Circa 1969

Hard work and fun make 'Flat Spin'

'STAND BY: MIKE LIVE' said the voice through the headphones. I licked my lips nervously. 'Go,' came the command.

'Well, er-this request comes from Mr J Bloggs, in ward 6 of the Hull Royal Infirmary, and he wants to hear a David Whitfield record...' I faltered

It's not so easy being a disc jockey in Hull's Hospital Broadcasting Service, as I discovered when I visited the Hessle Road studio recently.

It was just as well we were doing a dummy run, because not only did I fluff the announcement, but I realised when I heard the playback that the voice which I had tried to make warm and seductive-to give poor old J Bloggs a thrill and make him feel better- actually sounded about as sexy as that of an old-time schoolmarm reprimanding a late scholar.

Shut Her up

'It's a well known fact that if you want to shut a woman up, the best way to do it is to put a live mike in font of her.' chucked Mr Kenneth Fulstow, secretary of both the Hull Tape Recording Club ad of its offshoot, the Hospital Broadcasting Service, which is now seeking to make a new, expanded and separate existence for itself.

'We don't want to become a cuckoo in the nest' said Mr Fulstow, explaining that the equipment which has been used over the past eight years to play more than 5,000 request records for Hull and East Riding hospital patients belongs to the Tape Recording Club.

These 400 record programmes, under the title of 'Flat Spin' have involved sifting and sorting 50,000 requests handed to WRVS and Red Cross workers visiting the hospitals, and this labour of love by dedicating teams of tape recording enthusiasts has tended to swamp the original, social objects of the club.

Equipment

'Our first need is for new premises, so that we can make a proper, permanent, studio' said Mr Fulstow, who is a sales representative by day.

'To start off with, we need between £500 and £600 for basic equipment. That includes a couple of special tape recorders at £150 to £180 each, two turntables costing £15 to £18, and four sets of headphones at £3 to £6 each.'

That, of course, does not take into account such overheads as rent, rates, lighting, maintenance and the building up of the services own record library.

'And of course, there are many extras that we would like, such as some special noise-cancelling microphones for interviewing people in crowds,' added Mr Fulstow

Personal link

Already, a start has been made on fund gathering, and about £100 is in hand. The HBS is hoping that industrialists and individuals will help - and that some philanthropist will come along with an offer of premises.

Having been in hospital myself a year ago, I know how much this service means to the patients, providing a real, personal link with the world outside, which cannot be done by the standard broadcasting services.

The weekly request programmes recently extended from one hour to 90 minutes are compiled each week by a succession of teams formed from within the 35 members of HBS.

On The evening when I visited the studio, Mr Fulstow's 23-year-old son, John, a telephone engineer with a private company, was acting as controller, with attractive Diane Fineberg (24), a short hand typist as disc jockey, and engineer Barry Waterland (21) as 'disc-dropper'.

Midnight Finish

This latter task, I discovered, was not so easy as it sounded, for, on account of the rather primitive equipment which the teams are using at present, he had to 'cue-in' the records on a single turntable, sometimes scurrying round to the other side of the control-room to operate a taped item.

That is why at present, a 90-minute broadcast may take three hours to record. Sometimes, when things do not run smoothly, teams may work until midnight on the Saturday to finish in time for the Sunday broadcast, and on one occasion they started doing the whole thing over again at 3am.

Nevertheless, working with Heath Robinson machines, making do and mending, contriving, patching and inventing, has turned these young men and women into first-class electronics mechanics - and the results they achieve are highly professional.

Write Scripts

The hundreds of requests received each week are sorted, all the duplicates being put together, and from these a programme of about 34 records is selected to give maximum balance and entertainment value.

Meticulous records are kept of the requests received and the items played.

Some of the disc jockeys write out their scripts; others prefer to ad-lib, and one of these is Mr Fulstow's wife Audrey.

'I just open my mouth' she says. 'Sometimes I make mistakes, but I just correct them and carry on. Patients seem to like you better if you are not too perfect.'

In addition to broadening the scope of 'Flat Spin' the HBS is hoping to introduce some time in the near future a feature called 'Spot On' bringing to patients on-the-spot recordings of some of Hull's most popular haunts, such as wrestling at Madeley Street Baths or tenpin bowling from the Hull Bowl.

Already, they have made some experimental recordings, and they have high hopes of the success of this venture when it gets going.

Mr Fulstow, incidentally, is chairman of the National Association of Hospital Broadcasting Services, which the Hull team helped to found.

'It must be said that out service is only possible because of the co-operation and consideration of Hull and East Riding Co-operative Society, who charge us only a nominal rent for the present premises, and Hull Corporation Telephone Department, who charge absolute minimum fees for the use of the 'Tigerfusion' hospital sports broadcast network.' said Mr Fulstow.

During my brief, and humbling, visit to the studio, I managed to capture much of the fun and good humour which goes on behind the scenes... the jokes, the cups of coffee, the packets of newsprint-wrapped fish and chips.

I would like to end with the story of how 'Flat Spin's' signing off tune got its unofficial title of 'Bedpan'. It's real name, it seems is 'Bedtime for Drums' but one member misheard the title and fell about the studio in mirth.

'It's so appropriate for hospital, isn’t it?' he spluttered, to the mystification of his colleagues.

When all was explained, it turned out that he had heard it is 'Bedpans for...' Well, I'll leave the rest to your imagination!