Our aims and objectives

Hospital radio services throughout the country provide radio programmes to their local hospital or group of hospitals. These services are staffed by volunteers and aim to complement the services provided by national and local radio stations.

Canterbury Hospital Radio broadcasts exclusively to the patients and staff of the Kent & Canterbury Hospital. We are part of the League of Friends of the Kent & Canterbury Hospital, which is a registered charity. Although we are part of the League of Friends, we are essentially autonomous in that we are managed by our own executive committee and we raise our own funds. The League of Friends, however, have the power to intervene if they consider that we are not meeting our objectives and may help financially in certain circumstances.

Producing radio broadcasts to the Hospitals is a complex business. It involves far more than sitting in front of a microphone, playing records. Programmes have to be planned and prepared, the patients have to be visited to collect requests and obtain vital feedback on the suitability and quality of our programmes and telephone and other enquiries have to be dealt with. None of this could occur without a great deal of support activity. Records have to be catalogued and indexed so that suitable titles can readily be found and the equipment has to be maintained in good working order. Add to this the administration required to ensure that everything runs smoothly and the production of programmes is complete.

But, this is only half the story! Broadcasting is an expensive business and much of our time is devoted to fund-raising activities. These range from street collections and sponsored events to full scale appeals; but new ideas are always welcome! We also need to publicise our service, so public relations play an important role in our activities. This area extends into helping the local community; by providing a public address service at school fêtes, for example.

1. To provide a hospital radio service to the Kent & Canterbury Hospital.
2. To improve the quality of life for the patients and staff.
3. To raise funds to finance the service.
4. To provide support services, such as public address, to activities organised by the League of Friends. To help in the local community wherever possible, always providing that the main role of serving the local hospital is not compromised.

If you wish to know more about CHR, we have an extensive list of frequently asked questions.