Weekly Sequence of Activities

The following timetable of activities is used to produce the weekly EaRTN Talking News (TN) audiocassettes containing a digest of the local news taken from the Surrey Herald and News and MaiI groups of newspapers. In addition, a digest of the Woman’s Weekly magazine, edited by Pendle Voice, is also distributed to those listeners requesting it. A monthly Talking Magazine, containing stories of a more general nature is also produced, the production of which is currently organised by the Joint Editors. The monthly Magazine is described in more detail here. The resulting output of the Elmbridge and Runnymede Talking Newspaper Association amounts to a grand total of more than 15,000 cassettes a year.

Monday

The Movements Register Team clean cassettes received during the previous week, recording the returns in the register. The following week’s despatch cards are then prepared, individual record sheets updated as appropriate, records for new listeners set up and any cancellations noted.

Tuesday

The Scriptwriter prepares the script (using the template in MS Word) in readiness for the next issue. When completed, two photocopies are made for the recording team of two Presenters, a man and a woman, and the Recording Supervisor. Guidelines for the Scriptwriters and all other activities are contained in the EaRTN Manual, of which every volunteer has a copy. More details about the script writing process are here

Wednesday

The studio is available for other, non-News Digest activities, such as the monthlyTalking Magazine activities, including recording of interviews with eminent personalities and other well know people in the area.

Thursday

Elmbridge and Runnymede Talking Newspaper contains a Digest taken from a cross section of the news content of local newspapers.   We receive copies of the relevant editions from the Surrey Herald and Surrey Advertiser groups of newspapers.

The Editors work in the studio on Thursday mornings, selecting four main headline stories, then items about local issues such as law and order, health and education.   The 90 minute tape will also contain items of human and general interest, details of local events – including audio described films and plays – and a look back at past news featured in the papers.

It is sometimes necessary to shorten an article to suit the constraints of the system.   This is done with great care, as it is important not to change the sense of the item.

Once the articles have been cut out and pasted on sheets, they will be inserted with the weekly script into a folder for each of the presenters in time for the recording session that afternoon.

Afternoon 2.15pm or evening 6:30pm according to the Rota - The Recording Supervisor and the two Presenters (one male and one female) produce the TN master recording. After the session, the Recording Supervisor produces a back-up 'Copy Master', which will be available for the copying team should the (prime) master cassette fail or be otherwise damaged.

These are then left out, together with the two 'Copy Masters' of the Woman's Weekly cassettes produced earlier from the Pendle Voice master, ready for duplicating by the Friday Copying Team.

Friday

Morning 9.00am - The Copying Teams, normally consisting of three volunteers produce the required number of cassettes - in accordance with the colour coding of red-label cassettes for the TN. blue for the Woman's Weekly digest and green for the monthly Talking Magazine. Having first emptied the mailbags containing the week's returned pouches / tapes, the job continues with the copying / duplicating. Each cassette is briefly tested for acoustic quality, before being inserted into an appropriate pouch and individual address card, prepared by the Movements Register Team on Monday, slotted into the front of the pouch. These all go into mailbags that are then placed in the hospital lobby, from where Weybridge Post office collects the (three or four) bags in the afternoon, for delivery to EaRTN Listeners, all being well, by Saturday morning.

When the copying teams have finished, all the copiers are carefully cleaned, the studio is tidied up and left ready for the next production cycle to start all over again.