Hamilton Sound

HISTORY OF HAMILTON SOUND

Introduction

This Document

The purpose of this document is to provide an overview of The Hamilton and District Talking Newspaper Association, it’s purpose and activities, organisation and a history of it’s creation.

It has been prepared by the Chairman, Jim Stewart, who was the Project Manager of the founding project team, and who has been continuously involved with the organisation since that time.

Talking Newspapers

Talking Newspapers (TNs) have been around in the UK for several decades.  Virtually every area of the country is now served by at least one local Talking Newspaper Organisation.  In addition to this the Talking Newspaper Association of the United Kingdom (TNAUK), The Talking News Federation (TNF), The Association of Scottish Talking Newspaper (ASTN) and the member TNs combine to provide a seamless national service which can provide visually challenged people with access to audio transcriptions of a wide range of printed material including national and local newspapers, magazines and much more.  In addition a good range of original sound magazines are produced both for local and national consumption.

Hamilton Sound

Hamilton Sound is, in fact, the title of the principal product of the Hamilton and District Talking Newspaper Association although the name ‘Hamilton Sound’ is usually used to refer to both for convenience.  Certainly the Treasurer of The Hamilton and District Talking Newspaper Association is happy to receive cheques with either name as the payee!  The remainder of this article will use the name Hamilton Sound interchangeably also.

Hamilton Sound – History

The Seed

Hamilton Sound was the brainchild of Ian Stewart (no relation to the author) in 1982 who was the then Chairman of Junior Chamber Hamilton.  Because of his father’s loss of sight in his later years Ian was made acutely aware of the practical and emotional problems that relatively sudden and late occurring sight loss can bring.  He was also very conscious and appreciative of the tremendous benefits that his father got from his regular supply of ‘Playback’ tapes from Peter Fraser’s team in Glasgow.

Junior Chamber

As a result of this Ian brought the idea to Junior Chamber Hamilton with the tentative idea of doing something to support and progress such activities in the town of Hamilton.

The Junior Chamber (JC) organisation is essentially a training organisation for ‘young’ people (up to the age of 40).  A lot of Junior Chamber’s activities include undertaking projects which provide members with the training and self development opportunities which practical experience of real projects can bring.  It is also an objective of the JC organisation that it provides, by means of its projects and other activities, wider benefits to the environment and the community in which the JC operates.  In many respects the organisation is similar to Round Table although JC’s would argue that they do much more than simply raise funds for good causes.   This is probably being unfair to Round Tablers.  There is certainly friendly rivalry between the two.

The Project

Junior Chamber Hamilton established a project in the late summer of 1982 the objective of which was to establish the production of a Talking Newspaper in the district based on the local weekly newspaper, The Hamilton Advertiser.

The project was to make the Talking Newspaper available, free of all charges, to visually impaired people in the town of Hamilton and surrounding districts (which was generally the then Hamilton District Council’s area and the circulation area of the Hamilton Advertiser).

The target end date for the production of the first tape was 31 March 1983.  Thereafter, the project was to establish an independent organisation which would be responsible for the ongoing operation and development of the Talking Newspaper service.

A project team was appointed from the JC membership and, led by a Project Manager, work commenced around September 1982 leaving the first production deadline less than seven months away!

Research

The first task was to conduct some research into Talking Newspapers.  A multitude of questions needed answers.  How did a TN operate?  What were the costs?  How many people were needed?  What kinds of people needed to be involved?  What were the technical challenges?  What about accommodation?  Were there any legal considerations such a copyright?

These and many more questions were listed and allocated to individual team members for them to work on the answers.  Many project team meetings were held in the early days to simply brainstorm ideas, exchange current information and to allocate new questions as they arose.

Contacts were made with existing local TN organisations including Playback at the Resource Centre for the Blind which was then in St Vincent Street, Glasgow.  Peter Fraser, as all who know him will testify (does anyone not know him?), was extremely generous with his time and helpful advice.  Fortuitously the Scottish TN Conference was scheduled to be held in Perth that year and so a group of the project team turned up at that.

