Talking newspaper is 45 years old and still going strong

Sound Around Ards volunteer readers (from left) Dianne McCormick, Anne Stevenson, Wendy Johnston and Kathryn Rankin in the studio.

Sound Around Ards marks major milestone

SOUND Around Ards, the Talking Newspapers for the Ards peninsula area, has been celebrating its 45th anniversary.

In January 1980 a group of men from Newtownards Lions recorded the first ever edition of Sound Around Ards (SAA) Talking Newspaper, a synopsis of news stories from the Newtownards Chronicle, onto tapes and distributed them to people who could no longer read the publications.
Forty-five years later the charity is still delivering this service to the community; it also records news stories from the Chronicle’s sister paper, the County Down Spectator.

The secretary of SAA, Alison Coyle, said some of the men who set up the service are astounded it is still going strong.

“At present SAA delivers CDs to almost 50 individuals and 10 care homes in our community,” said Alison.

The first recordings of the tapes in 1980 were made in a sitting room of the William Street home of the mother of one of the founder members, Victor Moore.

Victor recalled: “My mother was a widow and she actually loved the guys coming to her home to do the recording.  It made her day for her, as she made them supper and really enjoyed the company.”

Sound Around Ards was then offered premises in the Newtownards Community Hospital complex and after various moves around the complex, they are now located in a studio in the old laboratories building of the hospital.

Phil Baron, the chairman of Sound Around Ards, said they are grateful to the South Eastern Trust for allowing them space on their site. 

“It means a lot to us as a charity to have a dedicated space that we can have as a studio, rather than like some of the other Talking News branches across Northern Ireland who have to borrow premises for the evening and have to transport their equipment around with them each time they record,” said Phil.

“A lot has changed in the world in the past 45 years, so it is great that this service is still in existence and that it is still as useful to partially sighted people in our community.

One of their listeners recently said: “I would be lost without hearing my CD of the local news each week. It keeps me in touch with what is going on in my local community.

“Yes, I can listen to the local news on the radio and television, but the Chronicle and Spectator are specific to my area. I especially like the ‘what’s on in the community’ slot they do, as they announce activities happening around the community in the coming week, such as coffee mornings, new classes for visually impaired people, fun days and even classes in our local libraries. Just because we are visually impaired does not mean that we do not go out, so this is a great benefit to us all.”

Recently Sound Around Ards has also been recruiting listeners who have other debilitating conditions, such as those who no longer can hold a newspaper after having had a stroke, those with concentration difficulties due to dementia or even just those people who no longer can get out and about and who enjoy the company of others.

Each weekly CD lasts one hour.  This is 40 minutes of the news stories from the Chronicle and Spectator and 20 minutes of lighter articles, such as the what’s on section, health tips, poems, quizzes and gardening tips.

Sound Around Ards has 34 volunteer readers and technicians, some of whom have been with them right from the start in 1980.  They operate on a rota basis, so each person reads only five or six times a year, but the listeners know all of their voices and say that these people are like part of their family.

Sound Around Ards provide this as a free weekly service and the only equipment needed by the listener is a CD player.

The person does not need to be referred by a medical expert and there is no cost involved. 

Each week the listener will receive their CD in the post on either Friday or Saturday morning and the news on this will be from the newspaper edition issued on Thursday, so the news is up to date.

After they have listened to the CD the actual disc can be binned or passed on to a friend and all that needs to be returned to Sound Around Ards via any post box, is the plastic envelope that the CD arrived in.

Those take part do not have to go to the Post Office to return the envelope, just pop it in any post box.

Anyone interested in receiving the CD each week should email soundsoundards@outlook.com with the details of the person (name, address and telephone number) or contact the Secretary Alison Coyle on 07977473080.