BACK IN 1987 . . .
Southeastern North Carolina Radio Reading Service was the brain-child of Era Mae Rickman, a former educator with the Ohio public school system, now residing in the Sandhills region. She was instrumental in getting the program on the air with the cooperation of WFSS 91.9 FM (on the campus of Fayetteville State University) who allowed the Radio Reading for the Blind (as this organization was originally named) to use a sub-frequency of their signal. Ms. Rickman has been a past chair person for the agency's board of directors, and she still serves as an active member of the board.
Since 1987, we have grown from reading about ten hours per week to twenty-one hours weekly. Volunteers now read the Fayetteville Observer, Up & Coming Weekly, NEXT Magazine, Carolina Flyer, Paraglide, Ft. Bragg Life, Raeford News-Journal, Dunn Daily Record, The Robesonian, Sampson Independent, Southern Pines Pilot, The Sanford Herald, The Bladen Journal, and the Hope Mills Sandspur and every live broadcast is aired again later in the day or in the week.
In Touch Networks, a national reading service, sends a satellite feed which gives programming for the other hours during the week, so we can offer a twenty-four hour, seven days per week broadcast. In the future, we plan to increase local programming to twenty-eight hours by airing "live show" formats on topics of interest to our listening audience, such as health, finances, safety, and legal issues.
