Sam Smette

Committee role: Chair 

Year Joined: 2013

Tell us about your programme:

Request Time – Monday evenings from 19:00-21:00. Playing the music hand-picked by patients at the Horton General Hospital, their friends and families. A weekly dosage of ‘Toilet News’, bringing you toilet-themed related real world news stories about all things loos – yes, we really have gone potty! The Screen Time Challenge: Sam & George compare the amount of time spent on their smart phones over the last seven days.

Rewind – I play some of the songs from times gone by that you don’t hear so often any more, and talk about my memories and news headlines from around the times.

Tell us about your role and volunteering experience at Radio Horton:

I started at Radio Horton in January 2013 where I caught the ‘radio’ bug, first presenting a Saturday Night programme, Dance Grooves, featuring dance, R’n’B, hip-hop and remixes from the clubbing-scene. I was elected to the committee as Audio Imaging Officer. In 2015 I became Programme Coordinator and later Publicity Officer.  As of 2020, I Chair the committee. One of my best memories of Radio Horton has to be collecting founder, Ted Hanson’s HBA Award in Newcastle and having the opportunity to present it to him in person.

What would be your top three Desert Island Discs?

Hmm, this is a tough one. I’d love to pick more than three, but I’ll go with the following:

  • Coldplay – Yellow
  • Texas – Black Eyed Boy
  • Oasis – Stop Crying Your Heart Out

Music artists that have influenced you:

I’ve got a list as long as my arm. In fact that would be one long arm!

Coldplay; Eagle-Eye Cherry; Oasis; The Fray; Avril Lavigne; Imagine Dragons; Hard-Fi; Florence & The Machine; Blur; Sub Focus; Foxes; Dido; Snow Patrol; Capital Cities; Cast; Paramore; Ella Eyre; OneRepublic; Jess Glynne; The BeeGees; Fiction Factory; Avicii; John Legend; Pixie Lott;

(… I could go on, but suggest you tune into one of my programmes to get a real taster of my favourites!)


Three words to describe volunteering at a hospital radio station:

Energetic, sociable, and gratifying!