Need more content for project for the visually impaired

Do you know how to pronounce magnanimity? Bourgeois? Rotogravure? How about societal panacea? If so, you may be the perfect volunteer to read the Herald-Review newspaper over the airwaves to a group of visually impaired listeners. For the last two years the Grand Rapids Herald-Review has been involved in a program known as Keeping Current sponsored by the Cap Baker Lions Club in which the visually impaired are able to hear the Herald-Review read.

They listen on a special radio provided to them free of charge from the Minnesota State Services for the Blind. Volunteers read the paper, but more volunteers are needed to help read for the popular project. The world’s first radio reading service started in 1969 and since then Minnesotans have been able to access not just the newspaper but books, magazines, journals and other printed material via the Minnesota Radio Talking Book Network.

In 1993 the Minnesota Network opened an outreach site where local volunteers can break into the statewide signal to hear the local newspaper read. In January of 2003 through a partnership with KAXE Northern Community Radio and the Cap Baker Lions Club, the Grand Rapids Herald-Review has been read by volunteers to listeners across the region. Marjorie Toven, who has had macular degeneration for the last 10 years is an avid listener to the broadcast.

She said, “To me it is certainly heaven sent. There is no way that I could read the newspaper or it would take me three to four hours just to read the headlines on the front page … It kind of helps me keep in touch with what’s going on in town.” The Cap Baker Lions Club is one chapter in an international organization which is recognized worldwide for its service to the blind and visually impaired.

Donna Anderson, a member of the Cap Baker Lions Club, whose husband Chuck has macular degeneration, said that finding a group of people who could benefit from a program like Keeping Current has been a top priority for the club which has donated $2,500 each year to keep the project going. Herald-Review Publisher Ron Oleheiser said, “The Herald-Review continues to be a proud participant in this project.” Linda Johnson, the host of news, music and Green Cheese on KAXE Northern Community Radio also is a volunteer reader for the program.

She reads the Wednesday paper and KAXE part-time staffer Alex Huessler reads the Sunday edition of the local newspaper. Johnson said, “I really enjoy the fact that I can help people who can’t see, be able to read the paper. It feels good to know that people are enjoying the paper.” Every week Johnson reads the front page headlines, followed by the names on the obituary page. She then reads front page stories, Ken Hickman’s column, letters to the editor, sports scores and other feature stories. She even describes the Ed Fischer cartoon each week.

While the program is popular with those across the northland there are more volunteers needed to start reading the newspaper. Now that KAXE has moved into its expanded studios on the Mississippi River there is plenty of room for more volunteers to use the recording equipment. Volunteers must first submit a recorded audition which includes reading several stories taken straight out of the Grand Rapids Herald-Review, as well as a list of 100 words which include vocabulary like ration, vicissitudes, emissary, ambivalence and others.


Johnson said that readers may practice before they audition and she will hold a training session as well as work with those who may be interested. “I would like to make it a fun learning experience for anyone interested so they can feel comfortable and increase their abilities,” said Johnson. “The people who listen are wonderful and we know they are appreciative.” Those interested in auditioning to become a volunteer reader may contact Linda Johnson at KAXE Northern Community Radio at 326-1234 or e-mail Linda at ljohnson@kaxe.org.

Any blind or visually impaired person can receive the Talking Radio free of charge from the State Services for the Blind. Those interested in receiving the radio should call toll free at 1-800-652-9000.