Very soon we were conscious, not only of the fantastic camaraderie which exists within the TN world, but also of the enormous scale and diversity of TN operations in Scotland and the UK.

TNAUK was also contacted and very soon, with the help obtained from all of our contacts, the research phase was completed, much faster than we had planned.

Funding

Following analysis of our research data, supported by the anecdotal evidence from our many contacts, it became quickly obvious that the one thing that would be required in great abundance if this project and the future of the Talking Newspaper were to be assured was MONEY!  We didn’t know exactly how much was needed at the time but the list prices of high speed copiers in particular and good quality recording equipment in general was alarming and so we knew that gathering too much money was highly unlikely.

A sub-group were allocated the task of fund raising.  This was also to prove startlingly revealing.  Local businesses, organisations and individuals were contacted to commence the daunting task of obtaining as many contributions as possible in the short time available.  With very few exceptions the response was quick and generous.  It seemed that many of those that we contacted identified with the problems of visual impairment.  Many had first hand experience of some family member, friend or acquaintance who struggled with the difficulties of poor sight and immediately identified with this, to them unique, way of helping.

Some organisations pledged help in kind.  For example the local Philips Lighting factory promised us 200 C90 Cassette Tapes.  Philips tapes naturally!

The early results from the fund raising team provided the confidence and encouragement to the rest to push on with the remaining vital stages of the project.  For example we still had some big issues like accommodation to resolve.

Accommodation and Other Things

The team was at the stage of thinking about recruiting some of the volunteers that would be essential for turning the idea into a practical reality both initially and longer term.  An article in the Hamilton Advertiser called a public meeting of anyone or any organisation that may be interested in our venture.

On a bleak winter’s night in a meeting room in the Town House the response this time was initially not quite as promising.  Although the turn out was numerically encouraging, the general tone from the floor was that the whole thing seemed daunting and too difficult.  There seemed to be too many apparently insoluble problems for most people’s liking.  Fear of the unknown probably best describes the general feeling of the delegates.

There was one ray of hope however.  One lady member of the audience asked a series of searching questions which were, we discovered later, designed to test our appreciation of the major challenge we had set for ourselves and, more importantly, to test our commitment.  She then declared herself to be Jess Bell, the District Organiser of the Women’s Royal Voluntary Service (WRVS).  Apparently satisfied by the responses she had got to her questions she went on to congratulate us on our initiative and wished us every success.

But better was yet to come.  Having declared her credentials and voiced her moral support she went on to promise us the free use of the WRVS accommodation in the town, the services of their daytime office staff and the voluntary services of the WRVS ladies in whatever roles we found they would be suitable.  That wasn’t all though.  The local WRVS ran a Tea and Coffee bar in the local Sheriff Court the profits from which their constitution obliged them to donate to charitable causes.  Jess pledged the Tea and Coffee bar profits to our talking newspaper.

The whole meeting room lit up.  There were smiles all round.  Even the earlier ‘doubting Thomas’s’ were suddenly enthusiastic.  In her brief statement, Jess had converted the whole thing from a reasonable possibility to an absolute certainty.  We now had most of the essential ingredients.  All that remained now was to get down to some serious detailed planning and get on with the job of pulling it all together into a reality.

Readers and Editors

The sharp end of the business, that is putting the words on tape, was an area we considered long, hard and very carefully.

We realised that whilst we could not hope for any BBC trained news readers amongst the ranks of the local WRVS ladies we still had to be very careful and selective about whom we sat in front of the microphone.  Some technical tests were organised for those wishing to read.  The analysis of the results which followed required some highly diplomatic handling.  Nevertheless, without any blood being spilled, we soon had identified our reading team.

Bruised prides and egos were avoided by interesting the others in the many other posts which needed to be filled.  Amongst these other posts the most significant must be the Editor.  We realised that preparing the ‘words’ for saying was just as important as actually saying them.  Although we did not formalise an editorial policy at this early stage we realised that this would be an area that needed to be kept under constant review and would depend on many factors of which we had yet to be aware.

