One of the country’s oldest radio broadcasters and DJs has died in Bradford aged 95.
Patrick Murphy, from Odsal, was still presenting twice weekly on hospital radio until illness forced him to hang up his headphones two years ago.
Murphy had been spinning tunes on St Luke’s Hospital Radio Station, St Luke’s Sound, since 2012 after he “got bored” with retirement.
He only took up hospital radio broadcasting at the age of 82, although he had previously worked as a DJ in the sixties.
Murphy, who was originally from the Curragh in Co Kildare, Ireland, died aged 95 on December 27, 2025. His funeral will take place next Monday (January 26).
He came to London in 1945 looking for work, moving to Bradford to work in the engineering trade in 1951. He met his late wife Doris, at the city’s Gaiety Club where the couple used to go to dance and after marrying moved to Odsal. The couple had one daughter, Michelle.
Patrick retired in 1995 and applied to the hospital radio after seeing an appeal for volunteers in the Telegraph & Argus.
In 2022, he told Bradford Teaching Hospitals – the trust which also runs Bradford Royal Infirmary: “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.
His hospital radio broadcasts took place every Wednesday and Thursday mornings with his signature tune being the ‘Oldest Swinger in Town’ by Frank Cromit. Other favourites included Neil Diamond and Bill Haley and His Comets’ Rock Around the Clock. Despite his advancing age, Murphy continued broadcasting throughout the pandemic, saying “Hospital radio is an essential service. I get to play my happy music and bring smiles to people’s faces.”
Head of Volunteering at Bradford Teaching Hospitals, Clare Bancroft, told the local paper: “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.”
David Rathmell, chairperson for St. Luke’s Sound Hospital Radio, added: “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.”
Image: Patrick Murphy, courtesy Bradford Hospitals
