Explore
In late 2009, with low membership and almost no service, HBSA relocated from Ayrshire Central Hospital to new studios at Crosshouse Hospital. HBSA had some good equipment and three broadcasters – John Surgenor, John Grant and Mark Fisher. HBSA quickly started to attract new members and broadcasters. With all the communication problems (see ‘History’) behind them, HBSA began a new service in digital stereo to every bedside in Crosshouse Hospital.
Over the next few years, HBSA established itself within Crosshouse Hospital as a radio station and a valuable member of the hospital community, providing music and chat 24/7 with now its own dedicated custom-made recorded playout service in between live shows. HBSA often provides PA and music for events in Crosshouse such as the annual children’s ward garden party and the annual volunteers thank you dinner. HBSA has worked hard to make itself a valuable resource in the wider community and has held workshops for adult learning groups and special needs groups to allow them to have practical experience in a working radio station. In late 2017, HBSA established a working relationship with Grange Academy, the nearest secondary school to HBSA. This led to four fifth-year students occupying a regular broadcast spot on the timetable.
In 2015, HBSA received funding from NHS Ayrshire and Arran staff lottery fund for new equipment. This provided HBSA with a new studio equipped with Clyde Broadcast’s Synergy system, a modern computer-based broadcasting system.
On January 1st 2017, HBSA launched its online service. Available here on the website and on TuneIn radio and on Apple iTunes Internet Radio. The service was launched as there was a big dip in users of the Hospedia service and free Wi-Fi was offered throughout Crosshouse Hospital. Since going online, HBSA has averaged over 450 listening hours per week.
In August 2018, HBSA started live commentary on Kilmarnock FC home games from Rugby Park. HBSA acquired the necessary equipment and devised a reliable method of relaying the broadcasts back to Studio 2. The service went online in December 2018.
In June 2019, HBSA announced that it would become charity partners of the new Crosshouse Children’s Fund. As HBSA can support itself with show sponsorship, all fundraising events will now be dedicated to this cause.
On March 18th 2020, HBSA closed to observe social distancing due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
During lockdown, HBSA took delivery of a fully mobile on-air studio. This is a compact version of the Clyde Broadcast system. This mobile unit will be used at outside broadcast fundraising events.
On June 11th 2021, after 14 months of exile, HBSA reopened the studios and restarted live broadcasts from Crosshouse. Recruitment and training was restarted a few weeks later. By October, our timetable was full again. We had school students from Grange Academy on-air and we had reintroduced visits from groups in the community.
HBSA record its fullest and best attended timetable in 2022. Also, HBSA launched it’s football commentary service for visually impaired supporters within Rugby Park, in conjunction with the Killie Trust.
In 2023, due to the support of show sponsorship, HBSA waived all members fees – these fees were instead collected and spent on our children’s wards instead – this was £750.
In 2024, membership fees were waived once again, and like the previous year, fees were donated to the children’s ward, raising £800.