Newspapers are no longer only for the visually privileged; Nebraskans who are blind or visually impaired can rely on Radio Talking Book Service to deliver daily news via volunteer voices.
According to their website, Radio Talking Book Service’s (RTBS) mission statement is “to provide human-voiced information choices to individuals who are blind, visually impaired, or have physical disabilities which prevent them from reading.”
Formed in 1974, RTBS celebrates its 50th anniversary this year.
“It’s kind of extraordinary to think about how far we’ve come in those 50 years,” said Bekah Jerde, executive director at RTBS. “The early folks laid an amazing foundation for us,” she continued. “But something happened in 2011 or 2012—they had to switch from analog television to digital television, which affected us greatly. We experienced a huge drop in numbers at that point. They tried really hard to get everybody switched over, but it really caused a dent in listenership.”
That dent has since been repaired. “When I came on in 2015, we had 574 documented listeners. We now have 12,197. One of the reasons for that big jump is in 2016 we added internet streaming,” Jerde explained. “That made a really big difference in our listenership, because then we were able to better serve care facilities and rural areas. In 2017, we started doing podcasts of our more local stuff; newspapers, department store ads, grocery store ads—those sorts of things. We started offering those up on demand instead of having to tune in at 10am or 6pm for the replay.”
With over 80 regular volunteers who provide over 90 hours of programming a week, RTBS has a solid team who enjoy recording readings of the publications that the organization offers. “They are the heart and soul of it all,” said Jerde. “We have one woman who just hit 30 years with us, and a gentleman who just retired with us after 32 years. So I think people really enjoy it.”
RTBS is always accepting volunteers, especially for their “listener liaisons,” during which volunteers call listeners “just to check in,” get a survey of which shows they’re listening to, if their equipment still works, and have conversations with the listeners. “The radio reading service is all over the nation.
ctually getting feedback from our listeners is one of the most challenging things,” Jerde said. Listener liaisons is one of the ways RTBS is aiming to remedy that lack of feedback.
Ryan Osentowski, program director for RTBS, keeps things rolling in his big, comfy chair in the live reading room. “My job is basically to make sure all the programming gets up and running and on time,” he said. “[The readers] have a schedule they read through, so they take turns reading from each paper on the schedule. So for instance, they start with national news, and about 20 minutes in, they shift to local news, then about 12 minutes ’til, it’s editorials. Then there’s a break and they come back with obituaries, living, business, and sports.”
Besides reading newspapers and magazines aloud, RTBS also provides audio description for plays and community events. “It has just been phenomenal,” Jerde said of the audio description program. “We have set dates with the Rose Theater, Omaha Community Playhouse, and the Orpheum Theater…additionally, we’ve done Christmas light shows, ballets in Lincoln—I got to do Drum Tao this year.
“We’re super excited to be partnering with the Joslyn this year to describe 10 of their permanent collection pieces,” Jerde continued. “So when they reopen, people will have the option to listen to descriptions about pieces in the museum.”
Another program the RTBS has begun is called “Good News.”
“We read a lot of news, whether it be in the newspapers or the magazines that we read, and it can be really heavy,” Jerde explained. “So we have half an hour on Fridays that are dedicated to mostly online publications that just focus on good news—the feel-good stories, you know, breakthroughs in medicine, cute dogs, things like that. We kind of miss the good news because we get lost in all the rest of it.”
The good news at RTBS is that they’re expanding and reaching more people every day.
To learn more, donate, or volunteer, visit rtbs.org.
This article originally appeared in the July/August 2024 issue of Omaha Magazine. To receive the magazine, click here to subscribe.
