General

Before we wrap up the story of the evolution of the Grocery Ads, a short quiz for the diehard fans of the show:Question One:  Who is Chloe?Question Two: What is Marie's favorite meal?Question Three: What is Marie's signature dish? (Hint--she was deeply saddened that the stockpiled batch in the freezer was lost during Hurricane Isaac.)If you know the answers (or want to take a few guesses) please post your responses […]

I was listening to the new nonfiction book this morning, The Fight for Home: How (Parts) of New Orleans Came Back written by Daniel Wolff (and read with great feeling by Cameron Gamble) and as I became more engaged with the story, I found myself feeling slightly anxious and melancholy as the hour passed.  A beautifully written book will do that.  A reader like Cameron, who can evoke the raw […]

    Original Grocery Ads reader Sam Kranzthor  always had a healthy curiosity about life and how things worked.  Sam was always telling the staff about new hobbies and ideas that sparked his interest--he and wife Kathy took tango lessons, he volunteered as an electrician and handyman at JazzFest, he loved to travel and particularly enjoyed visiting exotic locales where different cultures and traditions could be incorporated into his own life.  […]

The simple answer to that question is: they read. But it isn't really that black and white. To best explain what a volunteer does here, one first needs to understand a bit about WRBH.  Our mission is to broadcast audio recordings of printed material that isn't easily available, if at all, to the the vision impaired community.  Naturally, the breadth of said printed material is quite wide... politics, business, sports, […]

Of all of our programming, the show that probably gets the most attention would have to be the Grocery Ads.  It's a simple concept:  since we are a reading radio service for the blind, and since just about everybody has to buy groceries, we provide a detailed reading of the specials and prices on groceries so that our listeners can make informed choices about what they might be hungry for […]

My friend Nancy Barlow ( a former reader at WRBH) says her nieces and nephews used to affectionately call riding around town with her "being in Aunt Nan's car jail".  In Nancy's car, the passengers didn't get to pick their own music to listen to, and fiddling with the tuner was strictly off limits--they were forced to listen to whatever Nancy's favorite CD or radio station was at the time, […]

After a great deal of deliberation it has been decided--we'll always be a Reading Radio, and we'll continue to provide The Voice of Print, but have you Heard the Word?.  After consulting with the delightfully creative and innovative team over at HeroFarm, phase one of our fresh new look and sound has officially begun, and thus a new motto is introduced: WRBH-- Reading Fine Print.  In three simple words, Reading […]

 The answer, of course, is Algerian born musician Norbert Slama, who was the inaugural guest on WRBH's newly launched music show, airing on Sundays at noon and midnight.  If you missed it the first time, you've got another chance on February 10th to hear tales from this astonishing man's life, and enjoy the lively, whirling, oh-so-French snippets of song he effortlessly coaxes from his accordion. There is a more spontaneous […]

When Will Schwalbe came into the station to be interviewed by Ted O'Brien for Writers' Forum, I asked him if he would sign the copy of his book sent to us by the publisher.  He graciously agreed, on one condition: he needed the autograph to be in blue ink.  This was surprising, because the standard author signature is usually done with a black Sharpie, a pen we have in abundance […]