## Trustees Annual Report & Accounts 2025/26 Hospital Radio Awards 2026 Bolton. ## **Chair of Trustees / Chief Executive – Stephen Allen** This report looks back at the previous year of operation of Rookwood Sound Radio, the local Health & Wellbeing Radio Service. The station is based at the University Hospital Llandough and is broadcast on DAB+ across Cardiff and the Vale of Glamorgan, as well as other parts of South East Wales. In addition, we are available online via a smart speaker, the Rookwood Sound app, and the website. The Trustees have worked hard behind the scenes in their various roles, ensuring that the station continues to meet the requirements of a registered charitable organisation, comply with Charity Law, and operate within the rules and regulations of Ofcom and the NHS. It should not be underestimated the amount of work the Trustees put into their roles. In addition to many hours of broadcasting, it is easy to forget they are also volunteers. I am grateful to have been supported as Chair of Trustees by an excellent team of dedicated people who give up so much of their own time, some of which goes unnoticed by the general membership. 2025 was a really busy year the standard of programming and output was palpable this was evidenced with the bumper amount of awards we collected at the recent Hospital Radio awards were the station picked up 4 awards (1 Gold, 3 Bronze) (November 2024 – October 2025) and were in the top five of two other categories this in itself is testament to the effort put in, the amount of material we had at our disposal for the entries was significant and each one of you deserves acknowledgement for the hard work you put in each week. As we move forward, we enter our 40th anniversary year in 2027, looking back on what we have achieved and continuing to build on what has gone before. We must start succession planning for our charity's future leaders, while ensuring the station has a secure financial future. We can only do this with the help and support of everyone involved. If you work for a company, talk to them about sponsorship of a show or advertising with us. Each member can come up with a fundraising idea to raise much-needed funds, and we will also tap into grants and other income streams. 2 | P a g e It would be remiss not to mention the Executive Committee and Trustees who work so hard to keep the station going over the past 12 months. Their hard work and dedication are sometimes not noticed by the general membership, so I would like to take this opportunity to thank them for their continued support. ## **Trustee / Station Engineer – John Bingham** Been an interesting year, we completed a long overdue upgrade to Myriad, going from version 3 all the way to version 6, this required significant changes across the system, New Studio Computers, New Server infrastructure, and a complete reworking of the Database and Scheduling system, Thanks to the team at Broadcast Radio and Steve and Josh for the efforts migrating the system and updating every media item in the database for the new environment. It was a lot of work, and we have a better, more consistent database going forward. There is plenty more to do. With the additional capacity, we can import more content and plan to move things around to create larger blocks for Presenter carts and, later, Song decades sections. New Myriad required presenter training sessions due to how different the interface was, although there was some initial concerns, presenters have adopted the new system and have enjoyed the extra functionality. There have been some hiccups, Whole shows appearing as songs, issues returning back in to automation where its just not selecting the right hour or item in the log, and quirks with sports shows auto inserting songs and whole shows to fill the empty hour, due to the hour running short, automatic windows updates taking us off air, and sometimes automation refusing to GO, most of the issues have been corrected. Not long after we migrated, we also changed from Sky News Radio to Radio News Hub for our News output. This required some changes to how our News was fed into the system. It allowed us to simplify the system’s programming, retire the satellite-based news feed, and switch to a downloaded news file imported into the system hourly. It did come with some technical issues, due to the requirement of an advert at the end of the bulletin, it added another 30 seconds to the News window, this resulted in the Shows requiring to be shorter by 30 seconds, this was not an issue for live shows, but was an issue for all 3 | P a g e pre-recorded shows, which were still around 57:35 seconds long, I bulk automated the 1 hour shows in the system to be 30 seconds shorter by slightly speeding them up to get them to fit the 57:04 timing. The speed change is not noticeable, and now the older shows continue to run to time without being truncated. Most of the activities have revolved around tweaking and improving Myriad and its supporting infrastructure. We now have better joined-up Myriad and Production storage spaces, and improved backup processes. Due to computer upgrades and now running the latest versions of Windows, we can take advantage of new applications. We introduced some new Editing software to allow us to produce content more easily. This was first utilised with our Awards submission and again for our updated News ident and some station jingles. It has improved our workflow, allowing much greater flexibility and speed in content creation and manipulation, saving time in production. HBA Awards submissions were quite an event this year. We found we had a lot more content to choose from, plenty of new presenters. This did require quite some time to go through, but we think the content we submitted was of a great standard. We have taken advantage of our Callme system, we conducted quite a few Outside broadcasts, a number of shows and events like the Mental Health Show, Sully Show, Cardiff City Football games, and Numerous presenters’ shows from across the country and the globe. Still plenty to do, hoping to focus more this coming year to clear the backlog, so we can explore some new stuff. It should be noted that John won the Unsung Hero award at the Hospital Radio Awards for the many hours he spends supporting us as presenters, an award absolutely deserved. ## **Trustee / Programme Controller Report – Sybil Fowler** Public Holidays - Presenters embraced the opportunity to either present a live or pre-recorded program during the various UK holiday weekends. Thank you, Josh, for creating the graphics for the social media supporting promotions. 