[Journalists] radio questions

Tue Aug 18 13:00:11 UTC 2009

I just read Kerri's message. I have no idea about any of these answers, but
I have the email address of Mark Jones of Mississippi. He owns and operates
a couple of radio stations. He is totally blind, and I hope he could give
some practical advice. I have passed along the message to Mark and warned
him that Kerri may be calling. I hope that this helps.
Barbara

-----Original Message-----
From: journalists-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:journalists-bounces at nfbnet.org]
On Behalf Of Kerri Kosten
Sent: Monday, August 17, 2009 1:37 PM
To: journalists at nfbnet.org
Subject: [Journalists] radio questions

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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