Radio ECHO broadcasts to young patients at hospital

MAYWOOD, Ill. -- Beeping and buzzing sounds are coming from one very special room at the Ronald McDonald Children's Hospital at Loyola University Medical Center's campus.

Instead of medical equipment, though, a radio control room occupies one side of the room. On the other side, remote-controlled cars, Super Nintendo, an Easy Bake Oven and other prizes are piled atop a narrow table. Scattered here and there are microphone stands, CDs and notebooks scribbled with tidbits for live broadcast. Two teenagers and a young patient or two cram inside the studio.

Here, in room 4315, it's high school students -- not nurses or doctors -- who tend to the patients' needs. They get them to move to the beat, laugh, or at least smile.

"It's fun," said Laroy Washington, 10, during a recent live broadcast. "It's a nice place for everybody to come and enjoy themselves."

When given a thumbs-up sign from student DJ Ryan McGuire, Laroy grabbed the microphone and introduced himself, as well as favorite songs by Outkast, Ja Rule and Michael Jackson.

A Maywood resident whose sickle cell anemia had landed him in the hospital, Laroy spent more than an hour resting in his wheelchair in the studio, leaving for dinnertime, but only after he signed off.

Music as therapy

The live broadcast is Radio ECHO -- Every Child Has Opportunities. Top students from Lyons Township High School's award-winning radio station play DJ on ECHO from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Mondays and Wednesdays. Heard throughout the children's hospital, Radio ECHO aims to give the young patients something to focus on other than illness or pain.

It is a form of music therapy that is about "escaping the beeps and buzzers, the monitors and shots," said Kate Price, a Lyons Township senior who serves as the program director.

"The real therapy lies in the fact that kids can interact with kids their own age," Price said. "I've stayed overnight in a hospital. It's boring, lonely and scary. We're playing music for the kids and for their families who are also sick of being in the hospital. Music can move people. It's really just air hitting your eardrum, yet it can alter how a person feels."

DJ Nick Rutkowski agreed, saying, "The music seems to help them a little when they hear their own voice, request their own song."

Hospital staff have noticed a change in kids' outlooks since Radio ECHO began in September after a summer pilot.

"They brighten up," said Cindi LaPorte, nurse manager of the children's hospital. "Radio ECHO is another diversion or distraction ... just one more modality to have kids not think about their illness."

While hospital staff and volunteers provide numerous programs, from art to magic shows, Radio ECHO is different, LaPorte said. "A lot of kids don't even know what radio is."

From their own rooms, patients and their families can dial their phones to request songs, give answers to trivia contests, and even win prizes.