4 | P a g e We still have gaps where presenters need to have a few "back-up" shows to cover time when they are on holiday or unwell. Any previously recorded shows need to be tweaked to align with our news hub inserts and to accommodate a slight timing change. It would be good if a few more presenters could record some specialist hour-long shows, such as Northern Soul and Wide-Open Spaces and Choir Night. Social media is a bit of a mixed bag: some presenters are consistent in promoting their shows, and sadly, some aren't. The annual live broadcast from Cardiff City Stadium in association with The Mental Health Show was again successful. Most exhibitors had the opportunity to have a live interview to showcase their business. As a result of this show, we are working with Holland & Barrett to broadcast from their Queen Street Store. We have a number of other programmes to include in the schedule from other stations across the UK. These are being phased in over the next few months. These spots can be replaced with live programmes when volunteers come forward. ## **Trustee / Committee Member Report (New Recruits and Training) - Richard Davies** During the past year, I have been responsible for the recruitment, training and development of new recruits joining Rookwood Sound. Shortly after the last AGM, I completed the training of two recruits, Dominique Finnegan and Megan Brown, who subsequently became full members of Rookwood Sound. Unfortunately, due to personal circumstances, neither was able to take up their own shows. We hope that both will be able to return to the station and become actively involved again soon. We have continued to attract new volunteers to the station, and I am pleased to report that five trainees are currently progressing through the training programme. Daniel Brooks, Sam Seurlock, Tom Williams, Jake Boanas, and Hope Leworthy joined the station over the past few months and are now well into their training. They have shown enthusiasm and commitment and are making good progress towards becoming full members. 5 | P a g e Training sessions cover all aspects of hospital broadcasting, including studio procedures, microphone technique, desk operation, programme presentation, broadcasting regulations, and the professional standards expected of Rookwood Sound volunteers. Throughout the year, we have continued to review and develop our training approach to ensure that new volunteers receive consistent guidance and support. I would like to say a big thank you to Steve Allen and Carl Dennis, who, along with me, are carrying out training sessions. As with any volunteer organisation, recruiting and retaining volunteers remains an ongoing challenge. However, the continued interest from prospective members and the progress being made by our current trainees are encouraging signs for the station's future. Looking ahead, our aim is to continue attracting new volunteers, further develop our training programme, and provide additional opportunities for members to expand their broadcasting and technical skills. I would like to thank all station members who have helped welcome new recruits to Rookwood Sound. Their assistance and encouragement are invaluable in helping new volunteers become confident and capable broadcasters. ## **Statement of Accounts for the year ending 31 December 2025 - Finance Officer Tina Rogers** The accounts are provided on a separate page as an annex to this report. I am aware that the Trustees and operational team are aware of the need to build up our financial resources and ensure that the charity is on a firm financial footing going forward through programme sponsorship, advertising revenue and grant applications. This, I understand, will be a priority over the next 12 months, one that all members should and can get involved in, ensuring we can run effectively, expand the services we provide, and aid the future sustainability of the station over the years to come. I will propose on behalf of the Trustees that we retain our auditors for the next year. 6 | P a g e ROOKWOOD SOUND HOSPITAL BROADCAsllNG FINANCIAL ACCOUNTS FOR THE PERIOD ENDED DECEMBER 31, 2025 HSJ ACCOUNTANTS LTD BUSINESS AND TAX CONSUITANTS Severn House. Ha2d Drl¥e Newport. NPIO 8FY ROOKWOOD SOUND HOSPITAL BROADCAsnNG DECEMBER 31. 2025 ACCOUNTANTS REPORT We have prepared the Income and Expenditure Statement from the books and records of Rookwood Sound hospital broadcasting and from infomiation and explanations supplied to us. we ce￿fy that the figures are in accordance therein. Mr S Allen Chief Executive Officer HSJ ACCOUNTANTS Business & Tax Consultants Sevem House Hazell Drive Newport NP10 8FY Msrch 25, 2026 ROOKIVOOD SOUNO HOSPThAL 8RO*IICASTING INCOME & EXPENDITURE STATEMENT FOR THE PERM)D ENDED DECEMBER 34, 2025 14 Moftth$ to DeG•mb•r 2024 314hc-25 ING 8ALA NATIONAL WESTMINSTER BANK ric 10.184 12.612 12.612 INCOklE DONATIONS SUBSCRIPTIONS SPONSORsFrip FUNDRAISING GRANTS CIFT AID SALE OF ASSET MYRIAD COSTS ADVERTISING APP DEVELOPk4ENT 810 2.221 1,108 375 3.381 250 875 9,293 7.085 xp ADMIN EXPENSES STUDIO EQUIPMENT& MAINTENANCE TELEPHONE FUNDRAISING & EVENTS COSTS INSURANCE LICENCES ACCOUNTANT FEES MARKETING COSTS SPONSORSHIP DONATIONS INTERNET MYRIAD COSTS GRANT EXPENDITURE. EQUIPMÉNT SUBSCRIPTIONS REPAIO APP DEVELOPMENT 227 631 227 1,856 478 4.270 234 335 418 5.232 240 327 1.011 321 Y34 8.579 9,S13 EXCESS EXPENDITURE OVER INCOME 714 2.428 CLO￿NG BALANCE 10,898 10,184 NATIONAL WESTMINSTER 6ANK PLC 10.898 10,184 10,898 10.184