The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Fortune, Rolling Stone and Vanity Fair.
These are some of the publications central Illinoisans can hear through a service offered by WUIS-FM, the public radio station at the University of Illinois Springfield.
“We have about 20 volunteers who read local and national newspapers and magazines to those who have disabilities,” said Sinta Seiber-Lane, program director for WUIS-FM 91.9, a member station of National Public Radio.
“We recently started offering online services where users can access the service with a password,” Seiber-Lane said. “We still offer receivers, but they can break easily and sometimes there is interference noise. Audio quality is much better through the online stream.”
Currently, 425 listeners access the service through free, sideband receivers.
Robert “Robb” Miller Jr., 60, reads Rolling Stone magazine for a 30-minute episode each week.
“RIS provides me an opportunity to do a little something for a very vulnerable segment of our community,” said Miller, who has volunteered for RIS for the past 10 years. “I don’t have any idea how many people listen to my show every week. But I like to think that there are folks from my generation who enjoy hearing from Rolling Stone and all it evokes for boomers.”
Prior to volunteering for RIS, Miller hadn’t read Rolling Stone in years.
“Reuniting with Rolling Stone has been a lot of fun,” he said. “Every now and then, I think I surprise younger coworkers or my kids with my awareness of their generation’s music world.”
Plenty to read from
Volunteers also read local newspapers, including The State Journal-Register, Decatur Herald & Review, Jacksonville Journal-Courier, Lincoln Courier, Pantagraph in Bloomington and Quincy Herald-Whig.
While the RIS schedule is full of daily episodes of newspaper and magazine readings, volunteers also turn to fiction and nonfiction to provide variety to listeners.
“I read novels, typically best sellers, primarily fiction,” said Ted LeBlang, 62, who started volunteering with RIS in 2006. “Each recorded session runs exactly one hour.”
LeBlang’s current novel — “Water for Elephants” by Sara Gruen — will take nearly a dozen hours to read.
“It will likely take 11 or 12 recording sessions to complete this 311-page book,” LeBlang said. “But the total number of required recording sessions varies from book to book, based on the actual number of words per page.”
Reading “Pillars of the Earth,” by Ken Follett, took LeBlang more than 50 recording sessions.
“My educational background includes training in theater and voice, and through the years, I have done a fair amount of public speaking,” said LeBlang, when asked why he volunteers to read novels for RIS. “Because of this background and training, I felt that I could bring the pages of novels to life for RIS listeners.”
‘Always looking for volunteers’
“We have had up to 50 volunteers (in the past), but only have about 20 volunteers now,” said Seiber-Lane. “We’re always looking for volunteers to read local and national publications.”
Volunteering does not require a huge time commitment and RIS will work around a person’s schedule, according to Miller.
“RIS (has) provided me an opportunity to give a little something back but on my own timetable,” he said. “Initially, I recorded at the WUIS studios. But, within a couple of years, I was recording on my home PC and mailing them in on CDs.”
Miller now uploads his recording to Drop Box, a web-based software that allows Seiber-Lane to download the next episode whenever she needs it.
“It is an easy way to help make a small difference in your community,” Miller said.
# http://www.sj-r.com/carousel/x1341763548/Reading-on-the-radio
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