On Saturday night Wollaton Hall shed its Batman clothes to host a party to celebrate 40 years of Hospital Radio in Nottingham. You might remember I blogged about going back to the studios a few weeks ago.

Over 100 people assembled in the Great Hall – David Lloyd and Paul Robey had done a great job in tracking down generations of presenters, engineers, ward visitors and admin staff from the Stations rich history. I was there through the 1980’s – 11 years all told.

It was amazing to see so many people from that era – some of whom have gone on to great things – in and out of radio! NHR provided a lot of things – a great training ground if you wanted the step into professional broadcasting, a great opportunity to genuinely help people in hospital – keeping them company. But for me (and my wife!) it was a great social scene. We made lots of friends – our lives revolved around the place.

We still have a group of close friends who came from that era – it seems incredible that over 30 years have slipped by since we first met some of them – often presenting shows together. We still refer to the group at the ‘NHR gang’.

It was brilliant on Saturday to see so many old faces – from a golden era. I left the station in 1990 – I haven’t seen some of those people for 24 years! But the memories came flooding back and you can’t help but smile at the stories and the things we got up to – A JailBreak, the Robin Hood Marathon coverage (from telephone boxes!), Broad Marsh Centre outside broadcasts (I once interviewed Gerry Marsden from Gerry and the Pacemakers).

It’s good to see NHR still going. And great to see so many friends from a bygone era!