David Edwards spoke about Down East Radio Reading Services at the Tarboro Rotary Club's meeting at The Fountains at The Albemarle Thursday.

Edwards, a Pinetops native who lives in Wilson, is the chairman of the board of Down East Radio Reading Services.

The non-profit organization gives readings of local, regional and national newspapers, as well as magazines and novels, to print-impaired people who don't have access to printed material. The Raleigh News & Observer, The New York Times, Ebony, Reader's Digest and Our State magazine are some of the publications the service reads.

Readings from The Daily Southerner run from 1-1:30 p.m. Monday-Friday.

Edwards said people who use the service the most are blind, but it is also for people who are impaired otherwise and can not hold a newspaper. People with Parkinson's disease benefit from the service, and Edwards said he knew of two armless people who listen.

Edwards read comments to the Rotarians from people saying how much they appreciated the reading service's programming.

One person said they did not realize people on their street had died until weeks later, but they stayed informed through the reading service.

"(I am) grateful someone cares enough to read to me" said another comment.

One person said the reading service is "just about the only company I have."

A woman joked that listening to the reading service was the "only thing John and I do together every day."

Programming from the radio service runs 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It is completely operated by more than 100 volunteers, one of the few such reading services east of the Mississippi River, Edwards said.

The service does not have live programming on Sundays, but it "borrows" the signal from Triangle Radio Reading Service in Raleigh during that time, he said. That is also how the service has its novels read on air, Edwards said.

Although the reading service is a bastion for news, it cannot be picked up on regular car or home radios.

Its frequency is "less than one hertz" from WRQM's, and the strength of that station's signal drowns out the reading service, Edwards said.

It takes a special, $115 radio transmitter to pick up the reading service's signal. Although the receiver is expensive, Edwards emphasized that the equipment costs nothing for recipients to have them in their home or in a hospital.