by Paul Edwards
On December 1, 1999 ACB Radio went on the net and, ever since then, it has been beaming information of special interest to people who are blind all over the world via the Internet. While it would be nice to think of our members spending all of their time listening to ACB Radio, ours is one of literally thousands of “radio stations” on the Internet. And, in addition to live streaming, as “broadcasting” is called, there are areas where you can find files of audio that you can listen to as well. I have been listening to such files and radio stations for the past two years or so and, in that time, the fidelity and stability of audio signals over the Internet have both improved immensely. I want to use my message this month to talk with you about this mind-boggling new technology, ACB Radio and what all of us in ACB hope to accomplish with it.
Since I want more of you to use this new system, I want to spend a few minutes talking about the kinds of hardware and software you need to listen to the Internet. Obviously you need a modem. This is the device that lets your computer talk to other computers using the phone lines. If you are really fortunate you may have a faster form of connection such as cable or ASDL but, for most of us, in the year 2000, modems are what we use. Next you will need a browser such as Microsoft Internet Explorer or Netscape Navigator. These programs use your modem and enable you to issue commands to get around on the Internet. Of course, you need a service provider, a company which you call up with your modem to get access to the Internet. You must also have a sound card and speakers attached to your computer. Finally — and most crucially — you need one or more audio file readers. There are several of these around and, unfortunately, there is not a single audio program that will allow you to access all of the programming on the Internet. Most of us who are audiophiles have settled upon at least three programs that we use. Two of the three programs are free and many of you with new computers and new web browsers probably have at least one loaded onto your computer already. Microsoft has produced what is called Windows Media Player which comes packaged with recent versions of Windows. Many radio stations use this platform to broadcast on the Internet. The second, and perhaps the most widely used program, is called Real Audio. Versions of it are available free but there are real advantages to spending the $30 to acquire a full-featured version of what is now Real Audio 7. The third program is called winamp and is free. Each of these programs has advantages. I will not presume to try to list them here. The good thing is that each of them recognizes the kind of file they are looking for and loads automatically once you choose a stream. They do not conflict with each other either, for the most part, so it is perfectly OK to have all three sitting on your computer at the same time. One quick word of warning. Each of these programs will try to persuade you to make it the default audio program. You should answer no to this question or you will find it harder to get to winamp.
As with most areas of Windows, there are several ways of getting to audio content on the Internet. Each radio station has an address on the web, and you can get to that station by typing the address. There are also huge collections of radio stations that operate under the auspices of large companies such as broadcast.com or broadcastmusic.com. You can go to these sites and find a whole host of radio stations. It is beyond the scope of this article to spend much time on how to find most stations but I do want you to know how to get to ACB Radio and how to get connected to it. Again there are two ways. You can go directly to the ACB Radio web site by opening the site at http://www.acbradio.org, or you can get to the same place by opening ACB's web page at http://www.acb.org and then clicking on ACB on the radio. Once you get to the ACB Radio site you have some options. You can download the free winamp player, which is one way of listening to ACB Radio, or you can go directly to the link which says, “Listen to ACB Radio”; this will take you to another page where you can choose to listen either with winamp or with Real Audio 7 or higher. When you go to the ACB Radio page you will actually hear an ACB radio jingle and once you get to ACB Radio you will hear a broad range of programming that we hope will be even broader as time goes on.
Before telling you about the content of ACB Radio and what our expectations are for its future, I want to tell you a little about how ACB Radio came to be. Several of us had read messages on the ACB list about an Internet radio station operated by a guy in New Zealand named Jonathan Mosen. When we listened to the station we were struck by several things. First, the whole operation seemed immensely professional. There were jingles, station breaks, live programs, old-time radio, music and a general air of competence that led Chris Gray, Brian Charlson and me to approach the board last September for authority to look into what it would take to start a station of our own. We agreed that, since there was no money in the budget, ACB Radio would start only if we could raise some money ourselves. Luckily for ACB, Florida met right after our board meeting and I was able to persuade that state to allocate $3,000 to the venture. Chris and Brian also raised funds, but I do not know how much or from where. Our next task was to find somebody with the expertise to run such an operation, and that looked to be a very difficult task. Then, during my trip to New Zealand, I got to know this Jonathan Mosen person better — partly because I stayed with him and his charming wife and two and a third children. For reasons well beyond the scope of this article, Jonathan felt he needed to resign from the position he had held and presto, I was able to persuade him to run ACB Radio for us. He was an obvious choice since he had already done it with MBS-FM and, once I had cleared things with all the appropriate folks back in the states, we were ready to run. My account makes it sound as though everything simply fell into place — and to some extent that is true. Nevertheless, it is a tribute to Jonathan’s stamina and ability that he was prepared to accept an on-air date of December first which — by the time the final arrangements had been made — was only three weeks away.
The date was met and ACB Radio has grown from strength to strength ever since. As we envision ACB Radio it ought to be a place where blind people all over the world can go to get information about things they are interested in knowing more about. It also ought to be a place where blind people can demonstrate their creativity by preparing programs that we will then stream to the world. ACB is already broadcasting three absolutely new programs produced by people who are blind, and we are making arrangements to broadcast many more. We hope to persuade people from all over the world to provide us with programming. In addition, we hope that we can formalize arrangements with national organizations of blind people in various countries to make materials available for broadcast on ACB Radio.
We broadcast a live, Internet call-in program on Saturdays at 5 p.m. Eastern time which usually features an interview with one or more people, on a topic or issue of importance to people who are blind. Listeners can either use a regular phone to call into the show, or they can call using a special program with their computer called Buddy Phone. That program is also available for free download from our ACB Radio site.
Perhaps the coolest thing about broadcasting on the Internet is that you can use your computer to create programming. For well under $100 you can purchase the equipment and software you need to become a program creator. ACB is hoping that several of our members who want to become producers will want to become involved in this activity. We are, in fact, planning to have an all-day training program for would-be broadcasters the day before our convention starts in Louisville this summer. It is our hope that we will not only be able to increase program content this way but that we will also be able to tap into the production capabilities of our members! We are also hoping that radio reading services will like what we do well enough to think about carrying ACB Radio part of the week on their stations.
I hope that this article has excited you about the potential of ACB Radio to revolutionize the way we disseminate information. One of the really neat things about ACB Radio is that you can listen to it while doing other things with your computer as long as you have a separate synthesizer and sound card. We hope that many of you will make a habit of having ACB Radio on whenever your computer is running. We hope that within the next year, when a blind person wants to get the latest information on issues pertaining to blindness, he or she will automatically tune into ACB Radio on the Internet. Most blind people learn best by listening and ACB Radio will not only be the place to find information but also the place where the talents of blind musicians can be showcased. We are already encouraging blind people who have made CDs to send them to ACB Radio. We will play your music and will announce who you are and how people can get in touch with you. If you are having problems getting yourself up and running, send an e-mail to Jonathan through our ACB Radio site. I know he will try to help. Maybe chapters could meet somewhere where a computer can be tuned in to ACB Radio so that more members will have a chance to see what we are doing. By the way, when we are not broadcasting blindness stuff, we are broadcasting old-time radio. As our station break says, ACB Radio is truly “out of sight!”