By Ken Odor
Media General News Service

Every radio station wants more listeners, but Virginia Voice wants a special kind of listener, the kind the organization is uniquely set up to serve.

Founded in 1978, Virginia Voice serves visually handicapped listeners, as well as others with disabilities that make it impossible for them to read.

“Our biggest challenge is to get the word out about our availability,” said Executive Director Nick Morgan. “The people who need us have limited ability to hear about us. They can’t find us surfing the dial.”

Virginia Voice, located on Azalea Avenue in Richmond, is a non-profit organization which provides an audio reading service on a special closed circuit radio system.

Volunteers read articles that are picked up by listeners provided with special radios on a loan basis by Virginia Voice.

The broadcasts are also accessible online at www.virginiavoice.org.

“We concentrate on current printed material,” said Program Director Rebecca Emmett.

“We want our listeners to have access to the same things their friends and family are reading,” said Emmett. “Some of our listeners have lost a lot of mobility and become isolated. This brings them out of their corner and gives them the ability to converse with their peers about current events.”

Sources of articles are The Richmond Times-Dispatch, Readers Digest, Style Weekly, the New York Times, Forbes, National Geographic and much more. There is also community news programming offered each week. Emmett also noted that there is a wide variety of programming available for all ages, not just seniors. “We read teenage short stories and smaller chapter books. Newspapers, magazines and informational programs are our primary focus,” she said.

Virginia Voice currently serves about 1,400 people in the Central Virginia area and another 1,000 in Hampton Roads. Eighty-five percent of listeners are blind or visually impaired, and 15 percent suffer from a physical disability that prevents them from reading.

Seventy percent of Virginia Voice’s revenue consists of contributions from individuals, churches, service and civic groups, and corporations and foundations.

But Morgan said meeting the budget these days is a challenge for Virginia Voice, just as it is for many other non-profit organizations.

“Things are a good bit tighter. Corporate funding is harder to get and understandably so,” he said.

Central to the operation are the volunteers who read the news and other articles; it takes 100 readers to handle one week of Virginia Voice programming.

Most of the programs are recorded for broadcast, but the morning reading of the Times-Dispatch is live.

The service broadcasts twenty-four hours a day, Monday through Friday, signing off on Saturday morning at 2 a.m.

The station resumes broadcasting Saturday morning from 9 a.m. to midnight. Sunday broadcasts are from 2 p.m. to 8 p.m.

Roger Weinberg, who has been reading for Virginia Voice for 30 years, is the longest serving volunteer.

“This is something I try never to miss,” said Weinberg of his weekly half-hour stint. “It’s a great service.”

Weinberg reads one of the News in Perspective segments, a half-hour program of op-ed pieces from news sources around the country.

“I try to be balanced,” said Weinberg. “I like reading a diverse amount of material.”

Midlothian resident Sandy Howells has been volunteering for 17 years. The retired elementary school teacher began volunteering in a similar service in Rochester, NY before moving to Virginia. “Part of it is that I am an avid reader myself. When I was teaching elementary school years ago, part of the best part of the day for my students and myself was to read aloud after recess,” Howells said.

Howells volunteers every other week to record segments of National Geographic. She pronounces the names of people and places as best she can and tries to remain consistent. “If I make a mistake when reading, I stop the computer, mark the spot and delete it and then redo it,” she said.

The computer recording is one of the changes Howells has seen over the years. “You do have to do a little training to use the computer … I’m not computer savvy but it’s not too complicated, it’s almost like using a tape recorder,” she said.

Chesterfield County resident Ben Reed became a volunteer with his wife Marjorie in 2002. “She volunteered there until we started collecting grandchildren,” Reed said with a laugh.

He reads current affairs in the Metro section as well as the fun report, stock market and business news on the state and national level.  “There is a brief, four to five paragraphs, of what the stock market is trending to and things that are happening; things that people should be aware of,” he said.

The former traffic helicopter pilot for WRVA has enjoyed meeting volunteers from various backgrounds. Most of all, he’s glad that he is able to help out. “There is more diverse information that goes out. It’s always been a good amount of newspapers, magazines, and that type of thing. We’re getting more and more varied information,” Reed said.  “I really enjoy working with Becky, and Nick, and the whole gang.”

To find out more about Virginia Voice, visit their Web site at www.virginiavoice.org or call them at 804 266-2477.

Ken Odor is a reporter for The Goochland Gazette. Elizabeth Farina, editor of Midlothian Exchange, contributed to this report.