Bob Walter MP on Radio Odstock

Robert Walter MP (North Dorset) will be interviewed this Thursday, (18 February), by presenter Robyn Bryan for Salisbury Hospital’s Radio Odstock ‘My Special Selection’ slot.

The hour long interview, known as Odstock’s answer to Desert Island Discs, will be broadcast for the entertainment of patients and staff at this busy General Hospital, which serves many of Bob’s own North Dorset constituents.

During the one hour slot Bob and Robyn will be discussing his favourite songs and the influence they’ve had on his life and political career, which Bob hopes will be of interest to what will no doubt be a wide ranging audience.

Radio Odstock was set up in 1953 by the late Paul Mullins with the aim of boosting the wellbeing of patients for the duration of their time in hospital. It is now run by a dedicated team of 30 unpaid volunteers and numbers are set to grow. The station is broadcast within the hospital and can be accessed from the patient's bedside by the patientline television system. Patients and their families can also request music of their choice by calling a free number on the patient phones.

New presenter Robyn Bryan is keen to get as many interesting names through the door as possible and there are plans for the radio station – listed on the Hospital Broadcasting Network site – to get a website up and running soon. There are plans to expand that radio station, with two new, refurbished studios from its humble origins of the ‘Broadcasting Broom Cupboard’.