Readers Required For Crawley Audio News For the Blind

Crawley Audio News is an established charity that has provided an audio news service for the blind and visually impaired community in the Crawley area. We are looking for at least three new readers and possibly up to ten new readers.

We meet on a Friday evening at The Orchard, 1-2 Gleneagles Court, Brighton Road, Crawley. Ideally, we would have four teams of one technician and four readers, each team reading on a one-week-in-four rotation. However, during the Covid-19 pandemic, we have lost a lot of volunteers and we will need to restart on a one-week-in-three rotation, with a minimum of one technician and three readers.

We used to use cassettes to send the news out, with one side of 45 minutes given to the local news and the other side to articles that the readers have found that they think the listeners might enjoy. A few years ago we changed to using USB data sticks, but we have kept the two 45-minute segment format.

Once we have completed the recording, we then copy it onto the data sticks. These are put into plastic pouches, which are then delivered to the Royal Mail Sorting Office in Crawley. The pouches are delivered free of charge to the listeners. When they have finished with them, the listeners put the sticks back in the pouches, flip over the address card, and drop them in any post box for Royal Mail to deliver them back to us, ready for the next recording.

If anyone would like to become a technician, mixing the mic inputs and preparing the sticks and pouches, etc, we would love to hear from you, as we will need another tech if we are to go to a four team set up.

What skills do I need?

None of us is a professional speaker, and we will provide guidance to all new readers.

(We were all new readers once upon a time, so we know what it is like). In essence, speak clearly, don't speak too quickly, and you will be a hit.

When do I need to be available?

Details

We meet shortly before 7 pm and we are normally finished by about 9 pm

Where does this role take place?