Welcome to AIS Radio
We Say Goodbye to our Radio Reading Service.
Broadcast Services for the Blind began on October 7, 1977. On January 1, 1989 it merged with the LightHouse and we began broadcasting local newspapers and other material through our Radio Reading service. At the time, it was the only option for many people to get their local news. A lot has changed since 1989.
The switch this past June from analog to DTV shook a lot of our listeners off the line. This switch has not reduced demand for our service, but has created a barrier to access for people who preferred listening with a conventional SAP receiver.
If you’re listening now, chances are you’re listening online. Whether it's blogs, podcasts, social forums like FaceBook, online news, or content providers like the National Library Service (NLS), bookshare.org, audible.com and others, more and more often, blind and visually impaired people are moving online to get their information. For that matter, the IAAIS (the association of reading services) maintains a comprehensive list of, and links to, all audio information services with web sites. And nearly everything AIS Radio broadcasts, local papers included, is available through Newsline, the toll free telephone reader.
As such, effective January 1, 2010, our Radio Reading Service program will cease operations.
That said, the Access to Information Services department is not going away. We'll continue to record for clients and customers, offer TV listings and shopping ads by phone, and beginning in early 2010, be producing podcasts on topics of special interest to the blind and visually impaired community.
We are committed to finding solutions for each individual who contacts us to say they will miss valuable information as the result of the broadcast closure.
All of us here at AIS Radio wish to thank you for your years of support and patronage.
Greg Kehret, Director of Information Services
AIS Radio can be heard on the internet at AIS Radio (MP3 Stream - 32kbps), and via the “French” language stream of KTVU Fox 2.
