Volunteers who run Perth Talking News will this week celebrate posting out their 500th edition.
The team, who are ordinarily based at VisionPK’s base on New Row, are looking forward to being able to put on a party when restrictions allow.
Launched by Perth Grammar school senior pupils, the first news-tape for the blind was released in March 1981.
And 40 years on, scores of Perthshire residents still rely on the free service for news.
After a brief hiatus, the service relaunched in 1999, and operations moved to the Blind Society at St Leonards Bank in Perth. Only four volunteers were involved at this stage.
In 2003, the production of tapes which contained a fortnight’s worth of news from local papers including The Courier, was moved to New Row, where a designated recording room was provided.
Gradually, the copying became more efficient as new technology was purchased and volunteers switched to CDs and then to USB drives.
This week, the 500th batch of parcels with audio clips of the news will be posted out to the group’s mailing list.
Volunteer co-editor Margaret Lowthian, from Balbeggie, says the charity sends out news CDs and flash drives to well over 100 service users every two weeks, including to her husband Terry.
Altogether, around 20 people – including George Sykes who was involved in the earliest tape productions in the 1980s – are involved in the production, which is mainly funded by the Forteviot Trust and donations from service users.
Margaret said: “Due to coronavirus restrictions, we have had to alter our working practices, so now most of our work is carried out in our own homes.
“The newspapers are accessed online by the editors who select articles, arrange them into seven, four-article tracks and then send the articles to the readers for recording.
“Volunteers have manfully grappled with new technology, but all have succeeded with great determination to record and forward the recordings to the compiler who sorts the edition into its final form.
“There are too many readers and former volunteers to name, but they are, and have been, greatly valued.”
Anybody who would like to access the service or volunteer should contact VisionPK online or by calling 07387 100893 or 01738 626969.
