Battling to stay by your bedside: Radio Tyneside’s biggest challenge yet

They’ve been at our side for three quarters of a century, but NHS cuts mean that Radio Tyneside is at risk of dropping off the airwaves.

This morning the Hebridean Way is light, sunny and a little breezy, which is good news for Tony Crosby who is about to embark on an epic journey across remote Scottish islands, in an effort to save a service close to home.

“I’ve decided to do it in April, because there are less midges around. The tourist board told me if you come in April there’s a chance you won’t get bitten. If I come in May, June or July, I’ll be like a pin cushion!”

For Tony, the timing of his bucket list adventure is useful for more than just avoiding the midges.

Over almost 75 years, through the most joyful and devastating of moments, we have been soothed, entertained and distracted by a group of dedicated volunteers – but now, their vital service is under threat and Tony and his team are doing everything they can to protect it.

No. 3 North Terrace in Spital Tongues has been home to Radio Tyneside for more than a decade now, sharing its many rooms with NHS offices and broadcasting into hospitals and homes across Newcastle and Gateshead.

However, last year, the NHS withdrew its offices from the building, and recently, they announced plans to sell it when inspections revealed costly repairs.

Tony Crosby (left) and Dave Nicholson OBE (right) are fighting to keep their station on air (CREDIT: ELEANOR TAIT).

Since their first broadcast, Radio Tyneside has been granted free rooms by the NHS, and the station successfully transitioned from their old studios at Newcastle’s General Hospital in 2009 to their current address with their support.

But as the NHS increasingly struggles to fund its essential services, hospital broadcasters across the country are taking a potentially fatal hit. Radio Tyneside is the latest service of several to be informed that their local NHS trust will no longer be able to accommodate them.

Without a solution fast, the station is at very real risk of falling into radio silence.

Tony, and Chairman of Radio Tyneside, Dave Nicholson, understand that the enormous demand on the NHS means they have to make cuts somewhere, but it’s still a massive blow.

“Everything has to be to do with getting patients better, and radio is not something that they can afford to support,” Tony says.

“Out in the commercial market, the rent would put us off air. We couldn’t raise the amount of commercial rents which are £15-20,000 a year. We raise that to pay for our music copyright and our right to be on FM and DAB, and really that swallows it all up.”

A regular contributor over the years, Tony Crosby takes on a 300km bike ride across the Hebridean Way today to raise funds for Radio Tyneside (CREDIT: ELEANOR TAIT).

Dave has dedicated more than half a century to Radio Tyneside, and picked up an OBE in 2022 for his unwavering commitment to the station and community.

“The station to me is my life. I’ve been here 52 years,” Dave reflects.

“We’re actively looking for places to possibly go to. We’ve been to some places and the rents are just astronomical, a thousand pound a month – we couldn’t afford anything like that.”

The future of Radio Tyneside depends on the loyalty of its volunteers and listeners. Tony, who has devoted countless Saturday mornings to his listeners, is leading the way this weekend as he sets out to cycle the sometimes treacherous 300km of the Hebridean Way.

“It’s apparently a beautiful ride to do, so remote you can have Atlantic storms flying in, so the weather can be touch and go,” he says.

It’s been a long-time goal for Tony to ride the route, and while his plans were quashed in 2020 with the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic, the station’s desperate situation revived the plan which he is using to fundraise.

Radio Tyneside provides a vital service to patients who might otherwise have a lonely and isolating social experience during medical treatment (CREDIT: JANE ALI / ALAMY IMAGES).

In a world which offers so many ways to entertain and distract at a touch, however, hospital and community radio stations have been forced to adapt to continue to engage listeners, and some may questions whether their service is even relevant anymore.

Radio Tyneside now uses digital audio broadcasting (DAB) and reaches into people’s homes online and via smart speakers. They have also been developing their community-based output to include feature programmes on health and wellbeing, plus coverage of huge regional events like the Great North Run, and recently even a wool show at Gosforth Park.

“You would think wool would be quite a boring subject – the place was mobbed!

“There’s all kinds of events that we can cover that other stations can’t cover, and aren’t interested [in]. They don’t have time to send people out, but we like to do that so we can give people [in the] local area what’s happening.”

Yet, broadcasting into hospitals for hospitals remains at the heart of the station’s aims.

“We’ll always be associated with the NHS wherever we are,” Dave affirms.

“It’s personal to people who are in the hospital.

“I had a dedication came in the other morning from the daughter of a guy who’d had a kidney transplant and she says, ‘he’s just woken up, he’s listening to the radio, so could we hear, Wake Up Little Susie?’ I don’t think her father was called Susie, but you get requests like that, and that’s where it becomes special.”

This is a sentiment echoed by members of the Hospital Broadcasting Association (HBA), which represents more than 160 hospital, health, and wellbeing broadcasting organisations across the country.

Ian Pinnell, Vice Chair of Trustees at the HBA said, “[Patients] might not have any visitors other than the doctors and nurses that are giving them their treatment.

“With all the will in the world, [medical professionals] don’t have the time to spend, because their workloads are so busy.

“Hospital radio volunteers really play a part in speaking to the patients, finding out about them, their music choices, why they picked that song, and you really do hear some heart-warming stories. That is one of the losses that would happen if Radio Tyneside weren’t to be around.”

To date, Radio Tyneside has raised more than £2,000, but it will take thousands more to secure the future of this importance service.

To support Radio Tyneside and Tony on his Hebridean adventure, visit their GoFundMe page here.