The TAPING RECORDER June 2003
News from and about Taping For The Blind, Inc. www.tapingfortheblind.org

FOURTH OF JULY--Independence Day is almost here, and we will have reduced
hours at Taping for the holiday. The building will be open from 7 a.m.
until 12:00 p.m. on Friday, July 4th. We will observe normal hours on
Saturday and Sunday. Please contact any staff member if you will need to
make special arrangements to get your program completed. We wish you all a
very happy holiday!

CONFERENCE REPORT--Radio reading services gather each year to compare
notes, and Taping has been capably represented by Jim Martinez, Radio
Manager, for several years at these gatherings. Here is Jim's report for
the 2003 conference:

2003 IAAIS CONFERENCE
SONORAN OASIS
PHOENIX, AZ
BY JIM MARTINEZ

For the fourth consecutive year I attended the INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION
OF AUDIO INFORMATION SERVICES (IAAIS) annual conference. This is where the
radio reading services throughout the world interact and discuss similar topics
such as fund raising, volunteers, board members, Web streaming, converting to a
digital world and in some cases just trying to keep the lights on. In
previous years New Zealand, Australia, England and South Africa were
represented but
this year Canada was the only international representative. Cynthia
Franzetti, our Executive Director, attended her first conference with me.
Also, the annual awards were handed out and HTBR was the recipient of two
awards. More on that later.

Cynthia attended the workshops involving fund raising, coordinating special
events and volunteerism and I attended the workshops pertaining to the
Internet, radio programming and market research. I also served on a panel
discussing
the future of Spanish language programming on reading services and the
potential of the up-and-coming Hispanic market. These workshops as well as the
luncheons and dinners are a great way for us to give and receive ideas.

Now that we have begun our digital phase, our next step is to make HTBR
heard on the Internet. Streaming audio is one of our next projects at
Taping For
The Blind. Our goal is to have any blind or visually impaired computer user be
able to hear us anywhere in the world. I learned at the conference that the
future may include giving out Internet radios instead of the current radios
that we distribute. The Internet radios would enable the user to hear HTBR
as well as any other radio station that is on the Internet. This particular
radio would
respond to your voice commands, making it very accessible to the blind user.
Portable Internet radios are still several years away. In the meantime, we will
have to listen to audio on the Internet through our old-fashioned computers.

One of the many other topics discussed was the current status of HD RADIO.
HD RADIO is the process of having a digital radio signal. Yes, we record in
digital, but our signal that the listeners hear is still analog. Having HD
RADIOS out in the marketplace that only carry digital signals would leave
HTBR and
other reading services out of business. The last two years the IAAIS has
lobbied the FCC and the manufacturer (IBIQUITY) to make sure we still have a
place on the radio spectrum. The plan is to have a button or toggle switch
on the
HD RADIO to enable a blind user to still access their local reading service.
This would be similar to the SAP option found on your stereo television. The
early stage of HD RADIO did not consider reading services for the blind, so
that's why these lobbying measures were needed. The initial rollout of HD
RADIOS
was supposed to be this summer, but the NATIONAL RADIO SYSTEMS COMMITTEE
"temporarily suspended" activities due to quality of the signal still not
up to the
standards the committee had set. The initial rollout of HD RADIO has now been
pushed back to sometime in 2004. This initial shipment of HD RADIOS won't
include any reading service but thanks to the lobbying efforts of the
IAAIS, they
will in the future. The whole process of HD RADIO will be several years in
the making, similar to the current situation with HDTV. High prices of these
radios is also a factor in the initial and future shipments of HD RADIOS.
As with
any new form of technology, things change on a continual and frequent basis.
We'll keep you posted.

