Hermitage FM History

Hermitage FM is part of Carillon Broadcasting Ltd. As broadcasters our history starts way back on Sunday, 11th April 1976 when as a fledgling hospital radio station we opened as Loughborough Hospital Broadcasting. Our programming in those days was put out live over an internal speaker system to the Loughborough General Hospital, Regent Street and Zachery Merton in Loughborough.

Our service continued pretty much unchanged until 1999 when our station took the bold step to apply to broadcast on medium wave. For a small town based hospital broadcaster the decision to take this route was both daring and innovative. Following a change of name to Carillon Radio in November of that year, the license was granted in 2000 and we became the smallest hospital radio station in the country to be afforded this status.

With ageing broadcast equipment and still based above Loughborough General Hospital's X-Ray department, the race was on to bring ourselves into the 21st Century and commence our new broadcast service. By this time we were providing programming to the Loughborough General Hospital and Loughborough Hospital on Epinal Way, the other 2 locations having long since been closed. With the odds stacked against us, on a limited budget, doing all of the work ourselves, digging ditches, laying cables, building our own equipment and erecting aerial masts, we achieved the impossible. We launched our new 24-hour broadcasting service on Saturday, 9th December 2000 on 1386 AM from our old but valiant studios.

New challenges and opportunities were to follow. The closure of Loughborough General Hospital meant a relocation to Loughborough Hospital - no easy task as the whole process was to start again. New ditches were dug, new cables laid and aerial masts erected, all on the slimmest of budgets. Despite major setbacks we achieved the impossible for a second time and we came back on air stronger than ever with renewed vigor and a vastly improved range of programming.

Our efforts were not to go unnoticed and within months we had been invited to expand our broadcasting to Coalville Hospital. Even more digging of ditches, laying of cables and aerials being erected our service was launched to a whole new audience in Coalville. More was to follow with our further expansion in to Ashby-de-la-Zouch and Oakham hospitals - more ditches, cables and aerials and even a second medium wave frequency.

So to the present, with our committed expansion and growth and with a wealth of experience behind us, we have been granted an even greater honour - to be the first hospital broadcaster in the country to become a Community radio station. Still undertaking all of the work ourselves we are now ready to bring to you our new service,

Hermitage FM.

We are committed to providing a first rate service to the people of North West Leicestershire on Hermitage FM and also to the people of Loughborough, Coalville, Ashby-de-la-Zouch and Oakham on our sister station, Carillon Radio. We are a community broadcaster where your community matters and we provide the voice of your community. With studios in Coalville, Ashby-de-la-Zouch and Ibstock , we aim to entertain, provide well-being and community support both on and off air. We are here to serve you and make the difference to your community. These are just some of the ways that we are doing that - outside broadcasting, youth opportunities, educational training, etc.

The Community Coffee Lounge is just a part of our service to you, our community.

If you would like to get involved in the future of broadcasting in North West Leicestershire as well as putting something back into your community, please contact us via our website or ring us on 01530 460 992