Valley Focus : Reseda : Radio Reading Service Celebrates 2nd Year

A Reseda--based volunteer group that broadcasts daily readings of newspapers, periodicals and other materials for visually impaired listeners celebrated its second birthday Tuesday.

Los Angeles Radio Reading Service offers an eclectic mix of programs to its listeners. Selections are more apt to include pet care instructions or excerpts from a best-selling novel than breaking news from overseas.

“We specifically choose things that aren’t covered by CNN news reports,” said Eugenie (Jolie) Mason, project director and founder. “We read the grocery ads to people. We read Dear Abby or the comics--all the things you miss by not being able to read the paper.”

Some 84 volunteers are now involved in recording the service’s live and pre-recorded broadcasts. Mason said the group needs more--specifically those with broadcast experience.

The reading service in Reseda has a vast potential audience, beyond the more than 140,000 people with visual impairments identified in the Los Angeles area by the Braille Institute, Mason said.

“Most people think this service is just for the blind, but it’s not. It’s actually for anyone who for some reason doesn’t feel comfortable reading written materials, such as someone in a wheelchair who would have trouble turning pages.”

Special receivers are required to pick up the sub-carrier wave used to transmit the reading service’s program, however. They cost about $50 each and are unavailable through common retail outlets.

Reading service members hope to raise money to buy additional receivers. SCA Laboratories, a Rosemead-based vendor of the devices, has agreed to match each donation the group obtains for receivers through July.

Five of the custom devices were distributed at the group’s birthday celebration at St. Joseph Medical Center in Burbank. Recipients include the Disabled Students Service Center at Cal State Northridge and Maria and Rudy Mendoza, a blind mother and son whose San Fernando home was destroyed by the Northridge earthquake and was recently rebuilt by Habitat for Humanity volunteers.

More information about the Los Angeles Radio Reading Service is available by calling (818) 345-2874.