The President's Banquet is on the final night of the conference. After the
dinner, awards were presented. This year HTBR was the recipient of two awards:
for best narrative reading -- JOHN ADAMS read by Jack Campbell and
produced by Elizabeth Heeb and for best newspaper reading
(pre-recorded) -- HOUSTON PRESS read and produced by Marcie Corder. HTBR
has now received three awards for reading in the last three years. It is
always an honor to be recognized by your
peers. Congratulations to Marcie, Jack and Elizabeth and to all of our readers
who do such great work. Keep it up! Also, the C. Stanley Potter award was
presented. C. Stanley Potter created the concept of radio reading services
for the
blind and is considered the father of reading services. This award is not
given out every year, so to receive this award is a wonderful accomplishment.
This year's recipient was Margaret Pfansteil. Margaret, along with her husband
Cody, developed and created what is now known as DVS -- Descriptive Video
Service --
or commonly known as audio description. The reason I mention this is because
back in the early 1990s Margaret and Cody flew to Houston to teach some of
our volunteers how to describe for the blind and visually impaired. Throughout
the years those volunteers have trained others in audio description. It's
through the teachings of Margaret Pfansteil and her husband Cody that we
are able
to provide our clients with the audio description of the rodeo parade and
performances, museum exhibits, IMAX movies and stage plays at the Alley
Theatre and
Theater Under The Stars.

One of the other projects we are exploring is to have HTBR be heard
throughout Texas, specifically south Texas. At the conference I heard that
Corpus
Christi is ready and waiting to start their own reading service. Taping For The
Blind can definitely help with this process. Whether it is through a special
phone line or through a satellite feed, we can help serve the blind and
visually
impaired throughout the valley or the state. Now I hope everyone understands
why it was so important for HTBR to be digital. It wasn't to make our readers
lives harder (although some may disagree). It was to continue to enrich the
lives of the blind and visually impaired.

This year it was particularly gratifying to attend the conference knowing
that we were 100% digital. Last year we were a hybrid of analog and digital.
The year before we were in the beginning stage of becoming digital. And the
year before we were in the talking phase of this transition. Thank you to all
involved in this process and thank you to the patience of the volunteers as we
enter this new exciting phase of Taping For The Blind's history. Thank you for
continuing to help us "TURN SIGHT INTO SOUND".

THANKS FOR A GREAT REPORT, Jim, and let me add our congratulations to our
award-winning readers!

CONGRATULATIONS--Congratulations to the following Taping volunteers on big
moments in their lives: Custom recording reader Robin Fewox will be
married in July; HTBR reader and describer Agnes Hortobagyi's daughter,
Zsuzsanna, was married in June; Bob and Victoria Bartlett's daughter,
Elizabeth, was married on May 3.

LIGHT THE CANDLES--We are pleased to offer Happy Birthday wishes to the
following volunteers who have July birthdays: 01 James Campbell; 02 Doris
Wood; 03 Dick Hokenson; 05 Marion White; 06 Ken Gould; 07 Diana Mitchell;
09 Ginger Gish; 11 Susan Boggio; 12 Cynthia Franzetti; 15 Cheryl Donaho; 19
Michelle McCarel; 20 Peter Tsan; 21 Robin Fewox-Davis; 22 Linda Reneberg;
23 Bettie Bishop; 23 Gordon Guillory; 27 Mary Pedersen; 27 Ted Pfister; 27
Betty Woelfel; 29 Nelda Stoeltje; 29 Jane Zimbaldi; and 30 Fran
Sanders. If you have a July birthday and don't see your name here, please
contact Ginger so we can get our data base updated. Also please note that
we only gave out the day of your birth -- not the year!

WELCOME--We welcome James Campbell to the staff of Taping. James will do
Sunday engineering and fill in as needed. We are pleased to have you, James!

WELCOME, NEW VOLUNTEERS--We have added several new volunteers and we are
very pleased to welcome them. Readers for HTBR include Trice Laurence,
Maricela Amezcua, Carol Gehrig, Henry Fiur, and Rick Whitaker. Working on
books for radio we have Zulema Richards, Claire Ellington, Alex Olivas,
Marc Sherman, and Ken Gould. New readers in Custom Recording include
Thomas Pilch, Jerome "JD" Wilson, DeWayne Wanek, Polly Clark, Bunny Cherin,
and Charlsie Childs. Helping on our client data base is Catherine
Johnston. We thank each of you for your time as you help Turn Sight Into Sound!

GOOD LUCK--Volunteer Fran Dunovsky has been really good help working the
front desk on Wednesdays. She is leaving us for a job (GASP) and we wish
her good luck in her new endeavors. We hope you won't forget us!

REMEMBER--If you are not a subscriber, it is easy to do. Send a blank
e-mail message to tbi-houston-subscribe@yahoogroups.com and they'll see to
it that you get signed up. Have a great summer, and if you are going on
vacation, please notify Jim so we can get substitute readers for your shows.

RLB