A TALKING newspaper is celebrating its 35th birthday thanks to a huge charity grant.
The Long Eaton Talking Newspaper now provides ten hours of news and magazines every fortnight for the blind and visually impaired.
Old-school tape recordings are gone, replaced by MP3 memory sticks following a donation of around £7,500.
When running on tapes, volunteers were previous limited to a fairly short 90-minute broadcast, sent out weekly.
The £7,500 contribution was provided in part by the National Lottery and Erewash Borough Council.
The Long Eaton Round Table, Leisure Furnishings and the Long Eaton Rotary Club also made generous contributions to the project.
The volunteer team at the newspaper consists of roughly 40 people who broadcast to over 80 listeners.
Treasurer Brian Stevenson said the group was taking its time to get used to the equipment. He said: "We've made our fair share of mistakes along the way but we are getting there. The tapes were really old, the quality was poor and they had an unguaranteed length. After the equipment became harder to find, we decided to go digital."
Brian, who uses his expertise from an earlier job mixing audio for gospel albums, said they held their listeners in high regard.
"One guy I know is completely blind and uses a Braille laptop to surf the internet.
"I asked him, 'How do you cope?' He just shrugged his shoulders and said, 'That's life.'
"I have a great admiration for our listeners, they really are wonderful people."
Chairwoman Beryl Hallam has been with the talking newspaper for 25 years.
She said she joined after she considered what it would be like to be in a similar situation. "I always thought that if I couldn't see, I'd want to know everything that was going on," she said.
"We find that people have always been very grateful to have the service.
"Lots of people contact us, saying that family members appreciate it coming to them."
The Long Eaton Talking Newspaper is always on the lookout for new volunteers to help out.
If you are interested in broadcasting with the team, call Brian on 01332 706767.
