HOSPITAL RADIO HAVEN
About Us
Hospital Radio Haven is a volunteer run radio station based in West Cumberland Hospital, Whitehaven, Cumbria. We have been serving the Staff & Patients of West Cumberland Hospital, and previously the Castle park Hospital since 1955, this makes us one of the UK's longest serving Radio Stations.
OUR TEAM
John Hopkins - Chairman/Presenter
I joined Hospital Radio Haven over 10 years ago having never done any radio before although I have always had an interest various musical genres.
Being in my 60’s I have heard various types of music, we always had music playing in our hose when I was growing up (my mum & dad liked Country & Western and easy listening), I had an uncle that was 6 years older than me and he introduced me to Rock & Roll and sharp suits.
My own music education started at school and the Boys’ Brigade where I was taught to play brass instruments and after leaving these institutions I played in a couple of Brass Bands.
When I had kids of my own I subjected them to the music I liked to a few moans & groans but both my daughters have grown up to enjoy all sorts of music.
At parties I was generally found next to the record player deciding what to play next to keep everyone dancing.
Although doing all of this I never had the confidence to DJ outside my bedroom so when I joined Hospital Radio Haven I could just pretend that I with a few mates and relax and really enjoy presenting a programme.
Terry Askew - Music Library/Presenter
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Stuart Mortimer - Engineer/Presenter
Hello, I’m Stuart. I moved to West Cumbria with my job in 2009 and started at Hospital Radio Haven not too long after. I was a mobile DJ and I wanted to keep my hand in.
Possibly my earliest memory is seeing the Sweet doing ‘Blockbuster’ on Top of the Pops and music has continued to have a big impression on my life ever since. That’s why I love what I do here. I just hope you enjoy it too.
My show is informally called 20 Golden Greats. I almost always play 20 tunes and they are almost always great. I regularly have topical themes and a ’normal' show will find me playing anything that has crossed my mind in the time leading up to doing the show, be it stuff in the news, off the telly or in ads, music I've recently bought or just humming at work for no evident reason.
I’m currently producing a series of ’Tubski’s guide to..’, where I’m running through a 26 part historical series of musical genres and going through its best moments and a couple of my favourites, starting at Classical and travelling through every major type I can think of.
Being an ’80’s kid, I’ve just started a new series called “Mortality Maths’ (It’s a thing, look it up) more simply my pick of the charts from 40 years ago based upon the records that I went down to shops to buy at the time and what got taped from the charts on a Sunday night. So, not just a chart rundown. Bring the memories too.
My listeners are all my friends, so you are of course welcome to join in and even suggest what I play. I’ll probably like it too.
Josh Broatch - Secretary/Presenter
I started broadcasting my own show at the age of 14 and enjoy a wide variety of music from rock to dance as well as many others. My main passion is sport and I try to do sports results and updates while I'm broadcasting. It is now my 6th year of broadcasting and looking forward to the future.
Martin Southward- Treasurer
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Michael Leary - Presenter
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Mark Mclaughlin - Presenter
Back in 1994 I was 14 years old when I began to record a mock radio show with just a portable tape deck, a family friend managed to hear it and suggested I wrote to the local hospital radio station to see if I could help out. I was 15 years old and attended my first meeting at the station in the January of 1995, I joined the station and helped out on the Sunday morning breakfast show with Jonathan and Mike Parr (who both went on to become BBC radio presenters). I helped out over the next year and at the age of 16 I did my first solo show. I was hooked!!!
Over the next few years I had many a mentor at the hospital who went on to have regular shows on BBC Radio Cumbria and CFM, my mentors supported me, guided me, trained me, on how to produce and present a professional show full of solid content, when I reached 18 I got my first break as a club DJ.
Paul Johnson who volunteered at Radio Haven (also of CFM fame) also worked in a local night club, he had asked me to come and help him out one weekend, this was my shot and although the crowd was not particularly big, or interested in hearing me I received a positive reception from the customers and management, over the following months, I played a series of gigs at various local clubs and was asked to become a resident DJ at the largest of them the Park Night Club in Whitehaven.
I got my big break when I was hired by Liquid, a national club brand, to cover their DJ’s when they were off, spiralling from this I travelled around the Uk and Europe DJing, I grew a good name for myself and have DJ’d in various famous and celebrated clubs in the UK, this lead me to a residency at the Mood nightclub in Carlisle and after growing a following there I was then asked to become resident DJ at a new larger club complex opening in the town called Terminal One.
Although I have done a lot of club DJing I have also worked for local stations, Select 107 FM, Egremont FM and St Bees Community Radio.
At the age of 26 I told myself that Djing was just a phase in my life and that there was no way I’d still be doing it at age 30. Thirty came and went and I now co-owned my own club in Whitehaven and still DJ’d on Friday and Saturday nights. However by this stage I was/am a dad and worked in the challenging nuclear industry, but throughout all of this I still manage to turn up and do a weekly show at Radio Haven.
I am still heavily involved with fundraising and the PR of the station, in addition to this I have in the past taken on the roles of training officer and program controller. Its because of the support, training and enthusiasm I received when I was a young member that has helped to inspire me to take the chances I have through my life, educating people who have never experienced hospital radio is one of the most positive and proactive ways to change the attitude people have towards Hospital Radio. I know once people have listened or sat in on one of my shows they can leave with something more than they came in with, weather its because I’ve made them laugh or made them smile or hopefully I’ve showed them it isn’t as hard as it looks, and the most important thing is to have helped someone who is in hospital to have felt more at ease, played them a song or two that has relaxed them and maybe even made them feel better.
I am now 40, I have sold my club and have retired from DJing in clubs and only broadcast voluntary at Hospital Radio Haven and St Bees community Radio. Obviously I played a lot of dance/pop/club music when I was DJing in the clubs however my style of music on the Radio is completely different, I play most genres from the 60’s to modern pop.
