One of the oldest hospital radio broadcasters in the country has died in Bradford.
Ninety-five-year-old Patrick Murphy, from Odsal, was still presenting twice weekly on hospital radio until two years ago, when illness forced him to finally hang up his headphones for good. He died on December 27, 2025.
Patrick had been spinning tunes on St. Luke’s Hospital Radio Station, “St. Luke’s Sound”, since 2012 after he “got bored” with retirement.
Patrick Murphy
He only took up broadcasting at the hospital at the age of 82 and said: “I’ve always loved music and used to listen to Radio Luxembourg when I was a young man.
“My wife Doris and I loved to go ballroom dancing every weekend at the Station Hotel on Clayton Road, in Bradford, in the 1960s but it was the same music every single night and I got fed up with it being the same songs.
“I turned to a friend one day and said: ‘If I can’t change the music, I might as well start DJ-ing as I could do a better job myself and that’s where it started.”
Over the years he collected around 20,000 to 30,000 CDs and a couple of thousand records that reached from floor to ceiling in a box room at his house.
Patrick, who was originally from the Curragh in Co Kildare, Ireland, came to London in 1945 for work, before moving to Bradford to work in the engineering trade in 1951.
When he first started presenting music programmes in the 1960s his favourite tunes included Bill Haley and His Comets’ “Rock Around the Clock”.
Patrick met his wife Doris, at the city’s Gaiety Club where the couple used to go to dance and after marrying moved to Odsal. They had one daughter, Michelle, 52. Doris sadly died of tuberculosis in 1994.
Patrick retired in 1995 and it wasn’t until he read a news story about St. Luke’s Sound appealing for volunteers in the Telegraph and Argus newspaper that he decided to apply as he was “bored with retirement”.
In 2022, he told Bradford Teaching Hospitals – the Trust which also runs Bradford Royal Infirmary: “I saw a story in the paper advertising for new DJs to help run programmes at hospital radio. I thought: ‘That’s just the job for me!’ so I went down to the station, had an interview, got the gig and have been there ever since!”
He broadcast every Wednesday and Thursday mornings with his signature tune being the “Oldest Swinger in Town” by Frank Cromit, saying spinning records kept him young. Neil Diamond and Bill Haley were also favourites.
Patrick added: “I like to play music to get people’s toes tapping and smiles to their faces.”
He continued broadcasting at St. Luke’s Sound throughout the pandemic as “the studio was wiped down before I begin my show and it’s just you on your own broadcasting to the hospital and its patients.”
Patrick explained: “Hospital radio is an essential service in my view means everything to me. There’s been too much misery recently in the world. For two mornings a week I am pleasing people and bringing them joy so what’s not to like about that? I get to play my happy music and bring smiles to people’s faces.”
Picture: Lorne Campbell / Guzelian
Head of Volunteering at Bradford Teaching Hospitals, Clare Bancroft, said: “Our sincere condolences to all of Patrick’s family at this very sad time and his hospital radio colleagues who have lost a truly great presenter.
“Patrick was an amazing person. He was kind, caring and such good fun. He brought a smile to everyone’s face when he popped up regularly on St. Luke’s Sound.
“Here at Bradford Teaching Hospitals we are truly grateful for everything he did for us and our patients. He will be sorely missed.”
Picture: Lorne Campbell / Guzelian
St Luke’s Hospital, BradfordChairperson for St. Luke’s Sound Hospital Radio, David Rathmell, said: “For 12 years Patrick was a valued member of our team of presenters. Always with a ready smile and a joke.
“He was 93-years-old when illness finally forced him to leave the studio which broke all our hearts as we dearly loved him as a colleague and a friend.
“I feel privileged to have known Patrick. There was no doubt about Patrick’s enthusiasm and dedication to our radio station and we are ever so grateful for the years and time he gave to St. Luke’s Sound.
“His photograph is on the wall in our studio and will always be there. R.I.P. my friend.”
Patrick’s funeral will be at St Joseph’s Church, Pakington Street, Bradford, BD5 7LD, on Monday, January 26 at 10am. For more information go to https://www.stjosephschurchbradford.co.uk/