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New Orleans CityBusiness - Reading Radio in N.O. a one-of-a-kind station with global reach
11/29/2008 - By Admin Don Banning has been legally blind for the past 35 years, but the 69-year-old special education teacher never misses a beat when it comes to local and national events thanks to an innovative local radio station.
Operating out of an unassuming house on Magazine Street, WRBH Reading Radio for the Blind and Print Handicapped serves local listeners by broadcasting all types of print media 24 hours a day on 88.3 FM and has developed a global reach through the station Web site, www.wrbh.org.
Working with an annual budget of $270,000, four full-time employees and four engineers, executive director Natalia Gonzales said the station has seen many changes since Hurricane Katrina but continues to grow.
Most Popular Do You Have A Strategic Plan? The Earth is Flat? Larry Bossidy: The Execution-Oriented Company Return On Investment Calculator Simplify Strategic Planning: Write A One Page Business Plan"Our annual membership drive hasn't been as profitable as it has in the past, but we're still running neck and neck with last year. So I'm fairly confident that we're going to be fine this year," she said.
The bulk of the annual donations come from individual donors, Gonzales said, but the economy has led to some recent shortfalls.
"Since we are a nonprofit, we rely very heavily on individual members as well as mostly foundations and corporate giving," she said. "We don't get any funding from the state or federal government. We do one fundraiser a year. We were doing two, but it's my feeling that times are hard and it's difficult enough to go after people once a year asking for donations."
Before Katrina WRBH hosted a gala, the Eyes of Love, and a golf tournament each year, but Gonzales said the focus has been shifted to the tournament the past three years.
Without the involvement of a dedicated group of volunteers such as Banning, who also is a board member, Gonzales said the station would not survive.
Banning has been involved with WRBH since the late Robert McLean, a blind mathematician, created it in 1982. While he said other sources provide some of the same services, nothing comes close to the level of service WRBH provides.
There are more than 100 similar radio stations nationwide geared to the blind, but Banning said every other station requires a special receiver to pick up the signal, "... like an HD radio, and you can only get the signal on that particular receiver," he said. "The problem is those receivers don't always work and they can break. I can listen to WRBH anywhere in the local area from Gulfport to Gonzales on a regular radio on the FM band, or I can listen it to it streamed anywhere in the world."
That accessibility, coupled with about 200 volunteers who read everything from local and national newspapers to novels and short stories, makes WRBH a unique station, Gonzales said.
"Usually with other reading radios, they are not owned by the listeners," Banning said. "We own the station, we the people. We put it together, we raised the money."
Gonzales said many volunteers are retired people with a lot of time on their hands, but others are working adults just seeking a way to give back to the community.
"We provide a service on both ends," Gonzales said. "The product we produce but also the opportunity for people to come in and volunteer in a really warm and loving environment."
Volunteers have to pass a rigorous test of reading skills and voice quality before they can read on the air, Gonzales said, and certain voices are paired with complimentary reading material.
"We try to match the book with the voice and we're fortunate enough that we have enough volunteers that we can do that," she said. "I know that a lot of people have their favorite readers. Some of the little old ladies that call tell us how much they like the ladies that read the grocery ads everyday."
Volunteer Crystal Hines said a New Year's resolution to participate in some sort of community service in 2006 led her to WRBH.
"I'm not much at gutting houses and stuff, and when I saw an advertisement that they needed volunteers it was a perfect fit," Hines said. "One reason it kind of hit home is my oldest daughter Tara was born with an eye condition and she only sees out of one eye, so I've had 25 years of taking her to eye specialists all over the country. I know the value of eyesight, and I also know what it's like to not have it."
Banning said WRBH has become his main source of up-to-the-date news.
"This is a very important service," he said. "There aren't any newspapers that are printed in Braille and they're not put on tape, and yes I can get news from another source from a computer reading service, but they don't read a lot of things on there. I can't get local publications on there. At WRBH I can get anything I want, and that's very important."
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