Radio Fox - HBA Station of the year

Radio Fox has just enjoyed the most successful night in its twenty one year history, having come away from this year's National Hospital Radio Awards with the biggest prize of them all.

The station was given the Gold Award in the Station of the Year category, meaning that Radio Fox has been judged to be the UK's best hospital radio station! The judges said that on the entry, our presenters sounded like they were enjoying themselves and were passionate about what they did, and that the presenters worked well as a team.

This is the second time Fox has won a Gold award, the first being in 2007 when Sandy Iliff won the Female Presenter Of The Year category. In this year's awards, Fox also picked up highly commendeds in the Special Event (for our Caribbean Carnival coverage) and Station Promo categories, and commended in the Specialist Music show section (for Les Eastham's Sixties Scene).

Station Director Steve Hack said of our success: "Wow! I think none of us could really believe we had been awarded Gold in Station of the Year - I'm still taking it in! This is a fantastic tribute to the hard work everyone at Radio Fox puts in to their programmes and it's a brilliant way to start our 21st year on air."

On 21st February Radio Fox was delighted to welcome local singer Adam Thomas back to the studios to sing live on Bob's Scratched Vinyl programme. Adam had previously joined us in the studio for an interview and session last September.

Adam sang ten songs in total and also chatted to Bob about his current plans.

There's a great atmosphere at Radio Fox right now, because we've been shortlisted in four categories in the prestigious annual Hospital Radio Awards.

The awards, organised by umbrella body the Hospital Broadcasting Association, are entered by hospital radio stations from across the UK and are seen as the 'Sony's' of the hospital radio world.

Fox has been shortlisted in four categories - Station Promotion, Special Event (for our Leicester Caribbean Carnival coverage), Specialist Music Show (Les's Sixties Scene) and the most prestigious award of all - Station of the Year! This is the first time we have made the shortlist in this category since 2004.

Station Director Steve Hack is delighted wth our Awards success. "This is a fantastic way to round off our 20th birthday celebrations and a reflection on all the hard work our presenters put in to their shows. Part of the criteria for the Awards is how we interact with listeners and reflect the hospitals we broadcast to; I am so pleased that our efforts have been recognised again on a national level."

The Awards ceremony takes place in Blackpool at the end of March and will be broadcast live on Radio Fox. On the night the nominees find out whether they have picked up a commended, highly commended, bronze, silver or gold award, but whatever happens everyone at Radio Fox is delighted to be recognised as one of the ten best hospital stations in the UK.

This year's Christmas celebrations at Radio Fox were helped by local band Main Street, who dropped into the studios on December 20th for a very unusual gig! The office at Fox Towers was turned into a third studio for the day so the band could play on Bob Machon's Scratched Vinyl programme. Bob also did his links, music and jingles from the office and in doing so became the first presenter to broadcast an entire show from a part of the complex that wasn't one of the studios! We'd like to say a big thank you to Main Street for coming in to Fox at what was a busy time of year for them - we really appreciated it!

Two days earlier we got into the festive spirit with the Radio Fox Christmas Cracker, our annual festive prize giveaway. As always, the aim was to give away enough prizes to give our Finance Director a few sleepless nights and we certainly managed to do that thanks to the first Big Fox Christmas Quiz. In total there were twenty three winners in the space of the ninety minutes we ran the quiz over, the highest number of callers to a single show for several years. We're now looking to run Big Fox Quiz's on a regular basis.

Christmas Day included a special festive edition of Patients Requests presented by Steve Hack, Steven Hardisty and Scott Mclaren who, apart from playing loads of your favourite songs, seemed to be doing their best to knock down the Christmas decorations with their festive party hats!

Find out more about Main Street at: http://www.myspace.com/mainstreetuk

Radio Fox has once again lined up a packed schedule for the Christmas and New Year period, mixing old favourites with some exciting new shows.

Highlights include the Radio Fox Christmas Cracker on December 18th. The entire Radio Fox will be out and about on the wards as we bring the Big Fox Christmas Quiz - could your ward be the first to get every question right? Earlier in the day Cliff Wheatcroft brings you two hours of festive classics and Steve Hack unveils this years Radio Fox Request Chart Christmas Countdown.

On Christmas Day we're out on the wards again for our traditional Christmas Day edition of Patients Requests, and there's some great festive themed shows to enjoy too. Richard Fox has two Christmas countdowns in the Retro Top Forty, there's a look at traditional festive customs in A Traditional Christmas and the Soundcheck Christmas Special, and even some Christmas songs you'd rather forget about in Christmas Turkeys!

Station Director Steve Hack says: "No one wants to be in hospital over Christmas and our aim is to broadcast shows that entertain and help make that stay in hospital a little bit easier."