History
St Luke’s Sound – The Station’s History
St. Luke’s Sound is a self-funding radio station, run by volunteers and serves the patients and staff of St. Luke’s Hospital, Bradford as well as the wider public.
The station first hit the airwaves on March 16th 1955 known as ‘Tonic Tunes’. For the next 24 years the output steadily increased. On February 14th 1979, Radio 573 was born, named after our telephone extension number. Philip Barfield presented the first programme at 13.30 that day. Records (no digital music then) were loaned to the station by Woods music shop in Bradford and returned after the show! In 1998 we moved to bigger premises with two studios and a green room, and in February 2001 we changed our name to St Luke’s Sound.
2018 was an important year for St. Luke’s Sound as our programmes started streaming on the internet in September of that year. This on-line service is in addition to our existing internal broadcasts to public areas of the hospital.
Today we have a team of volunteer presenters and technical staff, who between them cover over 35 hours of live broadcasting each week. New presenters are always welcome. Please have a look at our volunteering page for details on how to join the team.
