The Management Team

This is how it is done

Listeners using our free postal service can look forward to receiving a bright yellow wallet like this every week containing a compact cassette tape (90 minutes playing time) on which is recorded the current week’s edition of Hamilton Sound.

It’s usually delivered on a Saturday morning but some listeners with ML3 Post Codes may even receive their wallet on Fridays (the same day as the Hamilton Advertiser’s publication date).    

 We can also supply a digital (MP3) version on a USB Flash Disk by the same method.  Flash disks are specially formatted for playing on our own HSplayer (see below) or can be supplied in a standard format for most other USB media player types.

The wallet is padded and has a Velcro™ fastener at one end for easy access and resealing. A clear address panel contains a reversible card with the listener’s name and address on one side and the Hamilton Sound tape return address on the other. The address card has one corner missing which allows the listener to easily identify which side is uppermost. The Hamilton Sound address is visible if the top right hand corner is missing (as shown in the picture above).

We have specially designed and built our own Flash Disk Player which we can supply to listeners.  The HSplayer has been designed to be 'Visually Impaired User Friendly' and will allow listeners not having a broadband internet connection to enjoy Hamilton Sound at digital quality.  We only have a limited number of these units available as they cost us over £50 to make and all require to be hand built.  This is, unfortunately, a significant stretch on our limited funds and volunteer resources so we are forced to allocate HSplayers on a 'first come, first served basis'.  Please contact us if you would like to be put on the waiting list for an HSplayer.

Our recently introduced digital service makes Hamilton Sound available to all who have a broad band internet connection.  Listeners can listen to Hamilton Sound by using their computer's web browser (such as MS Internet Explorer) or can download the programme for storage on their computer hard drive or portable media player (such as iPod) for later listening.

If you wish to purchase your own proprietary USB Flash Disk Player we can advise on suitable types, prices and where to get them.  These are frequently offered by Supermarkets at prices ranging from as little as £25.  This type of player will require Hamilton Sound to be stored in a slightly different format to that for our HSplayer on the Flash Disk which we distribute so please contact us for advice before buying or using your own USB Flash Disk Player.

We are also making our programme streams available to appropriate web radio service providers such as the British Wireless Fund for the Blind's Sonata Service.  Sonata users simply select 'Talking Newspapers' then 'Hamilton Sound' via their menu selector.  We hope to be available on the RNIB Plextalk devices whenever this service becomes available from RNIB.

This is our production process from beginning to end.

Our Duty Editor begins with two copies of the Hamilton Advertiser which are collected ‘hot off the press’ on a Thursday around lunchtime. Two copies are required for reasons which will become clear shortly.

Because we couldn’t possibly record every single printed word in the newspaper in under 90 minutes we need to edit the contents and select the material we wish to record. We follow a very strict editing policy which ensures that we select material which satisfies a reasonably representative cross section of our listeners' tastes and interests. We try not to censor and we listen carefully to the feedback we get from our listeners to make sure we continue to get it just about right.

Having selected the articles from each page for recording, the Duty Editor snips these from the newspaper and places each cutting in a series of plastic wallets in their intended reading order. Of course, snipping articles from one page destroys the page on the reverse side, so we need two copies of the newspaper (one for odd numbered pages, the other for even numbered pages).

By 7 p.m. on Thursday evening the editor will have delivered the cuttings to our Recording Studio and the evening team takes over. Some will deal with the returned tapes from the previous week’s production. They will open the wallets, extract any messages, check the tapes for damage, rewind and erase the tapes and check the listener’s name off on our returns register. At the same time the recording team, comprising the duty sound engineer and 3 readers from one of our 4 teams of readers, will get down to the business of recording side one of the Master Cassette.

By the time they have reached the end of Side 1, the messages recovered from listener’s returned wallets have been reviewed and scripts for any requiring replies or comment have been prepared so Side 2 can begin with this and the other intimations from the Newspaper such as the Births, Deaths and Marriages. Always a popular section of our tape.

Once completed the Master Tape is loaded into our High Speed Tape Copying equipment and up to 200 hundred copies are run off in about 2 hours. These copy tapes are placed in the wallets and delivered to the Post Office first thing Friday morning.

Listeners return their tapes to us by the following Thursday and so the cycle continues.

Our Studio