It's not just Tony Blackburn who is celebrating 50 years on the air

ELVIS'S Crying In The Chapel had just been knocked off top spot in the hit parade by The Byrds rendition of Mr Tambourine Man when Keith Lea spun his first disc. Now, half a century later, Keith has joined the same exclusive club as Tony Blackburn and Annie Nightingale by celebrating 50 years as a radio DJ.

Sixty six year old Keith made his debut at York Hospital Radio (YHR) in 1965 and it's hard to believe now, but at the time this was one of very few music stations available in the city.

Too far from the coast, Radio Caroline was nigh on impossible to pick up, Luxembourg was a joke, while Radio One and Two were mere twinkles in the DG's eye.

That left just the Home, Light and Third service.

And of course York's new hospital radio. With so few opportunities this was a popular place for budding DJs to learn their craft and Keith began his apprenticeship when he joined Ebor Tape Recording Club.

It had just linked up with the York Hospital Broadcasting Service and he began recording weekly request shows in a disused path lab at the old Fulford Military Hospital.

But only after he passed an initiation test.

"All the benches with gas taps were still there, we had a garden shed as a presenters' booth and a very old boiler," says Keith. "One day I was told to go and get some coke. Now you try purloining something like that quietly after dark. That was another skill I learned."

Just think, if Keith's bucket had rattled that night, he might not be celebrating 50 years on the air.

THEN...............

.............AND NOW

Since those early days in a shed, Keith has used everything from vinyl and tape to mini disc and computers. And he says there's still a place for 45s, even today. YHR tries to satisfy all audiences and for older listeners tracking down their favourites is often impossible digitally.

"There's an extra skill involved with the turntable because you have to cue it," says Keith. "This means getting the stylus at the beginning and back tracking it slightly, so that when you hit the fader it starts within half a second.

"Some say you should never backtrack a record because the stylus is different the other way round, but disc jockeys have been doing it for decades."

You could say these pioneering jocks paved the way for Rap and Scratch.

Back in the day, Keith was something of a mobile DJ, because the station moved buildings every two or three years. York Hospital Radio later ran a real mobile disco to raise funds for new equipment and one of the venues was the legendary Willows on Coney Street.

"We did our first 18 months there. Brian Snowden our secretary went to tech with Tommy Fong and he made a deal where we would do six days a week. I did a few Mondays which was the graveyard shift, when you'd get maybe two people in, but Friday and Saturday nights were completely different.

"You get a real buzz from seeing a floor full of people."

Later, Keith and others ran the disco as a completely mobile entity. One highlight he recalls was York's 1,900th anniversary celebrations in 1971.

At the gala in Bootham Park Hospital, YHR was offered a glass fronted portakabin as a studio, with a hired tent for tapes and a ladder to get a better view. Imagine writing a risk assessment for that these days.

"We covered the whole three days from 10 in the morning to the last event at night with interviews and commentaries," says Keith. "I wouldn't recommend trying to describe a firework display on radio to anyone."

Keith says YHR is like a small business run by volunteers.

"I think people are surprised. It was string and sawdust in 1965, now the technology is good, the quality is reasonable and the hospital has a decent listening system. This is a serious thing."

In his 50 years at YHR, Keith has done everything from broadcaster and technical operator, to outside broadcast engineer, and secretary. Later, he became chairman and ran an appeal to move YHR to its then new studios in 1983.

In this age of ipods and bedside TV you might be forgiven for thinking that YHR has run its course. But not a bit of it, listener figures show at least half the patients tune in every day.

"That's very satisfying, we broadcast from a basement and sometimes you begin to wonder if anyone out there is listening," says Keith. "Even at 66 I can still do some of these things and I still enjoy it.

"Some people have said to me: ‘here's to the next 50 years’, could you imagine? Anyway, I’d like to think I would know when to bow out gracefully.”

Panel York Hospital Radio provides a radio service to patients, visitors and staff on channel 1 on the bedside radios, in the city's main hospital. The station broadcasts 24-hours a day using the latest broadcast computer technology, which the station's 20 presenters use to broadcast programmes round the clock. Programmes range from Patient Request Shows to General Entertainment Programmes, along with hourly news bulletins and local news on Saturdays at 1pm.

Keith hosts a show with Steve Eccles on Saturdays between 10am and noon.

Panel Expenditure on Electricity and Gas accounts for around one third of York Hospital Radio’s annual outgoings and as one of Keith's fundraising efforts, he donates his winter fuel payment to the station.

"As November approaches I hope to find ways to persuade other qualifying individuals in the city, who do not rely on the payment to keep themselves warm, to join me this year and donate at least some of the £200," he says.

Cheques made out to York Hospital Radio can be sent to: The Treasurer, The Basement Studios, Bridge Lane, York YO31 8EU.