Doing Some Good

Every month, our team at work tries to go on some sort of team building exercise.  Sometimes, they're fun, like heading to lunch and bowling, sometimes they're volunteer oriented, like working at the food bank and going to lunch, and sometimes, they're a tour/info session at a business, like going to lunch and then the Federal Reserve (yes, lunch is always involved.  We like to eat).  Since we're a small team full of lovely people, we're all buddies, and it's nice to get out of the office atmosphere and cut loose for a little while together.

A few of us on our recent bowling expedition.

We're not at a rave, I swear.

A few months back, we took a tour of the public service radio station in the Phoenix area, KJZZ.  Although most members of our team primarily know it as the NPR affiliate in the area, it's always been KBAQ, the Valley's classical music station, to me (music dork, I know).  The tour was really interesting, and in addition to learning about the two main stations, we also discovered the group known as Sun Sounds.  

They're obviously a real thing,

as they have a logo.

Most of us hadn't heard of Sun Sounds before, but they're a statewide service that provides radios to people who have visual or other disabilities that make it difficult for them to read.  In addition to the radios, Sun Sounds provides content for the station, bringing in volunteers to create programming to fill the airtime.  While seasoned volunteers can create their own programs, there are a set series of shows that run each week, and volunteers come in to record these, reading the articles provided.

Also, Sun Sounds' main fundraisers each year
are beer festivals in Phoenix, Tucson, and Flagstaff.

They are SO my people.

Over my time with University of Phoenix, I've had the opportunity to record audio for different podcasts and items to be included in some of our classes, and I found that I really enjoy doing so.  When I learned that Sun Sounds is always looking for volunteer readers, I jumped at the chance to indulge my fantasy of being a voice over artist while actually doing some good as well.  I attended a volunteer orientation one evening about a month ago and came in the next day to do a reading test (reading a list of words to test pronunciation/diction and a few random articles to test ability to read on the fly) on the recording equipment.  I passed that, and I next had a software training session complete with recording my own 30 minute anthology from articles I selected (from a copy of the in-flight magazine from American Airlines.  What?  It had an article on Chris Pratt, and I couldn't pass that up).

After all of this, I received word that I passed the testing and was now qualified to record programming and read live for the Sun Sounds channels!  Hooray!  Reading live still seems a bit daunting to me, so I figured I'd start out recording audio; that way, if I messed it up, I could re-record over it as needed.  I just did my first session this past Thursday, recording an hour of programming for the Community Calendar, a selection of articles and blurbs about what's coming up in the valley/state this weekend.  

Although we don't qualify to have one of the Sun Sounds radios, anyone can listen to the live stream of programming through the Sun Sounds website.  When 8pm on Thursday rolled around, Chris and I logged on to the computer and queued up the feed - it was me!  I have to admit to being super nerdy stoked about it.  Anyone can also listen to the most recent version of each program on demand, through the Sun Sounds website at www.sunsounds.org, by clicking on the Broadcast Info & Audio, then the On Demand link in the Programming Links box, and then by scrolling down to the name of the program - Community Calendar Tempe.  The Community Calendar runs every Thursday at 8pm, so if you don't listen before then on 10/1, it probably won't be me anymore - it'll be whoever does it next week.  Also, if you listen, the first 15 minutes are a bit odd, since I'm reading calendar listings, including addresses of locations, and the like.  It gets more interesting after that, when I actually get to read articles and whatnot.

I don't know when/what my next program will be, but stay tuned in, and I'll "see" you on the radio (kudos to Charles Osgood from Sunday Morning for that)!

Later!

Amy