Wrightington Hospital Radio is currently looking to expand our team of Presenters and general volunteers.   You do not need to have any previous experience as all volunteers will receive a detailed programme of training to become a presenter. 

We are looking for people who are confident and prepared to listen to advice. 

We are also looking for people who can provide a range of programmes both during the day and in the evening.  Have you a musical genre that particularly interests you?  You could put out a programme in that genre.

We are also looking for caring, patient and empathetic people, to visit the patients in the wards of our hospitals, to collect music requests to be played during programmes. These volunteer will assist locating the songs in our music library and help present the shows. 

Please note that at present the Trust is only accepting volunteers from within the Borough of Wigan.

Ken Aspinall one of our longest serving members has finally hung up his microphone.

Ken originally joined Radio Metro, Leigh Hospital Radio, 28 years ago and did an evening Brass Band Show as well as commentating on Leigh Rugby League Club.  He was a regular when the station went out on the road.

When Radio Metro combined with Wrightington Hospital Radio Ken moved over to join us and in 2000 he joined Kevin Riley to cover Wigan Warriors games from the DW Stadium and Challenge Cup Finals at Wembley.

Ken, now in his eighties, has decided that it is time to retire, mainly because he has had difficulties walking long distances since an operation last year.

Ken's contribution to hospital radio has been huge.  We are sorry he has had to make this decision and he leaves us with our very best wishes and thanks

As part of our information programming we have been interviewing people who work or volunteer at the Trust. 

Our first guest was the Chairman, Mr Robert Armstrong.  

However, since then we have interviewed The Chief Executive, Mr Norman Foster; Dr Chandra Chattopadhyay, Rheumatology Consultant and Dr Stephen Gulliford, Consultant in Acute Medicine and Director for Unscheduled Care.  We have also included

The Director of Workforce, Alison Balson; Rob Forster, The Director of Finance; and Pauline Law, Director of Nursing.  The other Directors are scheduled for the near future.

They were all interviewed for our programme series, "People At The Trust",  which looks at the people involved in making a Hospital Trust tick.  In these programmes we find out about the person and their job.  Many more staff interviews are planned from all the different areas of hospital life - from nursing, cleaning, clerical etc.

Wrightington Hospital Radio were again invited to be part of Ogfest, the Musical Festival at the Olive Garden, Standish.

We provided the sound system for the event and the sound engineers, Diane, Dan and Kevin, to run it.

It proved to be a perfect day for music lovers with hot sunny weather, good music and a great venue.

 Everyone who attended enjoyed the day even though it was a tiring day for us.  Looking forward to being able to do it again.

As well as the usual mix of guests from the world of music we have been fortunate enough to interview a range of interesting people for our Features series.  These have included the authors of children's books, Lillian Goulding a local poet and now Wigan Borough's first Poet Laureate.  Lillian is also a member of Wigan Age UK, an organisation who have been at the studio to discuss their work in the area.

Students from St John Rigby College, on Work Experience at the Hospital, popped into the studio with their member of staff to discuss the experiences they had had.

We recently met up with Katie McRae, the daughter of one of the volunteers at the Tea Bar, who climbed Kilimanjaro to raise money for the Charity Dig Deep.

We were delighted to have Mark Aldred from Dementia Buddy to talk about the work they do.

These are just a few of the many people who have featured.

Every other Thursday evening, Bill Hart, of Lankykats, a co-operative of Lancashire musicians from the 60s onwards who perform at Standish Unity Club, comes into the studio to present a programme about the Lancashire scene then and now, with guest appearances.

 Kingsize Taylor, a legend of the 60s Merseybeat era, came in to do an interview with Bill Hart on the LankyBeat Live Show.

Ken (Kingsize) Taylor and the Dominoes started in the late 50s in Liverpool.  They performed at the Cavern Club in the very early 60s with Cilla as the singer.

Just like the Beatles they toured Germany performing in Hamburg, Kiel and Berlin before returning to the UK to tour with Chuck Berry in 1964.

Appearances on Ready Steady Go followed but they never got the exposure their friends and rivals, The Beatles did.

Wigan has been a hotbed of the musical scene, especially the Northern Soul scene.

Wrightington Hospital Radio is proud of its links with legends associated with the Northern Soul Scene.

Each of these legends has appeared live on our programmes and support our work.

The legendary Soul and Northern Soul singer Tommy Hunt was interviewed live on Kevin's programme "The Tracks I have Grown Up With".

Eddie Holman another of the legendary Soul singers who became part of the Northern Soul scene and Wigan Casino and who is probably best known for his 1970 hit "Hey There Lonely Girl" also came to do a programme from Wrightington along with another legend of the Wigan Casino and Northern Soul scene, the DJ Russ Winstanley.

Wigan Casino held its last All-Nighter in October 1981.