The Virginia Voice Story – Throughout the Years and Through the Air!

OUR MISSION

Virginia Voice connects individuals with blindness and other disabilities to news, information, arts, and culture using technology and the human voice. 

We seek to enhance the viability of our Central Virginia community by serving people with blindness, vision impairment and other disabilities that prevent them from reading or accessing visual elements of publications, events and performances.  Our core competencies enable us to provide a unique, unduplicated service through radio reading and audio information programs created by caring and talented individuals.  We are able to continue our mission because we are always working to strengthen our relationships with contributing individuals, corporations, service clubs and foundations.

Virginia Voice is a nonprofit organization that provides radio reading service to over 11,000 individuals in Central Virginia and the Hampton Roads area who cannot independently read print material due to vision loss or other disabilities. We broadcast an organized schedule of audio programs around the clock, consisting of articles from current print publications such as newspapers, magazines, scholarly journals and articles from reputable online news and information sources.

Our audio programs are broadcast over subcarrier channels of public radio stations VPM produces in Richmond and WHRO-FM in Norfolk. We loan our listeners a pre-tuned radio that only receives our broadcast. Live stream and on-demand listening on our website extends our reach to listeners who live outside of our broadcast area. Virginia Voice is now also available on smart speakers via Alexa.

We rely on the dedication and commitment of our more than 200 volunteers, who serve as program readers, radio deliverers, and audio describers. 150 volunteers contribute their time to create one week’s worth of program material and create access to performances, museum exhibits, and other cultural events.  As a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization, we are funded by individual and corporate contributions and by grants received from public and private entities.

In addition to our radio reading service, we also provide live and recorded Audio Description services. The first of its kind in Virginia, our Audio Description service provides individuals with visual disabilities the opportunity to enjoy the visual aspects of theater, media and visual art. Using a wireless transmitter, trained describers help individuals with visualize the action on stage as it unfolds in real-time, or enjoy the rich, visual aspects of museum exhibits, media installations, movies, sports events, and parades

1976-1977

  • Roy Ward, Deputy Commissioner for the VA Commission for the Blind (precursor to VA Department of Blindness and Vision Impairment – DBVI) learns about new “Audio Reading Services” in Minnesota and Washington DC (The Metropolitan Washington Ear). Ward was a Kiwanian and an individual with blindness.
  • Ward gathered nearly 50 people from across VA with a connection to service to people with blindness and vision impairment. The group is a mix of state employees, local Lions Club leadership, local Kiwanis club, representatives from all corners of the Commonwealth, included people involved in public/educational radio.
  • Through their leadership from the start, Lions assumed the responsibility of purchasing the special sub-carrier radios over the first years of operation.
  • Ward and others raised funds from a variety of sources to raise modest start-up capital. Lions Clubs joined the effort, and like the Kiwanis Club of Richmond, have continued to help fund Virginia Voice from its earliest days through the present.
  • Ward became chairman of Virginia’s first Board of Directors and hired Virginia Voice’s first executive director, Carlton Brooks., who was running WRFK, an educational radio station owned and operated by Union Theological Seminary.
  • WRFK is the precursor to WCVE and public radio in Richmond.  It broadcasted on an FM frequency that was simply given to the seminary by commercial powerhouse WLEE, which had no use for or interest in the then-worthless FM frequency band.  WRFK broadcasted a mix of religious, educational and classical music programming. Later, it became the very first NPR affiliate in Richmond.

1978

  • Virginia Voice for the Print Handicapped Board of Directors holds its first meeting, under Ward’s chairmanship.
  • 1st year budget = $88K, which did NOT include money for radios.
  • Virginia Voice purchases its first sub-carrier frequency-tuned radios exclusively with funds raised by local Lions. Soon after, VA Voice goes on the air on a sub-carrier frequency owned by its first broadcast partner, WRFK, a radio station owned by Union Theological Seminary.
  • The majority of the broadcast day at this time was comprised of a 2-hr morning reading of the Richmond times-Dispatch and a 2-hr. reading of the Richmond News-Leader. The “studio” was a small room at the Rehabilitation Center on the DBVI campus.  Equipment consisted only of 2 microphones, a table, and a couple of chairs.
  • Virginia Voice was originally envisioned as a statewide radio network, with 5 affiliate broadcasters using a sub-carrier frequency available at an educational radio station like WRFK. Different stations were to take different roles; board meetings would rotate through different parts of Virginia.  But this never “took.”  Once up and running, stations either went out on their own, either by choice or necessity.  Some folded before getting on air, including one slated for Williamsburg.

1981-1988

  • Executive Director Carlton Brooks moves on and Virginia Voice hires Nick Morgan as his replacement, a position he held until his retirement at the end of 2014.
  • Nick Morgan hires Becky Emmett as program director in 1986. She holds that position until her retirement, also in 2014.
  • In the late 80s, Union Theological Seminary decided to get out of the radio business for a variety of reasons, not the least of which was to reap the financial benefits from the sale of its rapidly increasing value of its FM frequency. This caused quite a stir in Richmond! Listeners were outraged that there would be no outlet for educational and NPR-generated programming and, especially no classical music! The 106.5 frequency was purchased by entrepreneurs from Tidewater area, and after passing through a few hands, is now owned by radio powerhouse Clear Channel.

1989

  • WCVE FM Radio is born! Richmond public broadcasting pioneer Bill Spiller had launched and operated WCVE Public TV a decade or more earlier.  With the folding of WRFK, Spiller saw a gap that needed filling – he gave classical music and educational programming a home by launching WCVE FM radio, which remains Richmond’s NPR affiliate to this day.
  • Spiller also adopted Virginia Voice and gave us a home that persists to this day, providing us with our broadcast frequency and technical support. Bill’s son, Mark Spiller, continues to help Virginia Voice to this day, and serves as an audio & IT engineer at VPM.

2000 - Today

  • Today, Virginia Voice broadcasts 24 hours a day/ 365 days a year. Our 150 weekly volunteer readers read from about 200 publications to create the 100 weekly programs we offer. Our annual operating budget has grown to approximately $450,000.
  • VA Voice added programming and expanded broadcast hours steadily through the years. It grew listenership by building relationships with other organizations that provide services to older adults and people with vision impairment (DBVI, Richmond VA Medical Center’s Low Vision Center, MEDRVA, others). Currently, we serve 11,000 listeners throughout Central Virginia through in-home radios, and many others throughout the Commonwealth of Virginia through the use of streaming devices which broadcast our programs at senior living communities, healthcare facilities, and other radio reading services that support individuals with blindness throughout Virginia. The Virginia Voice broadcast is now available on Alexa through the use of smart speakers.
  • In 2017, Virginia Voice launched Live Audio Description services to create equitable access to the arts. Because of the pioneering work that was done during the piloting of this program, we have been able to double our community partnerships with theatres, museums, sports venues, and other event venues and significantly add to the variety in our scheduled offerings.

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