Radio Fox is giving its schedule a spring clean with new daytime shows.

From Monday 2nd April Ben Rutter will be the new voice of weekday mornings. His 3 hour show will include Your Radio Fox, an hour of the most requested songs of all time, plus great love songs in Love In The Morning, two classic rock songs in Fox Rox and, every Tuesday, a re-cap of the Radio Fox Request Chart which is unveiled on Monday nights.

Joe Shikeley returns to Fox after a short break to host our Thursday and Friday 1-3pm programme and there’s a revamp for Steve Hack’s 3-6pm weekday afternoon slot.

Later this month Shelley Taylor will return as a regular presenter, hosting the weekend early breakfast show, and Alan T, currently our Late Night Radio Fox host on Tuesdays, will take over the weekend overnight programme. The Classic Rock Show is also set to return on Thursday nights with Fox rock legends Pete Bracey and Dave Rowe with Magical Memories and Sounds Irish moving to Friday nights.

Radio Fox is also planning some special shows to celebrate our birthday on April 23rd – more details to be released soon!

Radio Fox picked up another trophy at the national Hospital Radio Awards on March 31st, with our coverage of the Leicester Mela winning a bronze in the special event category.

The coverage, fronted by Diva Fever presenter Tindy C, gave Fox its first appearance in the top three of any category since our Station of the Year gold success in 2009.

Tindy also reached the top ten in the coveted Female Presenter Of The Year category whilst commentary of Sven Goran Erikkson’s last game in charge of Leicester City took us into the top ten of the Best Speech section.

Radio Fox has reached the top ten of the Hospital Rado Awards in every year since 2001 and this year’s successes bring our number of appearances on the shortlist to over 30. The awards are held annually by the Hospital Broadcasting Association and feature a judging panel made up of experts from the BBC and commercial radio.

The brand new Radio Fox magazine has been published!  Produced for the station by our friends at Smile, the magazine gives listeners and other interested parties plenty of information about our programmes, aims, fundraising activities and even a bit of background information on our presenters!

You can take a look at the magazine right here:-  http://leicester.smilepublishing.com

Radio Fox has a great selection of festive treats this year, including one off shows, Christmas specials of our regular programmes and your opportunity for an instant request on Christmas Day! Here’s our festive line up in full…

Sunday 18th December

10pm  Carols From Around The Country
11pm  A Traditional Christmas – Steven Hardisty finds out about festive customs around the world

Monday 19th December

4pm Nathan’s Musical Express Christmas Special
5pm The Radio Fox Request Chart: Christmas 2011

Christmas Eve

6am The Christmas Eve Breakfast Show with Steven Hardisty
9am  Tom Nicholls – festive music
12pm Christmas Turkeys Part One – the worst Christmas songs ever
1pm Christmas Alphabet Part One with Liz Wotherspoon
2pm Radio Fox Meets Santa – Scott Mclaren interviews the man himself!
3pm Soundcheck Christmas Special with Steve Hack
6pm Retro Top 40: Christmas Special with Richard Fox
7pm A Celebration Of Music – traditional Christmas music
8pm Pirate Dayz Christmas Special with Andy Valentine
10pm Christmas Eve With The Beatles with Les Eastham
12am As normal schedule

Christmas Day

6am A Celebration Of Christmas (rpt)
7am Radio Fox Christmas Day Breakfast Show with Steven Hardisty
9am Michael Lord – with music and instant requests
11am To be confirmed
1pm Christmas Turkeys Part Two
2pm Andy Valentine – with music, instant requests and the Queen’s speech
4pm A-Z Christmas Part Two with Liz Wotherspoon
5pm Fantastic Mr Fox
6pm Carols From Around The Country (rpt)
7pm A Traditional Christmas (rpt)
8pm Sixties Scene Christmas Special with Les Eastham
10pm As normal schedule

Boxing Day

6am Radio Fox Breakfast Show with Steven Hardisty
9am Classic Number Ones
12pm Jack Nixon – with a selection of Christmas number ones
2pm Sports Special – live coverage of Leicester City’s game
5pm Non Stop Classic Hits
6pm Radio Fox Jazz Show: Stephane Grapelli in concert
7pm The Best of Aunt Vera: A compilation of Liz’s tales from the last year
8pm Pirate Dayz Christmas Special (rpt)
10pm Boxing Day Classic Rock Show with Pete Bracey
12am Overnight with Bob Machon

Radio Fox is £250 better off thanks to the generosity of Leicestershire Police.

