Health & Hospital Broadcaster for East London & South Essex

Our Opportunities

At Bedrock Radio, we are always looking for new members who are willing to join our team of volunteers and share their skills with a fantastic charity. 

Voluntary Members undertake a whole range of tasks. 

Join Our Team

What’s involved in being a Bedrock Radio volunteer?

We provide a unique service to hospital patients & our local health community, only a small part is about presenting programmes!

Keeping the station running takes a lot of work, and we expect our volunteers to help with a range of the jobs involved. That includes ward visiting and request collecting, fundraising activities and cleaning the studio, as well as operating the studio equipment, presenting programmes and committee work.

Patients in hospital are vulnerable people, so we need measures to protect them. You will be asked for references and due to the sensitive nature of volunteer work within the hospitals, the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act does not normally apply and all convictions, whether “spent” or not, must be declared. But you won’t be refused because of things like parking fines. 

What do I get out of Hospital Radio?

The biggest reward for a hospital radio volunteer is having a patients thanking you for keeping them company at a difficult time. It does not matter how much time you spend ‘volunteering’ you will leave the hospital afterwards feeling totally rewarded for the use of your valuable time and effort.

We have known patients to write, email, phone and even visit our studio to say thank you for keeping them company.

What training is there?

You will receive all the training you need to become an integral part of the hospital radio team. You will be introduced to the wards and shown how the bedside radios work. You will be trained in basic infection control procedures. If you wish to progress to become a presenter, you’ll get trained in presentation techniques and on the technical equipment in the studio. You’ll also have the opportunity to learn and practice all sorts of other skills, from fundraising to setting up outside broadcast events, and from interviewing to management and committee work.

Will hospital broadcasting help my career?

Any voluntary work can be put on your CV to impress a future employer (and that applies to any job, not just the media), but nothing is guaranteed, for those who have gone into a job there are hundreds who haven’t.
Remember that health radio stations are fully working broadcasters that exist to benefit the patients & communities. They are not to a training academy for would-be journalists and presenters! However, it’s all good experience – many professional broadcasters started in hospital stations and we’ll be happy to share our skills with you as long as you support a range of station activities. ​

What skills do I need?

It helps if you are outgoing and enjoy meeting people, especially for collecting requests on the wards or fundraising keep this station on the air. You don’t need expert knowledge of music, nor any technical expertise – most important is a willingness to learn and be part of a team and be able to make a regular commitment.

Amazing Volunteers

We have 30 members who volunteer 3 hours a week!
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You will be interacting with patients and staff collecting song requests and having a chat with patients to make their stay in hospital that bit brighter.

You will be reporting on faults to our engineers for investigation / repair. 

Visiting the wards act as ambassadors for Bedrock Radio encouraging people to be interactive and listen in.

Chatting with people across the Hospital Community and recording and reporting the songs back to the studio.

We give training on ward visiting, due to the  number of hospitals served by Bedrock Radio, you may not visit every hospital served. 

Attending Bedrock Radio fundraising activities and events, raising funds and promoting our charity. 

You can get involved with the planning and running of events. with majority of events take place on weekends with occasional week day (evening) events. 

Working with a team on bucket collections, Running Games (Hook A Duck, Lucky Dip, 4-Up) or helping the Bedrock Road-Show.

You could also help and run events such as Quiz Nights, Broadcast Marathons or Sponsored Walks. 

Other publicity tasks include distributing magazines or leaflets at events. 

Our presenters are trained in-house by our experienced volunteers. 

All On-Air volunteers begin by learning about the station format, which ensures all presenters are working towards the same expected standards. 

Producers help presenters on-air they can research content, or edit audio for the programme, or the station.

Bedrock operate two stations: 
– Bedrock RADIO 
– Bedrock GOLD
Each having their own distinct format & styles, presenters will be trained according to the station they broadcast on. 

Training on this role is based upon on schedule availability.

If you love sport, then this is the place for you! 

Since 2022, we have been developing our in-house Saturday Sports show, with strong a focus on local sporting action (Football, Rugby, Cricket, Ice-Hockey) across East London & South Essex.

We want producers / reporters to provide the sports show with an initial hourly local sport bulletin. 

Our ambition is to be able to send volunteers to selected local home games.
With a view of them reporting back to the studio & where possible getting interviews. 

Which Sport Producers Could create a weekly sport podcast. 

The Trustee is elected by our volunteers, to oversee the day-to-day operations of our charity.

We elect Trustees based upon identified skills and/or experience that the charity calls for. Each Trustee works to their strengths i.e Our Engineer is an IT Professional by trade. 

Those who stand as a Trustee help make the big decisions that shape the future the whole charity. 

Being transparent with all the volunteer team is a vital.
Over the last few years Bedrock Radio has grown by taking over other Hospital Radio services. 

The Trustees board welcome anyone interested in making a difference and improving efficency.

Hospital Broadcasting in the UK

All over the UK, patients can hear music, news and information from their local health & hospital radio service. Hospital radio aims to provide comfort and entertainment to patients in hospital with a special mix of music and chat. The service keeps patients in touch with their family and friends through music requests and local news items.

Your local hospital radio station is dedicated to the patients and staff. There are over 200 hospital broadcasting stations in the United Kingdom serving over 400 hospitals.

An estimated total of 6,000 volunteers support these stations and Bedrock Radio have a loyal band of volunteers who receive no pay or income from the NHS or other government sources to keep the station on-air. 

Find your local Hospital Radio station at www.media.info

Can you make a difference?

Why Bedrock Radio?

Why Not? 

Bedrock Radio is unique, we’re a ‘Community Health‘ radio station serving East London and South Essex (and immediate surrounding areas) serving three NHS Trusts and over ten hospitals & units, plus many more clinics. 

Our volunteers have come from across London & Essex Including; Havering, Hackney, Barking & Dagenham, Redbridge, Brentwood, Chingford, Waltham Forest, Epping Forest & even as far as Southend-On-Sea! 

Bedrock Radio are always adapting to embrace latest technologies resulting in modern studios and encouraging volunteers to boost their communication skills to outreach to our community and encourage local people to listen. 

Our charitable objective allows us to entertain patients in hospital, but to also outreach the wider health community (For the social inclusion of outpatients, staff, community care etc.) in order to promote the benefits of a healthy lifestyle. 

Bedrock Radio gets involved with our community, attending events from school fetes, festivals, town shows plus more.

We like to keep our community updated on events and encourage local people to make the switch to #YourHealthyMusicMix!

Join Our Team