Vox Daily The Official Voices.com Blog

Bobbin Beam Leads Reader's Digest Podcast Team for AIRSLA

By Stephanie Ciccarelli

October 1, 2009

Comments (1)

Are you familiar with AIRSLA?

AIRSLA is an Audio Internet Reading Service helping those who are blind, sight-impaired, reading-impaired, low-vision, or who suffer diseases that make it difficult or impossible for them to read. Our mission is to provide podcasts of news, information, and entertainment that's otherwise inaccessible to them.

Many members of Voices.com are involved in breathing life into these recordings, including Bobbin Beam.

Want to learn more?

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Bobbin Beam, voice actress, has recently become team leader and production coordinator for the Reader's Digest podcasts heard at AIRSLA.org. Voice-overs.com's, Julie Williams, launched the podcast effort in 2007, and recently selected Bobbin Beam to continue the monthly podcast while Williams plans to expand into similar productions for other magazines.

Several of America's best known voice actors quietly give of their time and voices each month to record Reader's Digest Articles for the blind for the AIRSLA website, based in Los Angeles. The AIRS website - which stands for Audio Internet Reading Service of Los Angeles (AIRS), offers an Internet-based radio station that broadcasts to visually impaired individuals.

In the past, radio reading services have used FM radio sub carriers as a broadcast medium. AIRS uses the Internet because coverage is accessible world-wide. Programs can be received on any computer or, by those who do not use a computer, through an Internet radio.

The monthly podcasts co-produced by voice actress Bobbin Beam, remain a production of voice-overs.com and can be heard at http://airsla.org/readers_digest.asp

According to recent statistics, the AIRS site enjoyed some 87,000 hits in August and listeners downloaded a total of 8,517 minutes of Reader's Digest podcasts during that month.

Featured voices include: Harlan Hogan, Larry Wayne, Julie Williams, Linda O'Brien, DC Goode, Janet Ault, Connie Terwilliger, September Day Leach, Doug Turkel, Erin Minto, Dave Courvoisier, Colin Campbell, Dave Shropshire, and Kara Edwards. Post production for the Readers' Digest podcasts is by Steven Powell.

Are you involved in anything similar that you'd like to share about?

Looking forward to hearing from you!

Best wishes,

Stephanie

Comments

For the past several months, I have been volunteering to read publications for the blind and print handicapped through an organization called the Connecticutut Radio Information System (CRIS). I read the sports pages and once or twice a week, I host a radio program called The Front Pages where articles from the New York Times and Hartford Courant are read. CRIS has recently begun streaming its programming at www.crisradio.org. So, like the podcasts, this has helped bring the news to many more people than simply those who have special frequency radios.

I love the idea of a podcast which can reach the broadest audience. In fact, I'd love to volunteer to read for the AIRS podcasts anytime an extra hand is needed!

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