It’s Friday morning and the Radio Readers are in the WNIN studio reading local and national news, like Charlie Alvey reading about the war in Ukraine.
He pauses from reading the main copy of the story to describe a news photograph.
“… (it’s a ) picture of a young girl petting a dog and the caption reads: ‘a girl plays with a dog in a pet shelter in Kyiv Ukraine on Tuesday, like people, animals face trauma from war.’”
The Radio Reading Service is designed for visually impaired individuals, or ‘media impaired’ individuals, who can’t hold onto a newspaper or tablet.
Locally, they read the Evansville Courier & Press, Henderson Gleaner, the Owensboro Messenger-Enquirer, the Warrick County Standard, the Princeton Daily Clarion, and the Mount Carmel Register.
Historically, this service was available on special radios. Then it became available on smart speakers. Now it can be streamed right from the WNIN website on a computer or smartphone, said William Woerz, volunteer coordinator.
“This way most people have a cell phone,” he said. “So it would enable a lot more people to pick up.… if you need the service, then we hope that you will use it and take advantage so that you are more in tune with what's going on in the community.”
Woerz said not enough people who need, it know about it.
“It's been available for years. But what we're finding is the community as a whole and lots of people don't know about it and it spreads largely by word.”
Woerz says even eye doctors who work with visually impaired people are unfamiliar with the Radio Readers service.
“So we're trying to get the word out to them. We're trying to get the word out to nursing homes and assisted living communities and and also reach civic groups that can help us get the word out.”
He said they not only read news — but sports, obituaries and public service announcements.
The streaming service is 24/7. Local readers are on 8AM to noon Central Time on weekdays, and from 9AM to 2PM on weekends.
Woerz said there are about 50 volunteers, but they could always use more.
You can now listen at WNIN.org under the ‘radio’ tab. Click ‘Radio Reading Service.’