Justice?

Robert came to us on a work placement scheme in early 2008. He was paid to be here but showed up when he felt like it. He never completed a single full week. He was always late and seemed to think that actually doing anything constructive was a joke. We put up with a lot of this because he told us a sad tale about a cruel homelife and an uncaring mother. (His mother phoned regularly to see how he was and seemed very concerned for her son.) Eventually the work placement broke down for a number of reasons and he left us.

When Robert finally got a flat of his own, members helped him settle into his new home, got him bits and bobs and welcomed him back as a volunteer.

When the Station Manager was off ill Robert came to the office, forced the door and let himself in. He spent hours disconnecting the equipment in our new studio, rifling through the stationery cupboards and helping himself to anything which took his fancy. In all, he deprived the station of around ten thousand pounds worth of valuable equipment. A police raid on his home recovered some of this but much of it went for sale. What was recovered either doesn't work or has been held by the police as evidence.

Robert received a sentence of 120 hours of Community Service.

The other members of the station received much longer sentences as they work incredibly hard to earn enough money to replace the lost equipment.

Too sad to be robbed by one of our own.

If you can help, get in touch - please!

A Delicate Balance

The number of hours of broadcasting for a radio station like hours is governed by the number of volunteers willing to work hard and the number of hours devoted to raising money from kind-hearted people and local business.

The number of hours for Radio Heartbeat is in direct proportion to the hard work and drive of General Manager Irene Dick and fundraiser Mitchell Gibb who work hard to raise the cash which runs the station and keeps the patients in Monklands Hospital with good in-house free programming.

During the last couple of weeks this balance has been tipped badly. Someone broke into the radio station and stole almost the entire contents of the new studio 2. It had only been operational for a fortnight when it went. Everything was brand new and shiny. We were very proud of it. But the thief stole an entire mixing desk - you can see the photograph on this blog - and he stole microphones, headsets, computer equipment and much more.

We are devastated! We are bereft! It was hard enough to get the money to buy the bits in the first place but to lose it again is bad.

If you have been offered cheap broadcasting equipment you should be calling us - it's probably ours!

If you are the thief then you should be ashamed of yourself. You have deprived an organisation which aims only to provide a patient-led service. You have deprived an organisation which only had the well-being of its members and listeners at heart.

Can you help to put the heart back into Heartbeat. Can you donate a little sum to contribute to the larger sum we are oing to need to replace the missing equipment?

If you can help then contact the station manager. Thank you!

We did it!

We were beginning to think that it would never happen but here we are - we are back on air - and just to brag a bit here is a picture of the new broadcasting desks.

It has been a long and difficult journey and there are still more than a few loose ends to tie up but we have finally made it. We are broadcasting. We are talking to you!

Congratulations are due to everyone who contributed to the engineering work which made it all possible. There was, of course, our own wonderful John who knows so much. He was assisted by Alistair Owen who identified the shortcomings of our new studio setup and told us how to correct it. Brendan Lofty at Broadcast Warehouse who was patient and understanding. There was David McFarlane, the hospital electrician who has been more than patient. Then, of course, there was Billy Lindsay at Estates who lent us his staff. Thanks also to Kevin Bree who introduced us to Alistair Owen.

Of course we are still waiting to see when we are moving and when we have to take it all back down again but meantime we are loving being back! Support us! Join us! Donate to us! We need you!

What's the Point?

Sometimes I just find myself wondering why I, or anyone else, bothers to volunteer. It is a lot of work for no cash reward and, sometimes, more hassle than you would ever want in your whole life. Even though, sometimes it is great fun there are times when it breaks your heart and breaks your spirit and you are left feeling bashed and bruised and totally unappreciated.

In August 2006 we inherited a broken radio station with not much working and few volunteers. With hard work from a few good people we fixed it and, in April 2007, got it working. It was brilliant. We recruited a team and made great progress. The volunteers bloomed, the station blossomed with new talent and the premises were decorated and beautiful. The patients loved it and so did we.

