Listen To Bedrock
A registered charity, operated by volunteers, providing community & Hospital Radio service for East London & South Essex.

Become a volunteer.

Volunteering is rewarding and fun, people get involved for many different reasons, and we have a range of activities for you to get involved with at Bedrock Radio.

The whole team shares a common objective in helping relieve the effects of pain and illness and promoting the benefits of living a healthy lifestyle for the public benefit.  Our charity is a great place to develop your communication skills, meet new people and learn the basics of broadcasting, You may enjoy the challenges of fundraising to keep us on-air. 

All we ask is that you can help us fulfil our objectives.

Radio Volunteer

Join one of the largest hospital radio stations in London
and have a say in how our charity operates.

Register your interest today.
Volunteer

Wards & Books

If you enjoy meeting new people, maybe have an interest in books, then our ward visitors team maybe ideal for you.

This is an off-air / non-radio role.
Wards

Work Experience

We DO NOT offer work experience placements.

Due to not having regular members of staff on-site during the daytime, our hours of operation are unsuitable for the bodies that issue work experience placements. However, you could volunteer with us more long-term to help develop your skills.

How Can I help

Our objective is simple

We provide a community broadcasting service that focuses on health and well-being for people living across North East London and South Essex.
We aim to provide relief of sickness, poor health and old age amongst patients across: Queen's, King George, Goodmayes and Whipps Cross hospitals, plus outreach to residential homes and similar institutions, and for patients receiving community care.

For The Community.

Working with our community to promote the benefits of living a healthy lifestyle, and the importance of maintaining a good personal mental and physical health, helping make our community a better, safer and healthier place to be.

Frequently Asked Questions

Full Members of Bedrock Radio pay £0.00
That’s right, nothing, zero, zilch, nada…

Volunteers are welcome to make a donation to Bedrock Radio to help fund things like the free refreshments offered in the office. 

Please note: There is a membership fee for corporate membership of Bedrock Radio. 

Most of our volunteers spend two to four hours a week volunteering at Bedrock Radio. 

It all depends on what activity you are performing.
You could be visiting the wards, talking to patients and staff, collecting requests and checking on our radios. Others maybe doing admin or technical work such as producing content for later broadcast (I.e interviews, news, events) 

Hosting A Show:
If you take on a radio show, you need to make the commitment to the agreed scheduled times.
The majority of our daytime programmes are three hours long.
Presenters do have the option to pre-record their shows a couple of weeks ahead, providing flexibility.  However, it remains the presenter’s responsibility to ensure your programme is broadcast at it’s allocated time (Live or Recorded). Failure to do so, may result in you coming off-air.

Fundraising: 
All volunteers are encouraged to get involved with fundraising throughout the year, it’s how to raise money to stay on-air. This could be helping sell tickets for our quiz night, or getting some friends to a live music evening. Or helping sell raffle tickets, playing our lottery or hosting a roadshow.

It can take 3 to 4 months to complete the process, this is dependent on availability of our volunteers and yourself. 

Here’s an overview of the process that volunteers go through; 

  • Register your interest. Complete the below form to tell us you are interested in joining Bedrock Radio, Trustees will read through the form assuming you have answered all questions correctly, then we aim to reply within 14 days. 
    (Please avoid using AI to answer, be honest and yourself) 
  • Application Form. If we think you can help our charity, then we invite you to complete the full application form. Once received, the Trustees will review and respond within 14 days.  (Please avoid using AI to answer, be honest and yourself).
  • Informal Interview. We invite you to the Cornwall Suite studio to have a chat with a couple of our Trustees about volunteering, this is so we can get to know you, and for you to ask questions and ensure you are happy to proceed.
    Interviews take place on Saturdays, depending on availability they are run twice per month.

     

  • BHR Hospitals: Volunteer On-Boarding. As part of our agreement with BHR Hospitals Trust, they process our volunteers to perform health and safety checks. You’ll need to complete the required forms, including a DBS security check and occupational health question air. 
    (The checks are necessary as, we’re based in a hospital) 
  • BHR Hospitals: Volunteer Seminar.
    While all your checks are being performed, you will be invited to attend the Hospital Trust Volunteers Seminar, These sessions usually run once per month.
    Not everything applies to Bedrock Volunteers in the seminar, but you need awareness of key information. 
    (Bedrock volunteers are held to the same high standards as Trust volunteers).

     

  • Bedrock Training. Once you have cleared the BHR Hospital’s Volunteer process, you are handed back to Bedrock Radio. We can then begin your local Bedrock training & get you started volunteering. 

We keep updated with BHR Hospitals to know the process of each volunteer applicant and if there are any delays. 

The minimum age to volunteer at the hospital is 18 years old.

There is no upper limit. 

You will receive training you need to become an integral part of the radio team.

You will be introduced to the procedures and equipment of the hospital & studios, such as infection control techniques & what to do if things go wrong. Should you wish to progress to become a presenter, you’ll be trained in presentation techniques and technical on the equipment in the studio.

There is also the opportunity to learn and practice all sorts of other skills, from fundraising to setting up outside broadcast events (Bedrock Roadshows) to interviewing and even become a Trustee and get involved in the day to day running of the station. 

To help volunteers, we have videos and docuemnts allowing volunteers to learn at their own speed.
Trustees try to provide feedback on best practices on-air to help you improve. 

It helps if you are familiar with parts of our local area:
Havering, Redbridge, Thurrock, Brentwood, Basildon, Barking and Dagenham (North East London, South West Essex).