The Local Newspaper

We had been in close and constant touch with our local newspaper, The Hamilton Advertiser, which was of course to be the ultimate source of our material for Hamilton Sound.  They had readily given permission for the use of the material and agreed to give us access to the newspaper literally ‘hot off the press’ – many hours before it reached the shops.

The Hamilton Advertiser also provided us with a platform throughout the course of the project to publicise our activities and raise our profile, particularly amongst the business community from whom our fund raising team were continuing to raise pledges of support.

Distribution

Contact was made with the local sorting office to advise them that we were hoping to start up production in their area and would be making use of the ‘Articles for the Blind’ concession, initially in small quantities, but hopefully ever increasing numbers before too long.  They were grateful for the forewarning and agreed to give us special access to their premises for the purpose of dropping off the outgoing post although, in the early days, this was not necessary as will be revealed below.

Now that we had some funding we were able to commit to the purchase of some of our materials such as the tape postal wallets, the master tapes (we already had listener tapes courtesy of Philips) and the address labels.

So now everything was in place to get our first production out.  Or was it?

We had our source newspaper material, editors, readers, tapes, wallets and ………. no technical equipment to make it all come together and happen!

Technical Stuff

It had not escaped our attention, during our research, that the business of producing a Talking Newspaper involved the use of a lot of technical equipment which didn’t only require constant tweaking but also from time to time needed repairing.  It was clear we needed a technical person to join our team.  Unsurprisingly there was no such person on the WRVS  team.

Les Burgess was a computer engineer working at the nearby Ravenscraig Steel Works.  In a previous life he had been a radio and television engineer.  What Les doesn’t know about electronics and audio equipment and how to use it and repair it isn’t worth knowing.

Les was a work mate and good friend of the author and no persuasion at all was needed to get this gentle Irishman on board – just a suggestion to him that here was a challenge and of course he rose to it!

What had also not escaped our attention was the fact that some of this technical stuff was extremely costly.  Whilst in the longer term we could hope to aspire to sophisticated mixing desks, high quality mastering recorders, high speed copiers, bulk erasers and the rest, the reality at this stage in the project was that most of this would have to be obtained by other means for the time being.

Bell College

The local Bell College in Hamilton was known to contain a very sophisticated language laboratory which we knew would involve the production and manipulation of language teaching materials on tape.  Could they possibly help?  Yes they could.

The college agreed not only to our use of their high speed tape duplicating equipment but also agreed to have the copying done for us by their technicians if we delivered the master tape, listener’s tapes and wallets to them.  They would then have the tapes collected by Royal Mail along with the college’s normal mail pick-up.

So that was the high speed copying problem solved but what about microphones and mastering equipment?

The Recording Studio

To call the office we were to occupy in the WRVS premises a Recording Studio is stretching the imagination a bit too far.  The WRVS occupied a large rambling many roomed ‘mansion like’ building which had seen better days, but it had many features which suited our purpose.  Although positioned near the centre of town it stood in its own large grounds which meant it was a respectable distance from the town’s busy roads and it also had very thick walls – so no traffic noise!

Although we had the free run of the premises in the evening, all of the rooms had other functions during the day and so we could not have our recording equipment permanently assembled.  Also the security of the premises was not ideal.  Because of its remoteness it was frequently the target of vandals and house breakers.  We therefore decided that our studio had to be portable so we could remove it to secure premises when not in use.  But we didn’t have any recording equipment yet!

A raid on my home Hi-fi equipment yielded a half decent cassette recorder.  A microphone was recovered from a long forgotten reel-to-reel tape recorder in the attic.  These together with a cheap audio mixer, an even cheaper playback tape machine, lots of wires, plugs and ingenuity from Les Burgess was fitted into a large brown suitcase (also recycled from the attic) to become our portable studio.

The Final Act

We were almost ready.  It was late February.  Fund raising was ongoing and, of course, would continue in perpetuity but all the key ingredients were in place for our launch, ahead of schedule, in March.  We decided to have a grand launching ceremony to coincide with our first production.  This was as much to do with promoting Junior Chamber Hamilton as it was about establishing Hamilton Sound.  But it would help Hamilton Sound in one very important aspect and that was to spread the word that we were open for business and looking for our first customers.  Our register at that time stood at around a dozen names most of which were obtained by word of mouth.  We had been in touch with the local Social Worker for the Blind but unsurprisingly there was a reluctance to pass on names and addresses before getting approval from the individuals concerned and that was going to take a bit of time.

