David Brown 1971 - 1984 and 2010 - now
How I joined
I joined Radio Hillingdon at the age of 18, about 1 month after its initial December 1970 Christmas broadcast. I was originally introduced to the other guys by Steve Jones because they wanted me to help to get the technical side of the equipment working properly.What I did
Although we were all EMI apprentices, I ended up as Station Engineer and also, with the help of John Mandrak who had a large number of jingle backing tracks, produced many of the original station jingles and idents.I remember doing many Discos for Nurses with Gerry French and also the Radio Hillingdon Fetes that managed to get enough money for us to keep the station running. EMI gave us records that were currently being pressed at the pressing plant at Hayes (which later moved to the Hayes/Southall factory). This allowed us to play 'uptodate' records without having to spend too much money. We were also placed on promotional lists for other record labels which meant we received records in the post at the same time as the other BBC and commercial radio stations did. This stopped when the record companies were trying to save money but it did save us alot of money at the time.
It must of been around the end of the 70's that I helped to start another Hospital Radio Station called Radio St Bernards at St Bernards Hospital in Ealing. I stayed there for about 18 months doing programmes, making jingles and helping to maintain the equipment, switching between stations during the week.
I still keep in touch with what is happening at the station and occasionally go down to see what they are up to now. Radio Hillingdon was part of my life for 15 years. Like other Radio Hillingdon members, I met my wife Christine at the station and only stopped doing regular programmes when she had our second child.
I was very pleased to be invited to the RH 30th Birthday Party. It was interesting to meet some of the current and past members and it turned out to be a very enjoyable evening.
When I received a phone call in Septemer 2002 from Mary Phillips inviting me to John Mandrak's 50th Birthday Party it brought the memories back. It was due to this party and meeting some of the old crowd again that made me start the 'Early Years' part of this website.
Where Am I now?
I have moved from Harlington to Hayes and along with my wife Christine have a son Ashley (31) and daughter Stacey (28). I am an IT Manager at a company in Iver which makes and sells Book-Binding, Newspaper Stacking and Forms Press equipment. At the time of writing I have been with them for 33 years.I'm back!!
I rejoined the broadcast team in 2010 and currently have pre-recorded shows that go out at various times in the week. See the Programme Guide for details.Although I no longer visit the station on a regular basis I am proud of what we did for the patients at Hillingdon Hospital and knowing that something I helped to start is still broadcasting more than 40 years later is unbelievable. We would never have thought that back in the Staff Rest Room in 1971 that the broadcasts we started would still be heard today and Streamed on the Internet too.
Dave (Updated 2014)