The History of Radio Poplar by Stephen Smith (Manager/Founder)
Radio Poplar was formed in 1985 by Stephen Smith, Keith Smith, Glynis Smith and Adele Valentine. Other founder members were Ted Tate and Geoff Grimes.
The original plan was to serve two elderly persons’ homes in Wortley, West Leeds- Westholme and Wortley Manor, but when this fell through, Geoff Grimes and Stephen Smith approached the Site Manager-Trish Hewett at St.Mary’s Hospital in Armley in 1986 to set up a hospital radio service. Also in 1986 West Leeds Radio as it was then known became a registered charity, later changing it’s name to Radio Poplar.
Work on building a studio at St.Mary’s was held up until the old Rowan ward was closed and moved to a new unit on site. Between 1986 -1987 Ted Tate built up the studio and Mike Daniels, a friend from Comet Service repaired the broken relay system and amplifier and we were all set to start broadcasting.
The first broadcast went out in February 1988 to Birch, Maple and Cedar wards, followed in the spring of that same year to the new wards of Rowan and The Young Disabled Unit. In May 1988, our President-50s vocalist Ronnie Hilton visited the studio to perform the official opening.
Between May 1988 and August 1992 we continued to broadcast, by which time the hospital had become a site to specialise in mental health. It was at that time when we had to vacate our studio to make room for new offices in the block and we had to close down until a suitable location was found.
Following over 2 years of legal and other problems, the service resumed from a small shed at the back of the hospital site in November 1994. It wasn’t ideal due to dampness in the winter months and exposed to vandalism and break-in’s which happened for the first time in 2002 and an attempted break-in a year later.
During the first break-in, most of the equipment was stolen, but still having two turntables and the mixing desk we were back on-air that weekend.
The second break-in, during 2003, stopped short of an attempt to break the padlocks and the door lock, after which we were always expecting to arrive at the shed to find another break-in, although the alarm system we had installed after our first break-in, did give us some sort of peace of mind.
By the Spring of 2004, site usage at the hospital was changing from ‘in patients’ to more day services and it was decided to leave the site in the near future, which we eventually did in September 2004, having served the hospital patients for 16 years. The plan was to move over to the internet and into the local community where most people with disabilities where now being cared for.
In January 2005, housed within the vicar’s office at The Church of The Venerable Bede, not far from the hospital, we began to broadcast over the internet-aimed at people with mental and physical disabilities, both at home and in care. This was our base until May 2009,when we moved to a building in Bramley, next door to Bramley Baptist church.
In June 2010 we still broadcast from this building-Sunday through till Friday, presenting a very wide range of music and the spoken word to listeners within our re-mit. We were ‘blessed’ to have Ronnie Hilton as our President and Claire Rayner OBE as our Patron.
Radio Poplar is a registered charity (517552) and full details can be found at the Charity Commission website.