The station has received the donation from the proceeds of ’unclaimed found unclaimed property.’  The donation will be used to help replace studio equipment.

“Radio Fox is a registered charity and we rely on donations to stay on air,” says Station Director Steve Hack.  “This generous donation from Leicestershire Police will help to keep our studios in good working order.”

For details on how you can help Radio Fox financially please contact our Finance Director Scott McClaren.

Radio Fox is making some changes to its Saturday schedule from 20th August, with a new look Saturday Sport amongst the revamped shows.


The station’s flagship sports programme gets a new start time of 2.30 and will become an all speech show, combining our acclaimed commentary of City and Tigers home games with all the days sports action and special features.


Former Saturday Sport host Steve Hack will be returning to the show as a co-presenter with Jack Nixon. Later in the year the existing members of the sports team will also be heard on presenter duties.


Earlier in the day Scratched Vinyl gets a fresh lick of paint. Regular presenter Bob Machon – the first voice of Radio Fox – will be alternating with Sunday Sounds host Liz Wotherspoon. They’ll be the same mix of great music from the vinyl era, but the show gains an extra half hour called Pot Pourri, featuring different themes and tracks by local bands.


Tom Nicholls will continue to host The Greatest Hits Of Radio Fox – now with a new start time of 5.30pm – and Andy Wilford returns with a one hour Dancezone from 7pm


“These changes should ensure that Radio Fox remains the number one choice for listeners on a Saturday Afternoon,” says Station Director Steve Hack. “I’m especially pleased that listeners will be able to enjoy an extra half hour of Bob’s inimitable style on Saturday lunchtimes and it’s great to welcome Liz back to the Saturday schedule.”

Our birthday celebrations on 23rd April included the (belated) announcement of our member of the year for 2010.

Fox members were invited to pick their winner from a shortlist of five and it was presenter Michael Lord who was the clear winner!

Michael joined the station in 2008 with his son Nathan, initially as part of the Saturday Sport team. Today Michael is the main presenter of Saturday Sport as well as the co-host of Thursday Patients Requests and The Show With No Name. He also regularly deputises for other presenters and helps with special events such as PA’s.

Congratulations Michael!

Radio Fox celebrates its 23rd birthday on April 23rd and we have a day of special programmes planned.

Steve Hack is along bright and early at 7 for the early show, which will feature the first words spoken on Fox and plenty of archive material, including the odd cheesy jingle!

The Brunchbox team will be live from two mystery locations in the Royal from 10 – tune in to find out where and how you can join in with their regular competitions. Then from midday Bob Machon, the first voice on Radio Fox, presents a special edition of Scratched Vinyl that will feature the music of 1988.

Later in the day we look back at our 75 hour sponsored broadcast – which took place ten years ago – and there’s another chance to hear The True Adventures Of Radio Fox, a documentary telling the story of Fox through interviews and archive clips.

The first ever Radio Fox new year special was a hit with listeners.

Audience figures provided by Hospedia show that the four hour programme – broadcast in early January – had an audience share of 43% and nearly three times as many listeners as the second most listened to radio station.

The new year special featured every request show presenter taking turns at hosting the programme, with teams out and about on the wards throughout the evening.

Radio Fox has been shortlisted in five categories at this year’s Hospital Radio Awards, an annual event designed to showcase the best of hospital radio in the UK.

The station is in contention for the prestigious Station of the Year award, with presenters Cliff Wheatcroft and Tindy Chaggar shortlisted in the male and female presenter categories.  Andy Valentine’s Pirate Dayz show has made it on to the shortlist for best specialist music programme, and a trailer encouraging listeners to get involved with Fox features in the best promo category.

Fox has now featured in the Hospital Radio Awards shortlists for twelve consecutive years, and this is the fourth time they have been shortlisted for Station of the Year.  On the last occasion in 2009, Fox received the Gold award in this category.

The stations selected for the shortlist are picked by a panel of industry experts including broadcasters and executives.

Station Director Steve Hack says:  “This is a fantastic achievement and a testament to the hard work of our presenters.  First and foremost we want to make programmes that are enjoyed by our listeners, but I am delighted that our efforts have been recognised at a national level.”