Bringing the Lochaber Times to life
Every Thursday, in a tiny room at An Drochaid, Claggan, Fort William, the week’s edition of the Lochaber Times is brought to life.
Talk Lochaber is a registered charity providing a talking newspaper for the visually and reading impaired in Lochaber.
Run entirely by volunteers, the service started in 1999 and the 400th edition was recorded in May 2010.
Articles are also drawn from Lochaber Life, De Tha Dol, Westword and, occasionally, Scottish Memories.
In a special feature for our festive edition, Lin Ramsay from Talk Lochaber tells how the Lochaber Times is turned into an audio programme.
The magic is easily explained by the teamwork of 32 people who have the privilege and fun of contributing in various ways.
These volunteers are the editors, technicians, administrators and readers who take turns to produce an audible version of the written paper on a USB stick.
Some of the team are also committee members.
The committee, chaired by Catriona Menzies, meets every three months and includes a listener representative.
Staff at An Drochaid play their part by collecting reusable envelopes, delivered by postal staff, containing the previous week’s sticks.
Work starts on a Thursday afternoon when the day’s volunteer removes the USB sticks from the envelopes and loads them into an electronic machine which cleans off the previous week’s news.
The envelope labels are checked against the list, counted and relabelled. This takes about an hour and is a job for meticulous folk.
Meanwhile the editor buys two copies of the Lochaber
Times, scours them for an hour’s worth of ‘reading aloud’ and cuts out articles in manageable sections.
These are then stuck on scrap A4 sheets of paper. Currently these are the backs of old hotel menus, kindly donated by a local hotel. This is so they can be held close to a microphone without rattling.
Articles from community newspapers and Lochaber Life may also be included.
In the evening, the technician for that week sets up the recording equipment, now computer controlled.
When the readers arrive, each is allocated five or six articles, sometimes including associated pictures.
One or two old hands are very good at describing the pictures and adding their own colourful comments. Some just prefer to stick to reading the print.
The technician monitors the sound from four mikes and an hour later, after erasing any blips, copies the master recording on to 45 sticks.
All that remains to do is to re-pack the plastic envelopes, lock up shop and deliver the sack to a post office early Friday morning, for Saturday delivery of the news.
The Royal Mail has delivered items for the blind free for many years. Long may that continue.
Talk Lochaber has been recording news for almost
20 years, starting in the basement of Belford Hospital, transferring to the Angus centre and now in An Drochaid.
Initially, 79 cassette tapes were sent out. Presently there around 40 listeners. The modern medical miracle of cataract replacement may explain the reduction in numbers.
Jo Cowan, Joy Roberts, Iain Ferguson and George McFarlane were among the instigators and Patrizia Gillies is the longest serving editor, also acting as treasurer and rota secretary.
It is one of three Highland members of the Talking Newspaper Federation, but one of few in Scotland to provide a weekly edition rather than a monthly digest.
Should anyone know of someone who could use the service or join the volunteers the person to contact is secretary Heather Gunn. She delivers a boom box and envelope to new listeners as one of her roles.
dheathergunn@gmail.com or 01397702240.