Everything's Rosy! A radio station which has broadcast to hundreds of thousands of patients at a Bradford hospital celebrates its 35th anniversary this Valentine’s Day.

Presenters at St Luke’s Sound hospital radio will mark the special occasion by taking part in a 12-hour, non-stop radio broadcast looking back on more than three decades of transmissions.

The station, which is manned entirely by volunteers, was set up in the hospital administration block in Little Horton Lane on Valentine’s Day, 1979.

The first programme featured showtunes and love songs.

Secretary David Rathmell said: “We’ll be celebrating by fundraising and promoting the radio station non-stop, throughout the whole of Valentine’s Day.

“There will also be a music quiz which patients can enter and presenters will be visiting the wards and outpatient departments for requests, as we hope to generate an air of celebration throughout the hospital.

“Valentine’s Day at St Luke’s is always special but for the volunteers who run St Luke’s Sound every week of the year, it will be extra special this time.”

One of the radio station’s original DJs back on Valentine’s Day, 1979, was founder member, Philip Barfield, of Allerton, who went on to be awarded an MBE in 2007 for services to broadcasting and to the welfare of patients.

He said: “When I took to the turntables 35 years ago, I remember starting off by encouraging everybody else – they were quite nervous – with Whistle A Happy Tune from The King and I. Then, because it was Valentine’s, I played The Stylistics and I Wrote a Love Letter.”

“The station and technology was totally different 35 years ago. We were in a different studio, with just a turntable to play records and a reel-to-reel tape recorder. Now we have computers and CDs.”

St Luke’s Sound chairman Jack Worsnop, 79, of Thornton Road, Bradford, who joined the station 13 years ago, said: “We have received a lot of support from volunteers working at the station and elsewhere in the hospital over the years which we would like to say a big thank for the teamwork as it has been fantastic.

“We’ve got one or two new presenters and we’re really looking forward to the future and another 35 years of broadcasting to the patients of Bradford.”

To find out more about joining the St Luke’s Sound team you can telephone (01274) 365041.