Insightful Commentary : Blind Twin Brothers Give Sightless Radio Listeners a Different View of Rose Parade

While millions watch as television personalities describe the visual wonders passing before them in Pasadena on Monday, a pair of blind radio commentators will offer their own view of the Tournament of Roses.

John and Larry Gassman, who have never seen the parade, will broadcast live for the third time from high in the press box.

The Whittier twins, who coincidentally will celebrate their 34th birthday Monday, will begin their coverage of the parade at 8 a.m. on KPCC, Pasadena City College’s radio station, a program that will be carried all over the country via satellite.

Sighted Listeners, Too

Experienced broadcasters who have had their own 2-hour show on KPCC since 1980, the men do their parade commentary especially for a blind audience.

After much preparation, including “feeling tours” of floats under construction, they describe the parade in terms that are understandable to other sightless people. They often refer to textures of float materials and to sizes and shapes they have felt.

But Larry Shirk, program director of KPCC who also serves as the Gassmans’ spotter during the parade, said plenty of sighted people listen as well.

“We’ve had so many people say they get sick and tired of the patter on television, and they turn down the sound on their sets and turn on the radio,” Shirk said. He called the twins “extremely intelligent, with marvelous senses of humor.’

Shirk said about 30 other public radio stations usually pick up the broadcast via satellite. KPCC is at 89.3 on FM radio and is the parade’s “informational” station, Shirk said, giving weather, parking and traffic information before and after the parade broadcast.

As on the past two New Year’s Days, the twins will climb 65 feet to the broadcasting booth before 6 a.m. Monday. While others look down on Orange Grove and Colorado Boulevards through early morning darkness and frost, they rub their freezing fingertips across pages of Braille notes.

Citing their biggest problem, John Gassman said, “When our fingertips freeze, the Braille becomes fuzzy. That’s like reading a printed page and the lights go out. We tried last year to wear gloves with the fingertips cut out, but they still froze. Now we’re going to try a portable lamp with heat. Actually, it’s fun to figure out what to do.”

Transcribe Into Braille

In preparation for the parade, the men tape press releases that are read aloud and then transcribe the tapes into Braille. Then they tape their observations while they tour the floats, literally getting a feel of their sizes and textures. In combining all of the material, they said they are prepared for every possible delay or mishap and always have much more background information and details than they have ever needed.

In acting as spotter, Shirk joins them in their broadcast booth to describe anything that might occur in the parade that is not in the official lineup.

“He tells us to speed up or slow down,” John said. “Anyone knows that when you’re describing a float and a band goes by, there’s something wrong.”

They said their style is to talk to each other during the broadcast, questioning and answering to “keep it conversational.”

“We want to be talking to people, not at them,” John said. “Talking at people is an easy trap to fall into. We try to stay away from sounding like we’re reading.

“If we use humor, it’s not conscious, but if there’s something funny and its in good taste, well. . . . “

Weekly Program

They have had years of practice, anticipating each other’s comments and keeping up a lively patter.

Their weekly radio show, “Same Time, Same Station,” is on KPCC every Sunday from 6 to 8 p.m., when they replay old radio programs from their collection of 13,000 that include Jack Benny, Bob Hope, “Suspense” and “Fibber McGee and Molly.” Sometimes they interview writers or directors of the shows.

Their collection is what John called “medium-sized, but all high-quality” recordings of the old programs. It began as a hobby and is continually growing as the men buy and trade with other collectors all over the country.

They are identical twins who live together in their own home in Whittier, where they grew up and attended public schools. They are graduates of Rio Hondo College, where their interest in radio began when they began serving as hosts of a “Top 40s” show on the college radio station in the early 1970s. They are not employed, but hope their interest in radio, which is now a hobby, will lead to jobs.

Second Nature

They said their parents, both of whom have died, “purposely taught us that we were just like anyone else, so being blind was just second nature.”

They were born more than two months premature, and within three minutes of each other, John weighing 1 pound, 8 ounces, and Larry 1 pound, 10 ounces. As with many premature babies born during the 1950s, they were permanently blinded by excessive amounts of oxygen pumped into their incubators to help keep them alive.

“We’ve never been anything but blind, so we never thought about it,” Larry said. “We just learned to adapt and make the best of it. We’re not negative people anyway.”

They said they have had responses to their parade commentary from people all over the country, not all of them blind.

“No negative feedback, as far as we know,” John said.