FM radio for the blind

Press, 24 April 1986, Page 34

FM radio for the blind

An FM radio station, especially for blind listeners, will be given a trial run in Christchurch next month. The station will broadcast from May 19 to May 25 in conjunction with the national conference of the New Zealand Association of the Blind and Partially Blind and the Disabled Persons Assembly conference. Sponsors and volunteer readers are being sought for the temporary station. The national secretary of the association, Ms Dee Parks, said businesses were being asked to sponsor 30-minute segments of air time for $5O. Trusteebank Canterbury had already taken a segment for each evening the station would play. Sponsorship would pay the $2500 cost of the

transmitter and licence. The association will use the studios of the Christchurch Polytechnic’s Radio 1, which finished broadcasting last evening. The station will broadcast on 91.2 FM between 6 p.m. and 10 p.m., Monday to Friday, and between noon and 10 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. It will be heard in the greater Christchurch area. The programmes will include readings from newspapers and magazines, documentary-style coverage of the two conferences, and documentaries on subjects of interest to disabled persons. Music will only be used to fill gaps until specific start times. No more than six minutes of music an hour is expected to be played. Recordings by disabled musicians and com-

posers would probably be used. People wanting to read on the station need not have previous experience. Ms Parks said the readers would be given training by the head of media studies at the polytechnic, Mr Brian Pauling, a week before the station went to air. Volunteers should approach Ms Parks by telephoning Auckland 779-215 collect. Senior officers of the association who have broadcasting experience will supervise and co-ordi-nate the station. Technical help will be given by polytechnic students. Ms Parks said such a service had never been run in New Zealand before but similar programmes had been run in Australia and the United States.

The success of the Christchurph station will be evaluated, and the results used in planning radio reading services throughout New Zealand. The station will have immediate feedback from the people attending the two conferences. “There will be a lot of people at the conferences. They would be the best and most critical judges,” said Ms Parks. Recordings will be made of the programmes for evaluation. “We would support the setting up of several stations throughout New Zealand to provide a service to sight-impaired people or a segment on a national station. There is a real void at the present time with that type of programme,” Ms Parks said.