[Journalists] radio questions

Mon Aug 17 19:57:59 UTC 2009

On the transmitter readings, you might talk to Ed McDonald, 
304-788-0129.  He is past president of the nfb of wv and has worked 
in radio in one form or another for years.

I work for the Minnesota Rehab agency -- we had a customer that 
needed to work with Google Automation.  I think we had partial 
success with JAWS scripts, but don't remember the whole story.  Try 
e-mailing shawn.wallin at state.mn.us
and tell him you got his e-mail from me.  I believe we hired a 
scripter who might be able to help you.

Dave

At 12:36 PM 8/17/2009, you wrote:
>Hi:
>
>My name is Kerri Kosten. I am a sophomore Journalism major at West
>Virginia University in Morgantown, W.VA in the United States. I want
>to do sports reporting as a career...not sure whether broadcast or
>writing yet...'m trying to learn both and not limit myself since they
>are both important. I definitely want to focus on online though.
>
>Anyway, last year I began an internship at a local radio station here
>in Morgantown. I write the sports page for one of the stations
>websites...it's a pretty big job for an intern.
>
>Well, now they want to actually pay me to run the rradio stations
>overnights on Saturdays. No, I would not be paid for doing writing the
>sports page, which is my internship job, but this is how you start
>out...baby steps.
>
>Here are the issues though. This shift has two requirements...one is
>that you take transmitter readings every hour. The other is that you
>make sure the programming works correctly, and fixing it if there are
>any problems. There are four radio stations...so I would be
>responsible for operating four radio staions
>
>Well, first, a couple of the transmitter readings have to be taken
>manually, not over the phone. In the WAJR studio, there is this
>machine. On the bottom, there are tons of buttons...just buttons not a
>keypad. Then, above that, there are two little slivers of screen. One
>is for one station, and then a little above it is the second sliver
>for the other station. You actually have to read physically with your
>eyes the numbers off the slivers of screen and then manually enter it
>in. Why you can't just do these readings over the phone like the
>others...I have no idea. So, that is one problem.
>
>The second is that again if something goes wrong with any of the
>stations it would be my responsibility to fix, or at least try to the
>best of my abilities, to fix the stations. Well, they are touchscreen.
>
>In each studio, there is a computer. The actual screen of the computer
>is a touchscreen...like the ones at Sheets...you touch it, the screen
>changes. There is a keyboard, but from what I have been told all it is
>used for is to search for liners and songs.
>
>The station just put in this new system called Google Radio
>Automation. When, I would start, everything would be in
>automation...so it's supposed to run by itself. On a regular good
>night with no problems all I wold have to worry about is getting the
>transmitter readings. The concern though is if something goes
>wrong...then I'd have four stations or at least one or maybe two I
>could not fix.
>
>The guy I work for, Jim, thinks that if I heard a problem, I could
>call him immediately and he could log in remotely from home and try to
>fix the problem. The concern though of course, is if the problem is
>too complex it may not be able to just be simply fixed from home.
>Plus, as you know, in radio it's important to fix any problems ASAP
>and just leisurely calling him maytake too much time. If I could not
>get a hold of him, or anybody, I'd be in trouble.
>
>So, do you have any ideas?
>I really want to do this, and don't want to just give up.
>
>Is my most likely option just going to be to maybe hire an assistant
>or a person who would be my eyes? If so, what are my options...do I
>have to pay them out of my pocket, or are there sources of funding
>that would give me the money, and I hire my own person?
>
>People keep telling me that there may be some sort of technology to
>make this work, but I don't think so. People keep telling me that I
>may be able to put some kind of braille overlap over the touchscreen
>but again, the screen changes...so this wouldn't work right? I'd
>almost need something like the Iphone3gs...like some sort of
>screenreader to read the touchscreen right? Which, is not practical in
>this case.
>Then, there is the issue of the transmitter readings. Someone told me
>they make these pen like things for dyslexics where you run the pen
>across the screen, and it reads it out loud. Have you heard of these?
>I'm worried though that it may not be accurate enough.
>So, would my best bet probably be assistance?
>
>Again, I know this job sounds almost impossible, but I really want to
>make it work. The way this company works is that you start out as an
>intern, then they fit you into one of theseshifts...then you work your
>way up from there until you get a full-time job there. I really like
>the company, and the work environment so would rlly hope to work
>there. I have been told I am one of the top 3 interns...the rest of
>them don't do anything. And, they don't just ask anyone to do
>something like this. And, I work a lot there...so to get paid would be
>sort of like a kind of reward. My bossJim refuses to give up...he
>thinks there is a way, he just is sighted so doesn't know exactly how.
>He really believes in me, and said the first day that his hope is that
>I start out as an intern, then could get a job there someday. This
>would be my chance at a start.
>
>I personally wish they could pay me for something else I could do
>better, like maybe computer stuff, or WAJR sports, but they can't. I
>guess with the economy they can only hire for existing radio
>positions...not new ones. So, from my unerstanding, this for now is my
>only option. And, as an intern, I don't feel I have the place to ask
>for something else, or challenge that in any way.
>
>So, I want to do anything I need to in order to potentially do this.
>
>Thanks so much for any info anyone can give!
>
>Kerri
>
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