Our History

Watford Hospital Radio began in 1955 in a broom cupboard in the Peace Memorial Hospital. The earliest programmes were recorded football commentaries from Watford’s Vicarage Road ground which were played back over the hospital radio system later that evening. This proved so popular with the patients in the hospital that a landline was soon installed so live coverage of the games could be relayed to them.

In the early days church services were also broadcast to the hospital via landline from St Mary’s Parish Church and the Watford Congregational Church. This led, in May 1967, to pre-recorded music programmes, and in December of that year all four Hospitals in the Watford area were joined up by landlines so the patients could hear special Hospital Radio programmes.

The recorded broadcasts were so well received that the various groups of people who were producing programmes decided to form the Watford Hospitals Broadcasting Service (WHBS) and registered it as a charity.

The team set up a special studio, located in the former kitchen manager’s office, where live programmes could be produced. Due to the limited space available, this also doubled as a record library and equipment store.

After the construction of the new Watford General Hospital, WHCBS acquired their own complex on Level 7 with a self-contained studio. Also in the complex was a large interview/ break room which also contained the record library. The new studio was officially opened by Noel Edmonds on 26th January 1985.

In January 1992 the Hospital generously handed another room over to WHBS, which enabled the team to build a dedicated recreation room, a record library and eventually a second studio. The redevelopment of the complex commenced the following month with the refurbishment of the storage area above the studio.

Later in the year, premises continued to expand when the Hospital kindly agreed to allow the use of part of a ground floor room as an Outside Broadcast Store. Ironically this was the very same room that had housed our original studio! The room served WHBS well for several years before being returned to the hospital for use as a store for their regular car boot sales.

In recent years, work has been carried out on the seventh floor studioes. Excitingly, the studio hardware has been updated and Studio 2 was opened. Various celebrities including Graham Taylor and Johnnie Walker have visited to open new studio spaces. There are now sofas in the break room and the record library has gone digital thanks to Myriad, our programming system.

After a merger with Hemel Hospital Radio, the station relaunched as The Pulse Hospital Radio. The broadcast runs 24 hours a day within the hospital and around the world on this website and via TuneIn, an application which also works on smartphones. Whenever there are no live shows, there is an automated playout system with themed hours of programming. Coverage of Watford FC now includes live commentaries of all home games. 

65 years from inception, The Pulse Hospital Radio is still 'getting better all the time', providing entertainment for patients, staff and the Watford community with a smile on its face.

Registered Charity No. 1165719

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