- [Man] Alexa, play Sun Sounds radio on TuneIn.
- [Alexa] Sun sounds of Arizona from TuneIn.
- [Radio Woman] From Sun Sounds of Arizona.
- They have this grandiose plans scaring off moderates.
The idea is to rid ourselves of this abomination virus
threatening our very way of life, right?
It seems to me the democratic candidates would do better
to stop trying to scare moderates to death
with grandiose proclamations
for a suddenly radically different future
and begin concentrating upon explaining.
- [Alexa] I read the following words...
- I was born in Texas, El Paso actually,
and I grew up in central Florida
and then all my adult live I've been here in Arizona.
Before my blindness, (background mumbling)
I wasn't an avid reader of the newspaper,
but it became important when I couldn't do that anymore
because, you know, when you have something
you kind of take it for granted.
But then when it's gone and you can't do it I go oh my gosh.
In my recovery, after I went to school to learn how to walk
and do things again with a cane and such,
the community I heard about about Sun Sounds
"you should get a Sun Sounds radio".
So I went and saw Murray and they gave me a radio.
So now I can hear what's happening in the world
from the local papers, or publications,
and I feel like I'm back in the game.
- [Man] Five other crimes was neither rogue nor misconduct
according to legal experts...
- Sun Sounds is a radio reading service,
and in fact a radio station, that reads for people
who can't read conventional print due to a disability.
(male radio voice) - Oftentimes that's vision
loss but it can be more than that,
it can be physical, it can be Parkinson's or MS.
- Served under five presidents from Jimmy Carter...
- We read the morning paper live from seven to 9:30.
We read USA Today in the evening from 6:00 to 8:00.
- Attorney general William Barr told ABC News on Thursday...
- I have a daughter who's blind.
She went to the school for the blind here
and when I registered her almost 20 years ago,
Sun Sounds had a booth so I was introduced to it
I liked what I saw.
I wanted to get more involved with organizations
that help the visually impaired.
You could see from our facilities here they're quite modest.
Our funding is primarily through donations, grant awards,
we write a lot of different grants.
(soft trombone music) (male radio voice)
We have here three employees
and we have approximately 80 volunteers
and obviously without the volunteers
we couldn't do what we're doing.
- Next up we have Donald Duck Juice (duck sound)
89 ounces of sorted varieties, priced five dollars.
My name is Ronnye Bertoglio and I read the grocery ads
at Sun Sounds every other Wednesday
and so I've been reading the grocery ads for,
I don't know, ten or twelve years.
- And my name is Dan Klingler,
I'm doing some Rolling Stone magazine
special additions right now
and I especially like to record western short stories.
About ten years ago I had some serious vision problems
which luckily were correctable
but it made me decide I really wanted to give back
to the community that has differing sight issues.
(muffled speaking) So I've been doing this
for about four years now.
Grandpa says "scientists confirm that babysitting
"your grandchildren can help you live longer".
Just then, little grandchild walks up and says
"Grandma, I spilled a glass of grape juice on your bed,
"but I wiped it up with some towels. Sorry."
Grandpa looks over and says "Or maybe it just seems longer".
(laughing)
- Well you know the only real obstacle
is when you don't find a BOGO sale
which is buy one get one free, that's the only real obstacle
(laughing) otherwise
it's just a lot of fun.
- Good morning and we thank you for listening.
Mark DeGrofft, Ronnye Bertoglio, and Dan Klinger
with you this morning for the entire reading
of the Arizona Daily Star.
I've been with Sun Sounds for going on 10 years now
as an engineer running the board here
and producing the Saturday morning show.
I also do some outreach with the community
to let people know about the existence of Sun Sounds,
what we do.
The main challenge is getting people to understand
what we do is absolutely free.
- I'm Helen Wheels, I was a musician, I was a writer,
I worked doing that until I couldn't do those things anymore
A very kind librarian helped me sign up to join.
They put a radio in the mail, and I opened it up,
and there was my new Sun Sounds Radio with one station.
(laughing)
(male radio voice) - With the exception
of the car shows and the man show things,
I don't think there's anything I don't listen to. (laughs)
- [Interviewer] You don't like those car shows?
Well it kind of makes me mad, I used to drive
so I'll tell ya what I get a little frustrated
and angry because that one bothers me
because I can't drive anymore
'cause I haven't driven in 15 years so kind of a trigger
for something I miss and I have no replacement for,
if you know what I mean.
I became too sick from, the disease name is long
its hereditary spastic paraplegic complicated
version number eight and they finally figured that out
with a gene test and the easy way to say it is that
(mumbles) Lou Gehrig's does the same thing,
except you get cancers, blindness, and deafness too.
That pretty much sums it up.
Well sighted people take it for granted.
You guys just are like almost doin this kind of thing
trying to get away from the over-abundance of media.
I'm trying to find things that interest me,
and enrich my life,
which Sun Sounds pretty much fills the bill for.
(male radio voice)
- I felt when I was first, you know,
became visually impaired I was separated from everybody
and this is a normal thing we go through, the depression.
So they helped me out of my depression is what happened,
and that's why I always, I've got a soft spot for Sun Sounds
(laughs).
- It'll be a beautiful day.
Highs'll return to the lower 70s this afternoon.
- We're doing well.
We're still on the air seven by 24, and our scheduling,
our programming, has been a little bit modified
because we don't have volunteers coming in to record
or read live, so we're doing that ourselves.
I'll read the Arizona Daily Star for about an hour everyday.
We have heard from our listeners.
I think they really depend on us a lot now.
To get news, to hear familiar voices,
and just to have someone that they can relate to.
Listenership has increased
because we know what's up on the streaming,
but we also know that we're fulfilling more radio orders.
We're hoping that we can get all of our volunteers back.
They're raring to go, they wanna get back to reading.
- [Helen] Because we're pandemic I gotta know things now
as opposed to what's the weather or what's going on in town.
Well I'm used to being isolated,
being this severely handicapped.
Being by myself, I'm gonna say most all the time
is how I live anyway.
So that part's not different for me at all,
and support groups are awesome if you get a good one
oh, yeah, or if you can't find one
and you can function good enough, start one.
Start a meetup or start one locally
for whatever you think, you know, you need help with.