Hospital Radio volunteers in Ipswich rack up a combined service of 90 years

Two long-term volunteers at Hospital Radio Ipswich are celebrating a combined 90 years of continuous service for the charity.

John Alborough joined the organisation on 2nd May, 1974 when the station was still in it’s infancy at the Heath Road site.

Over the years John has served in a variety of roles at the station, including time as Chairman.

His weekly “Alborough Festival” programme airs on a Thursday evening for two hours from 8pm and is a mixture of patient request, music and chat and is the longest continuous programme one the station.

Tim Ward joined the organisation on 12th January, 1984, and like John has served in a number of committee roles as well as presenting programmes. By day, and some nights, Tim is a train driver meaning that he doesn’t present a regular programme currently but is very much involved in the station sound.

His long term role being being in charge of production for the station, planning the programme rotas and ensuring things run smoothly. He still however manages to pop on a pair of headphones and present a programme when time and shift patterns allow.

The station says: “Both Tim and John are still passionate about the station and rightly proud of how the station has grown over the years, now also available for listeners to hear over the internet and via smart devices and neither have any intention of hanging up their headphones anytime soon!”