I'd been invited to be featured, as a local novelist, on the Audio Magazine, which is organised by our local authority.
The Town Hall is a grand place, with a wonderful concert hall, organ and marvelous acoustics. Many musical evenings, concerts, orchestras, operas and choirs play there. However I was whisked away far from the grandeur down to a place few ever see!
The small room we were in, used to be the studio used by the BBC when they recorded events in the hall. These days a huge van and trailer park on the street for the outside broadcast.
This is a wonderful organisation. As with many things it could not function without its volunteers. One volunteer may read the news, sport or ex-servicemen's magazine. Another lady talks about local history, places and artefacts. Yet another, will deal with the admin of getting the MP3 players distributed and returned. Each magazine will have a feature, maybe a local author (like me!) or a representative of another organisation, for example, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds.
I was delighted to know that all the listeners, loved e-books. I assume that this is because the font can be adjusted to each person's sight requirements.
The magazine goes out to between 400 and 500 listeners. Some of them overseas, as far afield as Barbados.
I don't expect the magazine I'm involved with will go out for another couple of weeks, so that brings us to early October. At that time a podcast will be available for a week on the Transcription Service facebook page (KRTN). However I will put a link on my own facebook page at that time. Unfortunately I can't give you an exact time for my piece.
So, thanks to Penny for looking after me and making me feel so welcome. I'm sure everyone of your listeners is very grateful for the work you, your colleagues and the volunteers do.
What a fabulous idea. I've not heard of it or anything similar before. I wonder if other authorities do it as well - they should if not. Thanks, so interesting.
ReplyDeleteThanks for visiting Jane. I don't know how common this is. I have to admit I hadn't heard about it before. I did ask why they had such a low profile and was told 'they were working on it'. I do hope they get some good publicity soon.
ReplyDeleteThere is also another lady who types up the magazine in braille. Definitely doing a worthwhile job.
Very cool Carol! I did something similar at a radio station a number of years ago... it was very exciting. For the life of me I can't remember what the hell I was talking about but it was very fun! Congrats !
ReplyDeleteHa ha! I think that's a daily occurrence for me these days Tegon! It was a really interesting experience and such an eye-opener to the services that are out there to help people. Thanks for visiting.
ReplyDeleteSounds like you had an interesting time Carol, not only with your talk but going deep into the town hall too! Will definitely listen to your podcast when it comes out. Didn't realise you write poetry too!
ReplyDeleteI haven't written any poetry or stories for some time. Resolutions took over my writing. I'll let you know when the podcast is available. Hopefully see you before too long!
ReplyDeleteWhat a great experience (and also a good promotion/publicity opportunity for your novel!) - and what an excellent service your local authority provides for the sight-impaired. Brilliant!
ReplyDeleteIt was Paula. I hope this service never suffers under the local authority cutbacks. Thanks for visiting.
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