison	Only The Lonely

The League of Friends of Grantham Hospital organised a fund raising folk night that was held on Friday 30th May 2014.

The evening was well attended with musical entertainment features Del House, Paul Haley, Anni Keene, and Gary Rudd among others. Over £300 was raised for the League.

This Friday evening, 30th May, the League of Friends of Grantham Hospital present a folk night at the Kings Hotel, Grantham, in aid of the charity's funds..

Doors open at 7.30pm, and the musical entertainment features Del House, Paul Haley, Anni Keene, and Gary Rudd among others.

Tickets cost £6.50, and can be obtainbed by calling Ray on 07597 950 007. Light refreshments are included in the price.

Grantham Hospital’s dedicated radio station, Radio Witham, re-launched on Saturday 19th April at 10:30am, and saw the opening of the stations new relocated studio.

United Lincolnshire Hospitals Trusts’ Facilities Department informed Radio Witham in early 2013 that a former seminar room had become available as a possible new home for the station. Radio Witham’s management team, Ray Oliver, Steve Caddy, and Howard Newport, accepted this generous offer to move from its aging portacabin accommodation.

Volunteer coordinator, Ray Oliver, who presents a request show every Monday, said “We had been looking to move for several years, and this was an opportunity we couldn’t miss. We knew we had to move, and this was our best opportunity.”

Station engineer, Steve Caddy, who has been with the station since 1994, said “We discovered an old broadcast mixing console for sale in Newark, so we approached the seller, who sold us quite a lot of equipment. Broadcasting has changed in the time I’ve been with Radio Witham and with new digital technology becoming available, we decided to replace a lot of the old kit during the move.”

The move has taken several months to complete, with volunteers giving their time to help the station move furniture and equipment, and gear up for a new station sound as the station settles into its new home.

“This was the perfect time for the station to launch a new sound,” commented station manager, Howard Newport, who has been working in radio for ten years. “We have had a fantastic set of new jingles sung, and new computer play out software installed. We’re also launching a new logo to refresh our visual image. We’re really pleased with the new look and sound; it’s really brought the station forward.”

Mr Oliver added, “We are sure that the patients and staff will love the new professional sound to the station. All the volunteers are looking forward to presenting their shows with our refreshed look.”

“A huge thank-you goes to the League of Friends of Grantham Hospital, all the staff who have helped with the move, and to the presenters who have been so supportive with the relocation. We’d also like to add thanks to RAF Cranwell Craft and Gift Shop, who donated £500 which has paid for the stations new playout computer” Mr Caddy said.

“We are delighted that Radio Witham has relocated to it’s new home. The amount of hard work undertaken in making the move possible cannot be overstated and the new studio will be a lasting testament to the dedicated enthusiasm of the volunteers in the radio team, who have helped develop the scope of our charity”, said Simon Needham, Chairman of the League of Friends of Grantham Hospital.

On the day, presenters past and present where joined by the Mayor and Mayoress of Grantham, Cllr Frank and Christina Turner, along with Deputy Mayor and Gravity FM presenter Ian Selby.

Around 40 guests attended the opening, with the Mayor offically opening the station on air to the hospital by saying "Thank you to all of the staff and volunteers at the hospital and Radio Witham for all the hard work in building your new facility." The station then officially launched its new sound with a “Twelve Hour Music Marathon” with a selection of presenters hosting two hours shows playing requests from patients along with the stations new jingles created by Ignite Jingles.

“The re-launch sounds like the end of the project. But really, it’s just the start of another exciting chapter with new possibilities and better programmes. We are always looking for volunteers to help with all sorts of jobs from sorting music, collecting requests from patients, and presenting programmes.” Mr Newport said.

If you would like to get involved, email contact@radiowitham.com. You can also find the station on Facebook and Twitter.

The date has been set for the official relaunch and new studio opening at Radio Witham.

Saturday, 19th April will see the stations new studio, located in the main hospital building, officially opened, with a party to be attended by local dignitaries, along with celebrities, hospital staff and past-and-present volunteer presenters.

The opening at 10am will also see the start of our 'Twelve Hour Music Marathon' where we will be broadcasting non-stop for 12 hours, with all your favourite presenters taking to the chair for a few hours each.

Keep up-to-date with what we are doing in the run up to the big launch on our Facebook and Twitter pages.

Radio Witham announced earlier this year that the station is to relocated into new facilities within the main hospital building after nearly 30 years living in a prefabricated portacabin. We've been very busy building the new studio, and upgrading our broadcast capabilities. With work now nearly complete, we are now able to announce that the last live programme to come from the old studios will be broadcast on Friday 20th December 2013.

We are looking to start broadcasting live programmes from our new studio from the beginning of January, giving us just a couple of week to move the final parts of the station that we're not replacing (including our all important music library).

Don't worry, the station will remain on air over Christmas to keep the patients in Grantham Hospital entertained, as broadcasting has already been handed over to our newly upgraded control cabinet, which has been relaying all our programmes for the last month, without anyone even noticing the change.

We'll be announcing our official opening plans here soon.

Our Annual Music Night Stars RODEOJO a top female country and western singer at Gonerby Club on Saturday the 17th of August put your best cowboy outfits on and come and join Al Cotton for a good night out.

On 14th April we are planning to have a sale to raise funds for the League of Friends of Grantham Hospital.  Singles and Albums (1960's to 1980's) from Radio Witham's extensive record library will be on sale together with items from the charity shop (books, bric-a-brac, clothes etc.)  Further details and information will be posted nearer the date. Watch this space!

After over 30 years in the Portacabin the Radio is "on the move".  Time has taken its toll on the roof of the Portacabin and the Hospital has generously allocated a new location (situated near to the restaurant).  The move will take place during the next 2 or 3 months and we will need "all hands on deck" to ensure this goes smoothly.  Steve Caddy will be grateful for any time/assistance from any present or past Radio Witham contributors or anyone who would like to help. To volunteer use the "contact us" facility.

A big thank you to Cranwell for the donation of £500 towards the new computers which will be used to improve our service to the patients and staff at the hospital.

£1000 raised by the League of Friends including Radio Witham presenters at the Charity Music Night at Great Gonerby Social Club on the 18th of August 2012.

Thanks to Al Cotton, George Petrou and Nicola J, a sell out audience and all the entertainers who took part.

Senior golfers at Belton Woods raised £1000 for the League of Friends of Grantham Hospital on Wednesday 4th May, when forty four pairs of players played a round on the testing Lakes Championship course.

The Seniors captain chose the League of Friends of Grantham Hospital as his nominated charity, having experienced care in Grantham hospital recently, and will be presenting the total of this year's efforts at the end of his captaincy year in November.

League of Friends volunteers Ray Woodcock and Cilla Palul organised the fund raising at the event. Pictured below are The Belton Woods Seniors with League of Friends Chairman, Simon Needham.

Radio Witham now offers patients in Grantham Hospital the chance to relax every lunch time with our new programme of classical music.

Works from all the great composers, including Bach, Mozart, and Beethoven can be heard in full, and are uninterrupted by adverts.

Tune in from midday every day to enjoy an hour of relaxing classical music.

Radio Witham now offers round the clock bedside entertainment that's specifically for patients and staff.

Since Radio Witham started broadcasting to Grantham Hospital in 1976, we shared our channel with other radio stations, including BBC Radio 1 and Lincs FM. This has now all changed with the introduction of 24 hour programming, which allows us to broadcast the shows that patients would most like to hear, at times when patients most want to listen.

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...