The Daily Southerner, Tarboro, NC

Local News

July 18, 2008

Reading service brings news to print-impaired

T. J. ROYAL

David Edwards spoke about Down East Radio Reading Services at the Tarboro Rotary Club's meeting at The Fountains at The Albemarle Thursday.

Edwards, a Pinetops native who lives in Wilson, is the chairman of the board of Down East Radio Reading Services.

The non-profit organization gives readings of local, regional and national newspapers, as well as magazines and novels, to print-impaired people who don't have access to printed material. The Raleigh News & Observer, The New York Times, Ebony, Reader's Digest and Our State magazine are some of the publications the service reads.

Readings from The Daily Southerner run from 1-1:30 p.m. Monday-Friday.

Edwards said people who use the service the most are blind, but it is also for people who are impaired otherwise and can not hold a newspaper. People with Parkinson's disease benefit from the service, and Edwards said he knew of two armless people who listen.

Edwards read comments to the Rotarians from people saying how much they appreciated the reading service's programming.

One person said they did not realize people on their street had died until weeks later, but they stayed informed through the reading service.

"(I am) grateful someone cares enough to read to me" said another comment.

One person said the reading service is "just about the only company I have."

A woman joked that listening to the reading service was the "only thing John and I do together every day."

Programming from the radio service runs 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It is completely operated by more than 100 volunteers, one of the few such reading services east of the Mississippi River, Edwards said.

The service does not have live programming on Sundays, but it "borrows" the signal from Triangle Radio Reading Service in Raleigh during that time, he said. That is also how the service has its novels read on air, Edwards said.

Although the reading service is a bastion for news, it cannot be picked up on regular car or home radios.

Its frequency is "less than one hertz" from WRQM's, and the strength of that station's signal drowns out the reading service, Edwards said.

It takes a special, $115 radio transmitter to pick up the reading service's signal. Although the receiver is expensive, Edwards emphasized that the equipment costs nothing for recipients to have them in their home or in a hospital.

He said more than 300 of them are available to people in their homes in Edgecombe, Nash and Wilson counties, if they are interested and have a need for one.

The service recently put the special receivers in Heritage Hospital in Tarboro, with more than 700 receivers altogether in Edgecombe, Wilson and Nash County hospitals. Its next goal is to have the receivers available in group homes and settings, he said.

Edwards asked the Rotarians to "find people who can benefit" from the service, and also to look out for volunteers to read.

He said that for some reason, participation and awareness of the reading service "lagged behind" in Edgecombe County, compared to Nash and Wilson counties.

Edwards said the station's program schedule is available in braille, audio cassette and large or regular print.

Down East Radio Reading Services has an annual budget of $24,500 a year, and its cost to get off the ground in December 2003 was $110,000, Edwards said.

The service's volunteers allow it to survive from donations, which he said somehow "pays our bills every month."

When the reading service recently received a $5,000 donation, Edwards said it "knocked our socks off" to receive such a sum.

The most popular program, Edwards said, is the obituaries. The service also reads grocery store and drug store advertisements, which people found helpful because impaired people "have to shop, too," he said.

Rotary Club President Al Hull said he used to read for the service, but could not continue to because of his schedule.

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