My audio stream of consciousness leads to the hospital

A recent post on the WFMU Beware of the Blog helped me to learn about Hospital Radio Stations. Hospital Radio seems to be a mostly UK phenomenon where, as the name suggests, a hospital will have its own in-house volunteer radio station.

I was curious, so I started poking around. What do they play on these things?

The first thing that I discovered was that they don't have audio feeds. I can't sit here at work and pretend that I'm in Hospital. The next thing is that they don't publish their playlists. You can get some idea from the schedules. The most popular format is "requests" followed by umpteen variations of titles using the words "smooth" "laid back" "soft" "old favourites" and "mellow." The most frightening show title that I have been able to find comes from Hospital Radio Chelmsford which from 14:00 to 15:00 presents something called "The Meltdown." I would have thought that "The Meltdown" would be some sort of speed-metal thing, but it is really this: "Make the most of an afternoon siesta with the Meltdown. Relaxing sounds, smooth tunes and meditation." Equally frightening, but easier to parse, is Kingston Hospital Radio's Monday night 22:00-22:30 slot: "Ssssh! THEY PLAY CLIFF!"

So another tangent emerges while I poke around the site for Kingston Hospital Radio. I've seen this place! It was probably used as a location for something, but I can't think of what.

That's going to drive me nuts for a while.