Otherwise, be willing to learn and adapt to help maintain our high standards on-air and further our objectives. 

Students are welcome at Bedrock Radio. 

However, you need to be over 18 to volunteers, also be aware the volunteer recruitment on-boarding process, which undertaken with the Hospital Trust can take a few months.

On-Air, you may find it difficult to maintain a commitment to a regular weekly programme. However, there will be opportunities for you to co-host and also get involved on-air in bank holiday / seasonal specials, recording interviews, news bulletins.

Bedrock Radio do not offer work experience placements.

The Cornwall Suite Studio is located on the first floor of Queen’s Hospital, Romford. 

Our studio is wheelchair accessible, using the lifts in the main entrance. 

  • Buses 5, 128, 175, 193, 365, 496, 498, 499 serve the hospital grounds, with the 103 & 174 stopping nearby. 
  • Rail: Romford Station is on the Elizabeth Line, Overground Liberty Line and Greater Anglia services, and is a 15-minute walk, or short bus ride away. 
  • Road: Volunteers benefit from a parking concession using the multistory car park. 
  • Bike: Free Cycle parking is available on the hospital grounds.
  • Volunteers with a valid NHS ID can travel between Queen’s and King George’s (& a short walk to Goodmayes) using the free staff shuttle bus.

Bedrock Radio broadcasts 24/7. Our main live presented shows broadcast:

WeekdaysWeekends
11am – 2pm7am to 9am
7pm – 9pm11am – 6pm

These shows are a mixture of Live or Pre-Recorded ‘as live’ a few days beforehand. However, other production maybe taking place at the studio, such as recording interviews, news, request collecting or other content for later broadcast.

Outside these times, a mixture of pre-recorded programmes and automated music plays.

Applicants are strongly advised to check our programme schedule and spend time listening into the station to get an understanding of our output. 

Volunteers Roles.

Keep Us On Air! 
Running a radio service is not cheap!
(It costs around £4500 per year)

You could play a vital role in planing and managing events to raise funds for our charity. 

Events range from ‘Tin Shake’ Collections at supermarkets, sponsored walks to running stalls at fêtes –  You could eveb be hosting the next Bedrock Quiz! 

You could also help secure advertising and sponsorship, and seek out grants to keep us going. Or by helping edit our periodic hospital radio magazine.

You also help promote the station across the community getting more people to listen in, from giving out magazines to hosting our games stalls on a Bedrock Roadshow!

Visit the wards of the hospitals we serve, befriending and chatting with patients and staff collecting song requests and dedications.

Plus helping wards get tuned into our stations, reporting any problems with our hospital ward radios or speakers to engineering team.

Our teams current visit the wards of:
– Goodmayes Hospital, Ilford.
– Queen’s Hospital, Romford

As we look to launch on DAB+, we’ll expand our ward visits to King George Hospital, Ilford and possibly other units and clinics locally too. 

This team oversees the day-to-day operations of the whole charity. 

They make the decisions in the best interest of the charity and our radio service.

Looking at how things are run. Building and maintaining relationships with various stakeholders, authorities, volunteers and businesses to grow and support the charity.

From planning events, meetings, overseeing day to day spending, monitoring programming output, compliance, training, recruitment and promoting the charity.

Our Trustees board is elected by our members to hold a post on a three-year period, we may appoint Trustees where a skill deficit is identified. 

Trustees can make a real difference to the direction of the whole charity.

Presenters are the voices of our radio services.

They present programmes, record interviews, providing entertainment and interaction to our listeners, getting them involved in our programmes. 

We want our presenters’ personalties to shine through and make the best radio possible! 

Share your stories and experiences, getting listeners involved all while playing the Healthiest Music Mix for East London & South Essex from the Cornwall Suite Studios at Queen’s Hospital! 

Some of our presenters attend Bedrock Roadshows to host events or an outside broadcast. 



Producers
help edit and produce audio content.
 they also support programmes such as our Saturday Sports programme by compiling and editing information for on-air use. 
Producers don’t have to go live on-air
(Ideal If you’re a little mic shy) you’ll be recording, editing or passing information to others.  

Hidden behind the scenes is our unsung hero’s – Our engineers! 

Depending on your technical knowhow, you could help us repair our Ward Radios to keep them working for patients.

Set up Bedrock Roadshows for Outside Broadcasts! 

Or get more hands on with our Head of Engineering to learn how to keep us broadcasting when things go wrong!

  • Bedrock Radio is a Registered Charitable Incorporated Organisation (CIO) No. 1180476. Registered with the Charity Commission for England & Wales. 

  • All Volunteers MUST undergo a Disclosure & Barring Service (DBS) Check, plus an Occupational Health Clearance, this is a requirement of the NHS Trusts we operate in.

  • None of our Volunteers are paid. This includes  Trustees.

  • All volunteer members are able to voice their opinions & share ideas to benefit the running of the charity.  

  • Successful Applicants will be invited in for interview, onboarding and training sessions.
    Failure to attend these without notice may result in termination of membership to the CIO.

  • Read more: Information On Volunteering 

Radio Volunteer - Register Your Interest.

Ready to start Volunteering at Bedrock Radio? Complete the form below, we’ll be in touch.

We check for AI answers.

While we think AI is great, we want you to answer all application questions, honestly.
Radio is about making a human connection, we want to get to know more about You and what you can bring to Bedrock Radio.
Not why Chat GPT, Grock or Gemini want to join us... (AI radio presenters just don't have the same personalities as a people do!)