Make a donation to Sponsor A Radio
Your Name / Company is added to the sticker wrap of the radio.
We distribute to the wards for patients to listen.
Ward Radio Project Background.
We developed a solution to restore patient entertainment to the wards of Queen’s Hospital, Romford, testing ideas since 2019 to re-utilise the dormant network cabling from the defunct ex-pre-pay TV entertainment system network.
Working with local companies EduNet ICT, GSS and BHR Hospitals, we have created the ‘Hospital Radio Network‘, our own IT infrastructure reusing the former TV system cabling.
Live testing commenced at at Queen’s Hospital in June 2022 co-insiding with the HM The Queen’s Jubilee Celebrations & Bedrock Radio’s 20th Birthday.
The test was a great sucess! We have installed equipment into 12/25 wards, with 40 radios in circulation
(as of September 2023)
Our ‘Ward Radios’ are free to use, allowing patients to receive free radio entertainment from Bedrock Radio, distracting them from their stay in hospital through our range of hospital radio programmes offered. It also allows staff to keep updates with our regular news and information.
Making the hospital day just that little bit brighter.
How Radio Sponsorship Works
1 – Make a donation
Decide how many ward radios you want to help us purchase (& sponsor) – select your amount and make your donation payment online:
www.shop.bedrock.radio
Dec 2024 unit cost – £75 per radio
Please ensure you have included your email address on payment so we can contact you about sponsorship artwork.
2 – Agree Your Artwork
Confirm the artwork that is applied to the radios you have sponsored.
Aswe take delivery of the radio, we need to set up and programme the radio, add our instruction labels and your sponsorship artwork!
3 – Radio is deployed.
Bedrock Radio will then distribute your newly sponsored Ward Radio to the patients at Queen’s Hospital.
We set the radio in a prominent location to ensure patients, staff and guests are listening straight away, and they can see who’s supported the radio.
We’ll even add a link to our website of every sponsor!
What about NHS WiFi?
While the hospital has free & premium public NHS WiFi options (which Bedrock Radio is available on), this is limited to patients who have their own smartphones or tablets with them during their stay – this is known as a bring your own device (BYOD) system.
In theory we could use the NHS WiFi, however with such a sizeable number of radio’s in use, we would be taking capacity that patients could use.
Furthermore there would also be a cost incurred to Bedrock Radio for the shear number of devices we would need to connect to this system.
Where as the Bedrock Radio, Ward Radios system supplies radio units (sponsored by you) to the wards, for all patients to enjoy and is free to use, without the need to BYOD.
Our system goes further than old TV network did, by extending into wards that have never received patient entertainment before, helping more patients during their stay.
The trial has been very successful; We need your help to fund more radio’s as the wards are demanding more!
Our Ward Radio Units tune into all Hospital Radio services from Bedrock Radio:
We’re a small independent charity, registered with the Charity Commission No: 1180476.
Bedrock provides hospital radio services across East London and South Essex, predominantly serving BHRUT & NELFT NHS Trusts.
Bedrock is run entirely by volunteers from across the local area, nobody (including Trustees) is paid, everyone gives a few hours a week to running the radio station
We are truly non-profit in our operation.
We provide two core radio services:
Bedrock Radio – Pop music from 80s to Today.
Bedrock Gold – Classic Hits from 50s to 80s
Sadly not.
Our Hospital radio system is computerised and the network requires devices that only have WiFi capability.
Bedrock’s DAB service is not expected launch until 2024 and we don’t broadcast on FM or AM, our services are streamed to the wards and online / mobile.
We know there are units with DAB, FM & WiFi, but we have specified WiFi only.
Additionally there is a lot of metal work used in the hospital’s structure and it can be difficult for radio signals to reach some of the wards wards (It’s a phenomenon known as the faraday cage effect).
The WiFi radios we use are programmed to join our network, having settings applied to only tune into our Hospital Radio services, which we broadcast at a high quality to the wards.
Furthermore, as Bedrock doesn’t charge a fee of subscription to use and listen to our ward radios system, that our volunteers provide and maintain, we have therefore specified WiFi only devices, that can only tune into us.
If alternative channels or media is desired then the hospital provides NHS WiFi on a bring your own device (BYOD) system.
The minimum term is Three Years.
Commencing from the date the radio is deployed onto the wards.
£75 over 3 years works out to £25 a year, per radio.
(That’s roughly £2 a month, much cheaper than a coffee)
Once the three year period is up. This allows Bedrock Radio to re-sponsor the radio, which will help fundraising for our charity to maintain the radio system.
(This also means that sponsors can last longer than a year! We won’t remove the sticker until a new sponsor is found, or the radio comes back in for maintaince)
We are open to discussions for large number of sponsorship Including a contra-deal receiving 1 year on-air advertising for helping fund an ward!
During the initial testing 80% of our units are used daily, listening into one of our radio stations (Bedrock Radio being listened to most.)
In September 2023, our radio monitor has reported radios where listening for long listening periods, the average time spent listening was 10 hours per day, with some wards radios listening in for days at a time.
We have found wards use the radio’s in different ways.
Some wards have the radio’s sitting on the nurses stations for many rooms to hear, other wards move the radios into different rooms, as and when patients request entertainment or for stimulation.
Our Ward Radio Units have proven to be such a big hit, that hospital staff are constantly asking us when they’re getting more radio units.
Even the discharge lounge and infusion suite now have one of our radios on the nurses desks, which many patients (& staff) enjoy listening to.
The Project In Numbers.
The Ward Radio Units will be available across 24 wards, the average ward services 30 patients, across 12 rooms, six of these rooms are shared occupancy of 4 patients per room, with the remaining being single occupancy side rooms.
Maximum coverage would require 12 units per ward .
Bedrock Radio have an initial a target to provide at least six ward radio units per ward
That requires 150 units, shared across the entire hospital.
Current Cost Per Ward Radio Unit:
Total Costs:
Bedrock Radio’s Target Coverage:
- £11,250 – For 150 Ward Radio Units shared across 24 wards
Bedrock Radio’s Maximum Coverage:
- £21,750 For 298 Ward Radio Units (1 per room) across 24 wars.
