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Bedford Talking Newspaper (BDAN) Registered UK charity no. 802814 |
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Behind the Scenes at B.D.A.N. Revised: April 2008 With over 250 people receiving Bedford and District Audio News cassettes, the process of production and distribution has to be organised effectively. The service currently has around 60 volunteers, most giving just a few hours every five or six weeks. There are many tasks - from collecting sacks of returned cassettes, to sorting these and preparing for the next week's output. Then there is fundraising and committee work, and the task of reading and recording the news.  Volunteers all give their time to ensure that each and every listener receives his or her tape of news on time, and in good condition.THE WEEKLY TAPE Tuesday morning and the process of producing the weekly Audio News tape begins. Sacks of returned cassettes (from the previous week) are collected from the Royal Mail sorting office in Bedford. These are taken to BDAN's small studio room close to the town centre. Alternating coloured wallets (with Velcro closures) are used every other week - yellow then black and so forth. The process continues on a Wednesday or Thursday afternoon. Each audio tape (a standard 60 minute compact cassette - 90 minutes for the Magazine) is taken out of its pouch and wiped with a bulk electromagnet tape eraser. This process involves placing the tape face down and rotating it carefully. Erasing cassettes in this way cleans them for use and ensures optimum sound quality for the next recording.  Returned cassettes are rewound if necessary, and checked against the database of current BDAN listeners. A further check is also made to see if a message or letter from the listener has been included. The new pouches are prepared with address labels and are then ready for use again. Meanwhile the studio itself is cleaned and any notices to be read on the week's tape are prepared. A note of any new listeners is also prepared, together with listener birthdays for the week ahead.Recording night Thursday afternoon or early evening, and the Team Leader collects one or two copies of the Times and Citizen newspaper - two enables a page to be folded or cut without disturbing articles overleaf, and to avoid pages having to be passed between readers during the recording. Articles from the previous Bedfordshire on Sunday newspaper and the Borough Council produced Bedford News are also brought to the studio by the Team Leader. The Leader is responsible for contacting the scheduled readers and recordist to ensure that they are able to attend the recording session. And, if not, to arrange cover from a small selection of standby helpers.  By about 6.30pm, the week's team has assembled at the small basic first floor studio, and the news stories, sport, letters and other articles are divided between the readers. Usually there are three or four readers - including the Team Leader. Another volunteer - the recordist / technician - sits opposite, monitoring the microphone sound levels and operating the tape machine controls.As the session is not recorded 'as live', he or she can easily stop and rewind the master cassette if there is a problem - for example, if a reader makes a mistake or if there is an interruption. However, the tape is not edited after recording. 
It is important that volunteers do not introduce any bias to articles, and reflect the piece as written. Letters to the Editor are sometimes read, with a note of differing opinions, as necessary.
No censorship of articles takes place. Lengthy reports may be edited however, if the key points can be extracted. Items are chosen for their relevance and to provide a balanced mix of the news. Several paragraphs from the the sport pages are often chosen, forming a short summary of the main points. A number of short related or unrelated news articles may also be read together
For brevity, only name, age (if given) and place of recent abode (again, if known) are included on the tape. After the obituaries, general news reports resume. Copying the cassettes 
When the recording is complete, the technician begins the duplication process.
First, the master tape (recorded in mono) is copied at high speed, with the half hour per side completed in just a few minutes.Two sub-masters are produced and after checking, these are also used to duplicate copies. Bulk copying can begin! Over the next 30-40 minutes the team check each cassette - the start of the first side and the end of the second - to make sure the quality is of a satisfactory standard. Tapes are fastened in pre-addressed wallets / pouches and put into mail bags. By around 9pm, the whole process is usually complete, and the sacks of tapes are taken to the Royal Mail sorting office to continue their journey, free of charge, thanks to the Articles For The Blind postal concession. New Readers There are many volunteer roles available. Reading is the most popular. New and / or prospective readers are normally invited to attend an initial informal meeting at the studio, some days ahead of a first recording session. Reading in front of a microphone can be daunting at first. However, hopefully the new volunteer will quickly find his or her feet, with the support of the Team Leader and other members. Past new volunteers have found the following general advice useful: Be yourself, try not to read too quickly or slowly, check articles through ahead and speak to fellow readers if uncertain regarding pronunciation - for example, local place names. Also, a glass of water to hand is useful to keep the throat from becoming dry (tap water - as well as loo facilities - are available at the studio). For information, a selection of BDAN helpers are profiled on the Volunteers page.
Unlike the weekly tape - which should be returned within several days - listeners may keep the Introductory tape for longer, until they are confident with the news tape process. After use, the cassette is returned to BDAN in the usual way. |
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