Help cover running costs & Update Studio Equipment

The origins of Anker Radio started back in 1976 over a cup of coffee when Terry Hancock was talking to a member of the district management team by the name of Joan Wills. In 1979, after a long period of negotiation permission was granted to set up the Nuneaton Area Hospital Broadcasting Service, which we now know as Anker Radio and the rest, as they say, is history.

After almost 13 months of fundraising, locating equipment and the conversion of a building at Orchard Street, Anker Radio went on air for the first time on the 6th of November 1980 at 7’o’clock. The first words spoken on Anker Radio were made by Trevor Walters.

The move to the Portakabin on the Maternity car park at the George Eliot Hospital in the mid eighties saw an upturn in the fortunes of the service in many ways. We acquired a caravan to use as an OB unit and this began to bring in valuable revenue that in turn ensured the continuation of the Service.

In December 1994 we moved into a shiny new studio complex on the top floor of the Maternity block and we really felt that we had at last ‘arrived’ as an integral part of the hospital.

Anker Radio continues to go from strength to strength, supporting local events, bringing the flavour of the borough into the hospital, running a successful Outside Broadcast and PA Unit which provides much needed income for the charity, and by continuing to provide a wide range of personal yet professional programming output that we hope makes a patients stay that little more enjoyable.

As of 1st January 2020 the original charity that the radio service 'Anker Radio' was founded under - 'Nuneaton Area Hospital Broadcasting Service' ceased to exist, and was replaced by a new charity - which gives us greater flexibility in what we can do, and how we operate, as the previous charity was born of 1970s charity legislation - The new charity bears the name 'Anker Radio' and has a new charity number 1180762.
On the 1st January 2020 all members and assets of 'Nuneaton Area Hospital Broadcasting Service' transferred across to the new charity. We Launched our FM service to cover the hospital site on 88.9fm in September 2021