In October we paraded our new high-tech beautiful offices bought with generous donations. In November the hospital needed the site and tore down our newly decorated home. They gave us new premises which were spacious and adequate. They gave us a repeater unit to broadcast from the flat to the hospital. They lent us their electrician to run the wires and we hired an aeriel rigger to do the rest. We got our end working but never did find out where they ran the wires to and could never get access to the flat roof to connect ourselves to the repeater. We kept trying.

We bought lots of new equipment but discovered that the supplier had never actually tried to make the desks do what we wanted to do and so they were as surprised as we were when we phoned and told them that the desks they assured us were right won't do the job. In fairness they were great to us and changed the desks for more expensive ones at no extra cost to us.

The new studios have been decorated, the place looks grand and we hoped to be up and running soon but there is the rub! It has taken us several months of intensive volunteering to get as far as we are - and on Tuesday we are meeting with the Estates Department because - well you guessed - the hospital want to tear down our new premises and move us somewhere else - to somewhere MUCH smaller where we have to start all over again.

It all takes time, money, energy and enthusiasm and, frankly, the last commodity becomes increasingly lacking.

I know we will go on - it will just be a bit harder this time. The hospital wouldn't be quite the same without inhouse radio.

We will be back soon - and then we will, again, be talking to you!

Making Progress

Few people are prepared to turn out on windy Saturday mornings. Even fewer are prepared to climb ladders and use power tools in the pursuit of music.

Radio Heartbeat would like to thank Garry Hoffman - an aerial specialist from Motherwell - who came out to do just that and help us to get our new Repeater unit up and running. Garry worked very hard with our man John.

We are not on air yet but that's not Garry's fault - he was super - and we will get there shortly.

Thanks to all who turned out to help, bring food, calm our John and provide the laughter and good humour Radio Heartbeat is good at.

Being a volunteer is not easy - keeping your balance is not easy - keeping a sense of perspective when things go wrong is not easy. We just do our best and when we get it wrong we try to make it right. We are working on the Repeater and ourselves all the time.

We'll be back on air just as soon as we can. We will be talking to you!

It's Been a While

Well we no sooner got our beautiful new offices than the hospital decided we should be moving. They allocated us to nice premises across the road and we are just about settled in.

So far, we have one studio built but it doesn't play out to anywhere yet. The hospital bought us a repeater unit to carry the output to the hospital but we need an aerial rigger to connect it up for us.

Our broadcast desk was water damaged when our old premises were flooded just before we were due to move out. We need to get a new one but there isn't enough money yet.

We need new computers and new everything but it is a major trial.

Someone will come up with the answers - they always do - and someone will help - they usually do.

Meanwhile, the team including Denice, Andy, John, Chris, Irene and everyone else is working very hard to ensure that we are back to broadcasting as soon as possible and we will then be talking to you!

Our New Office

Well we needed a new office! We (well, that is, Christopher and John did all the heavy work) ripped out what used to be a room full of redundant LPs and singles and mouldy shelving. They dismantled the lot and, with a great deal of puffing, panting and grunting, dragged Radio Heartbeat's offices kicking and screaming into the new millennium.

We would like to thank Carpet Style in Coatbridge - guess what they gave us! Big thanks to Tracy for all her hard work with a paint brush. But mostly thanks to SCI Communications, Glasgow who gave us the money - we now have the most beautiful administration office.

We have high-tech floating speakers which pick up the studio output. We have cameras which look out to the car park so we can monitor our cars all day as well as see who is coming and going. We have door entry systems which allow us to open and close the doors from upstairs. We have lights which switch themselves on and off when you enter or leave the room. We have everything! Except, perhaps, new computers but we can't afford those yet. (Any offers?)

We also made excellent use of some of those old LPs and singles as they now form the artwork on our walls. They look very good in their new frames. We didn't realise we had such collectable art.

We are very much at home already and it will be such a pleasure to come to work in the future.

Don't you just love it when a plan comes together!

Thanks to everybody who helped.