It was 24 March 1991 at 3pm when The Sound of Sunday started and this weekend the show will celebrate 30 years on the air.

Everything will start at 1pm with half an hour of birthday greetings from friends in hospital radio and beyond, who will also choose their favourite song from the last 30 years.

The birthday greetings will continue from 1.30 along with some highlights and memories of the show since 1991.

All the regular features will be there too including the only feature that has been there since the start – Soap Update.

The Sound of Sunday Big 30th Birthday Show – Sunday 21 March from 1pm

It started off as a 3 hour celebration of 30 years of Saturday morning TV on 2 October 2006.  Guests that afternoon on a special edition of The Sound of Sunday included Maggie Philbin, Trev and Simon and Mitch Johnson.  But over the next ten years, the show went on to interview numerous more people who had been involved in Saturday morning TV – right up to the 40th anniversary in 2016.

All the guests took part in the Saturday Morning TV Super Quiz, 5 or 6 questions about their era of Saturday morning TV.  Those who took part included Mark Rhodes, Keith Chegwin, Ortis Deley and even Basil Brush.  We even had the boss of Saturday morning TV for 30 years Chris Bellinger.

3 people though got 100% – Mike Read, Andi Peters and Trev Neal, and all were given a certificate and HRB mug as their prize.  Andi was sent his by post, Basil Brush presented Mike with his whilst they were in panto together, and we presented Trev with his prize in front of an audience at the Leicester Square theatre in London.

This Sunday, on The Sound of Sunday Extra Time, you can hear some of those who took part again and Mike and Trev receive their prizes.

The Sound of Sunday Extra Time – Sunday 14 March at 4pm

In 2019, we had many phone calls over the course of a week from a patient on F Floor called John.  He eventually explained why he chose the songs that he did – he’d worked with the artists involved.  He invited us up to talk to him and the resultant 30 minute programme was later entered into the National Hospital Radio Awards where it was nominated in the Best Speech Package category.

You can hear the full 30 minute programme again this Sunday in our Extra Time show – another of our memories and highlights of 30 years of The Sound of Sunday.

Drummer John, Sunday 28 February 4pm

The Sound of Sunday has staged many outside broadcasts over the years.  This Sunday’s Extra Time remembers two of them.

Firstly the day back in 1992 of the Staff Fun Day, held on the playing fields outside the then Park Prewett hospital.   Other HRB presenters of the time joined in our coverage and you can hear about 10 minutes of that on this weekend’s show.

Then there was the show we did live from Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in 2016.  We went live to the main venues around the park, ending up at the top of the Orbit with a spectacular view of London.

Hear the best bits of both of these outside broadcasts, this Sunday from 4pm.

It was described at the time as “the best hospital radio event ever”.  The weekend of the final Hospital Broadcasting Association regional meeting took place in Guernsey in May 1986.  The Sound of Sunday went along too and recorded a special show in and around the Peninsula Hotel where the weekend was based.

Our much missed friend and colleague Paul Le Feuvre was there along with hospital radio volunteers from stations in the south of England and members of Jubilee Radio, the island’s hospital radio station.

The highlights of that special weekend are this weekend’s 30th anniversary memory and you can hear some of the show again from 4pm.

The Sound of Sunday Goes to Guernsey, Sunday 14 February 4pm

We’re planning a brand new segment of the show that will initially run monthly starting in April.

The Sound of Sunday Community Hour will be there to feature local groups and organisations that want to give themselves extra promotion on the radio, and possibly promote their events as we come out of lockdown and things start to get going again.

The first show will be on the first Sunday in April and then on the first Sundays of May, June and July at 4pm.

If you would like to get involved, email us now at community@hrbasingstoke.co.uk 

It’s not the first time the show has done something like this.  17 years ago The Spare Time Slot was a similar feature and following an appearance by the Basingstoke Male Voice Choir, they organised a concert for HRB and raised nearly £700.

It was a 39 episode cartoon series based on the book The King’s Fifth and shown on BBC One in the late 80s.  Phillip Schofuield subsequently led the nation in a sing-a-long after sending out songsheets to the theme song.  Mysterious Cities of Gold took on cult status after it was shown on TV and in the 1990s we produced a radio adaptation using episode summaries on one of the many MCoG websites.

To accompany that, we produced a 30 minute programme talking about the story the series was based on and some of the myths and legends surrounding it.  We also played some of the brilliant music from the soundtrack.

That programme Inside The Cities was re-recorded for our 25th birthday 5 years ago and for our 30th, you can hear it again.

Get ready to relive the music and the myths behind one of the best loved cartoon series of its time.

Inside The Cities, 31 January 4pm

The Sound of Sunday is expanding – for 2 months from 31 January the show will continue until 5pm every Sunday, before handing over to the new series of The Sunday Social with Richard Smith.

The extra hour from 4 – 5 will be on the air in the weeks when Residents’ Requests is not and will be filled with favourites such as Myths and Legends, The A to Z of pop Trivia Challenge, That’s Life and more episodes of Superman 1940s Style plus of course some great music.

And there’ll be another chance to hear some of the best of the guests from the last 30 years of the show as part of our anniversary celebrations.

At 5pm, Richard Smith and his team will take over with the second series of The Sunday Social live from Lancashire and across the UK.  The new series will be heard on HRB slightly delayed as it will be on live on hospital radio around the UK from 1 – 3pm, but there will still be the opportunity to hear requests and there will be the usual array of features, chat and entertainment.

So join us for Extra Time from 4pm every Sunday from 31 January.

It’s the show that will be remembered for at least the rest of the year – which will only be a few hours as you can hear it on New Year’s Eve.

An “earworm” is defined as music that when you hear it, it will stay in your head for hours and hours. For two years, The Sound of Sunday ended each show with a song taken from the list of top 100 earworms. This one-hour compilation plays some of those songs.

From Baltimora to Carly Rae Jepson, there’s lots of well-known hits on the list plus a few surprises and tunes you may not have heard for a while.

Hear the show on New Year’s Eve at 10am and prepare to remember it for at least the rest of the year!

As proved by the recent BBC FOUR series, the TV theme is something to be celebrated, even though we usually only hear less than a minute of it. From sporting events to great drama, this special plays some of those themes, in full, which will no doubt provoke memories of our TV past.

From sporting events such as London 2012 to drama and children’s TV, the TV theme has played a part in all our memories, perhaps more than we may think.

Hear some of our great TV themes, some of which have already been played as part of our Memory Makers or Random TV features in our hour-long special.

Sunday 27 December 3pm