Radio Frimley Park exists to provide the in-house radio service for Frimley Park Hospital and is a Charitable Incorporated Organisation, registered with the Charity Commission.
The station was founded 48 years ago in 1976. The brainchild of Gordon Cox, it was originally known as “Frimley Park Broadcasting Service”.
With funds provided by the hospital’s League of Friends, following test broadcasts on a couple of evenings a week, the fledgling service launched on 1st October 1976. Over the years, the studio equipment has been replaced and refined, and the broadcasting hours were extended to every evening with longer hours during weekends. The station is affiliated to the Hospital Broadcasting Association, joining over 300 other stations across the country.
Since the early days, Radio Frimley Park has been a feature in the community with its "outside broadcasts", helping to raise funds for the station and awareness of its activities outside the hospital. As the bookings built up, it was decided that Radio Frimley Park should be more mobile, so in the late 1980's the first outside broadcast vehicle was acquired.
Since then the station has had various former ambulances which have been converted into mobile studios. These have been used to provide public address facilities at many outdoor events and generate revenue for the station’s core activities.
The station hit a low when, in 1990, the studio was stripped of almost all broadcasting equipment. Although the thieves were caught and convicted and most of the equipment recovered, it had been damaged beyond repair. Following a concerted fundraising effort and with support from the local community in September 1990 Radio Frimley Park was back on the air with a visit from Tom O'Connor, one of the Hospital Broadcasting Association’s show business ambassadors at the time.
In the 21st century, Radio Frimley Park’s principal aims remain what they have always been, to inform, educate and relieve sickness amongst the patients of Frimley Park Hospital. For several years, vigorous fundraising and help and encouragement from the Hospital Trust has meant the station now has a larger and more modern studio and is broadcasting 24 hours a day, every day.