Disabled people will have easier access to news and entertainment many people take for granted now that WSIU-FM has teamed up with a local information service to provide listeners with receivers for a special radio signal.

SIUC’s public radio station, WSIU-FM, joined Southern Illinois Radio Information Service (SIRIS) July 1 to improve its program for blind and physically disabled listeners.

Bill Gilmore, director of SIRIS, said the mission of the program is to provide local and national news from various publications over the radio for the benefit of people who are unable to use print media.

Advertisement

Tom Godell, WSIU-FM radio station manager, said the receivers that SIRIS provides to their listeners operate on a sub carrier, which is a part of WSIU-FM’s signal that cannot be heard without the receiver.

Without the special receiver provided to the listeners, they cannot get the services from SIRIS, Godell said.

SIRIS is a nonprofit organization that has always been associated with SIUC, who provided the organization with a building behind Washington Square.

Godell said WSIU-FM and SIRIS will be good for each other.

We will provide them a business office in our department, engineering assistants and help them function better, Godell said. It is a pooling of resources they provide a unique service to communicate that we can’t provide on our own.

Students can get on air experience volunteering for the program,

see RADIO, page 5

Advertisement*