The Sound of Sunday on HRB

This Sunday, HRB will, for the first time ever, play requests for people outside Basingstoke and North Hampshire Hospital.

Even though the station can be heard online, it still only broadcasts specifically to those in the hospital buildings – and any permanent change would involve a change in the station's constitution.

However, two local care homes recently approached the station to talk about the possibility of playing requests for their residents, so this Sunday, HRB will be broadcasting to Basingfield Court Residential Care Home in Old Basing and Ashley House Residential Care Home in Bordon in a special hour-long programme. 

Broadcasting to care and residential homes is something that is done by some other hospital radio stations very successfully, and their programmes are known to be appreciated by those who listen.  When HRB first started broadcasting online in 2012, it was suggested that it would enable the station to widen its audience, and this four month trial could be the start of that.

Sp this weekend, we're looking forward to extending The Sound of Sunday for an hour to play requests for our new audience and if successful, it will continue long into the future.

We're planning a number of special shows over the coming weeks as we head towards the end of our 25th season.

Sunday 5 June 3 – 4.45pm

It's hard to believe that we are a quarter of the way through the year already.  The clocks have been altered and the evenings are definitely lighter, and thoughts are turning to the summer and all the events that will bring.

We are already looking ahead to featuring many of them.  Our annual build up to Eurovision started last weekend with the return of Eurovision's Greatest Hits which is part of Memory Makers this year.  After Eurovision it will be the European Football Championships and then the Olympics. 

In Basingstoke we'll be featuring the Basingstoke Festival and a number of other local events including the usual Alton Classic Car Show in September.

Before we know it, we'll be altering the clocks and it will be nearly Christmas!

March is a big month for the show.  As well as the 1000th show two weeks ago, we will be marking the 25th anniversary of the start of the show with a series of specials.

18 March Chris Bellinger, Editor of BBC Saturday morning TV for 30 years joined us in 2013 and Mitch Johnson, voice of Live and Kicking was on the show in 2006.  Hear both those interviews again at 5pm on 18 March.

20 March In 1992, we covered the staff fun day at the hospital.  There was bed racing, jousting and an inter-ward football match that was much more interesting than England V Brazil at Webley on the same day! 

25 March In 1999 we adapted for radio the 1980s cartoon series Mysterious Cities of Gold complete with the original soundtrack of music.  We also produced a half hour special looking behind the stories and myths that were part of the series.  We have updated this programme, re-recorded it and it can be heard at 5pm on 25 March.

27 March A bit of nostalgia and more best of the guests live from 1.30.

1 April 1992 was a busy year.  We covered a panto on G Floor, 2 fun days and several other events during the year.  Another chance to hear the best of those events on 1 April at 5pm.

HRB was on air live from Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in London on Sunday for the 1000th edition of Neil Ogden's Sound of Sunday.

The programme visited all the main venues, starting with the Copper Box Arena and continuing with the Velodrome and Aquatic Centre and finishing at the top of the Orbit where the weekend's Sainsbury's winner was picked.

Despite a few technical problems along the way, presenter Neil Ogden was able to broadcast from each of the venues and around the park in between.  The aim of the programme was show that the park, which is only a short trip by train and tube from Basingstoke, is very much open for business with lots to do and see as well as the many events that take place there.

Peter Tudor, Director of Visitor Services at the London Legacy Development Corporation was also part of the programme, explaining the ongoing legacy of London 2012.

It's been 5 months in the making but this Sunday we will be live from Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park for the 1000th show.

The aim of the show is to try and show that the park is still there, ready and waiting for visitors, not just to the many events that are happening.

We'll be starting at the Copper Box and continuing round the Velodrome, the Aquatics Centre and finish at the top of the Orbit just before the end of the show.

We'll also be joined by Peter Tudor, Director of Visitor Services at the London Legacy Development Corporation to talk about the park and what it offers.

Join us live at 1pm this Sunday

Every so often I disappear on a Sunday to a hospital radio regional event elsewhere, which means someone else looks after the main part of the afternoon and The Sound of Sunday is on for just an hour.  This weekend, I'm off to look around Epsom Hospital Radio, who have recently moved to new studios.  It's always interesting looking around other stations and seeing how they work, and EHR used to have a setup that wasn't too different to HRB – a scruffy old portakabin hiden away on their hospital grounds.  Like us, that's now gone, and it will be interesting to see what they have now.

So Simon Penn is looking after the first part of Sunday afternoon and then iot's an hour long show from 3 including a double helping of Superman 1940s Style.  We're back to normal next week with an extra "Winter Special" in between – next Friday at 5.

Last week I mentioned the classic cult cartoon series The Mysterious Cities of Gold and how the sequel had already been produced.  Since then I have learned that there will actually be 3 new series of the show eventually and that series 2 has actually already been shown in the UK on Kix. 

The original series was restored and released on DVD in 2008 and series 2 is also on DVD.  In fact when series 2 was released on DVD in the UK, Amazon ran out due to popular demand within a few days!

We will be re-recording our special show that plays some of the fantastic music from series 1 and it will be part of our 25th birthday month in March.

In the meantime, join us on Sunday for the next show, live from 1.30.

In the meantime, browse some MCoG products below.

So we're into February and it's just a month to go before we celebrate the 1000th edition of the show as well a the 25th anniversary of the show.

One thing we did back in 1999 and again in 2001 was our radio adaptation of the story that was the cult cartoon series The Mysterious Cities of Gold.  I came across it in the archives this week.  I was quite proud of it at the time although it sounds alittle dated now.  The 30 minute programme that went with it though still sounds good as it showcases the excellent musical soundtrack that went with this series.  After looking at the script, I decided we should bring it up to date.  There is after all a series 2 out a year or so ago with a series 3 in the making.  Whether we will ever get to see it in the UK, who knows, but it's out there to see.

Having had a glimpse at series 2 though, I'm not sure it's the same with the modern computer animation.  Although the 1980s series now looks dated, somehow that didn't matter because the story was so good. 

Maybe it's time we got our adaptation out of the archives and played it all over again after all!

The Sound of Sunday 1.30 – 4.30pm Sunday 7 February.

Am I the only one to find it hard to believe that we are at the end of January already.  Next week we'll be saying that we alter the clocks next month and it will be BST once again. 

As we head into February, preparation is stepping up for the 1000th show on 6 March, and also for the other shows in March when we will also be celebrating 25 years of the show.  On 13 March, we'll be repeating some of the special guests from the show over the last 25 years and on 20 March, some of the outside broadcasts will be relived from the last few years – the Froyle Fete, the Alton Classic Car Show and, going way back, the hospital fun day of 1992!

And then we have the 25th anniversary show on 27 March.  We're still working on that but we'll no doubt have some clips from the last 25 years included.

In the meantime, we're back on Sunday for show 994, with the Sainsbury's draw and all the regular features – Sunday 31 January live at 1.30.