Hospitaal Tyd

South Africa only got television in the mid-1970's and before then radio, cinema, drive-in movies and sex were the primary forms of entertainment (and probably in that order of priority)! I personally don't think that we, as kids growing up in a TV-free environment, "missed" or "lost" anything. On the contrary, I believe that not having the distraction of television was an advantage. We all read a lot, had to amuse ourselves and had to develop fertile imaginations. For us radio was quite literally the "theatre of the mind".

We used to memorise the radio timetable and planned our lives around certain programmes. One of the programmes that didn't really interest us kids was called "Hospitaal Tyd" (the Afrikaans for "Hospital Time"). It was broadcast on "Springbok Radio" at around lunch time every day - the time that we finished school in those days. For this reason we could not escape it as it was always on in the background over lunch. It was as boring as hell for kids - requests, dedications and get-well greetings to people in hospital. Not what we were really into!

Nevertheless, there is something that has stuck in my mind, and that's the radio jingle from the show! These are the words that went together with the theme music:

Daar's 'n lied en 'n glimlag vir jou,
In Hospitaal Tyd, onthou,
Verkleur die wolke van grys tot blou,
In Hospitaal Tyd, onthou,
Vanaf Maandag tot Vrydag, om half-een
Is daar musiek vir moeder, vader - en dogter en seun,
Ja daar's 'n lied en 'n glimlag vir jou,
In Hospitaal Tyd, onthou!

He-he!! That takes me back...I apologise for the indulgence! :-) Hey! Does anyone have a recording of those old "Springbok Radio" jingles and programmes?

FOOTNOTE, February 9, 2002
An excellent new website dedicated to Springbok Radio was launched today! Not only does it cover the history of the station, but it also has a great download section with many sound bites, including "Hospitaal Tyd"!

FOOTNOTE, April 27, 2002
The good news continues! Another outstanding Springbok Radio site was launched today. Richard Sutherland is kindly making a lot of his program material available for download. This site contains FULL EPISODES and not just sound bites - go there! It has "Hospitaal Tyd" as well.