THE team at Hospital Radio Basingstoke held a marathon 60-hour music-on-demand show across an entire weekend.

They also welcomed hospital staff and patients into the station to find out more about what they do, and featured contributors to the shows from across the globe.

The mammoth session began at 8am last Friday, which was also the HRB ‘open day’, and ran until 8pm on Sunday.

On Friday morning, the station opened the doors to a stream of curious visitors, including the Mayor of Basingstoke and Deane, Councillor Keith Chapman, and Mayoress Jennifer Chapman, who had a tour of the studio and talked on air with presenter Paul Le Feuvre.

On Friday afternoon, visitors from the management team at the hospital and from the children’s ward on G Floor popped into the station to see what made it tick.

On Saturday, presenter Vernon Pearce broadcast live from Spain in his regular ‘postcard’ show, and presenter Andy McCormick added to the international flavour, broadcasting live from New Zealand at the same time.

During the marathon, more than 100 requests were played out and the station gave away dozens of prizes.

Anna Trevelyan, presenter at HRB, said: “The open day and marathon show both went really well. Hospital staff are always interested in seeing what goes on behind the scenes at the station and we had a lot of positive feedback from them.

“It’s a good way of connecting with hospital staff and also attracting new volunteers to the station. We have an open day every year and this is the second year in a row we have done a marathon broadcast.”