So a local hotel was booked, the local press (not just the Hamilton Advertiser) was advised, our many benefactors from local businesses and organisations who had helped were invited to attend the official launch of Hamilton Sound.

This was carried out by the provost of Hamilton who had been, prior to the event, presented with an advance copy of our first tape.  His speech contained many comments of admiration for the initiative of Junior Chamber, the community spirit which had combined to make it possible and, not least, the quality of the final product which he was certain would be well received by the listeners.  He was soon to be proved right on this latter point.

Our first tape went out to our initial handful of listeners and the local press splashed us across their front pages.  It was not long before the numbers zoomed upwards.  Hamilton Sound was up and running and has never looked back!

The New Organisation

Getting the production of Hamilton Sound underway, whilst an important milestone, was not the end of the JC project.  Remember we had set ourselves the task of establishing an independent organisation which would take over the long term operation and development of Hamilton Sound.

Work continued and, in parallel with continuing fund raising, producing the weekly tapes and resolving the many teething problems, the team drafted the Constitution of what was to become the Hamilton and District Talking Newspaper Association in May 1983.  Although the original project was now complete, the original JC project team continued work alongside the fledgling organisation for many months to follow and only slipped quietly away when it became clear that everything was on an even keel.

Evolution

Over the intervening years since it’s highly successful launch, Hamilton Sound has grown and evolved.

Since our early years in the WRVS premises, which ultimately were demolished by the local authority to make way for Town Centre Developments, we have been accommodated in a series of other premises in the town supplied by the local authority.  Some were to prove more suitable than others but on balance the quality of accommodation has generally improved.

The passing years have seen many changes among the volunteers but a ‘core’ of originals remain.  The energy and quality of the team remains as high as ever.

The technical standard of Hamilton Sound has steadily improved as funding has permitted the procurement of increasingly better equipment.

The number of listeners on our register now stands at over 200.

Hamilton Sound Today

Organisation

Hamilton Sound is registered as a Charity (No. SCO15947) and is managed by a committee comprising:

·         Chairman

·         Vice Chairman

·         Secretary

·         Treasurer

·         Chief Editor

·         Registrar

·         Up to four other members of committee

Including the above, Hamilton Sound has 25 volunteers organised into:

·         6 Rotational Duty Editors

·         4 Teams of 3 Readers each

·         Various other ‘back room’ teams for tape checking, erasing, copying and packing.

Area Served

The area served by Hamilton Sound is largely dictated by the circulation area of the Hamilton Advertiser newspaper which provides the source material of our principal publication.  Apart from the town of Hamilton itself this also includes Motherwell, Wishaw, Blantyre, Bothwell, Uddingston, Larkhall, Blackwood, Strathaven and Lanark.

There is no geographical limit to Hamilton Sound’s distribution however and frequently our tapes are sent to many ex Hamiltonian’s in far flung places.

Premises

Shared accommodation with the South Lanarkshire Disability Forum organisation.  Accommodation available consists of a ‘studio’ which is actually a sound proofed meeting room but with sufficient space and adequate security to allow us to leave our recording equipment in permanent position.

General office space is available for the listener’s tape handling activities.

Address is:

South Lanarkshire Disability Forum

42 Campbell Street

HAMILTON

ML3 6AS

Tel: 01698 307733

Funding

Largely by solicited donations from local businesses and groups and the local authority in the form of grants for capital purchases.  A small proportion from unsolicited donations from listeners and members of the public.

Income from contract work with the South Lanarkshire Social Services PR department involving the recording of their range of Public Information Material and Consultative Documents.

Publications

Principal Publication:           Hamilton Sound (C90 Cassette) – Hamilton Advertiser (Weekly)

Other Publications:              Occasional local interest publications on the flora, fauna and history of the area. (As required)