Feel very proud to announce that Blind Dates Radio, thanks to Rising Voices Microgrant, is the only web radio in Greece which is made and functions by visually impaired people.

It is not the first one as before it, one attempt has been made by another group of blind people, who have created a similar radio station, named NeedRadio, which doesn't work anymore.

Why Web Radio?

1. Visually impaired people are very sensitive to sound. Especially for some, it is the way they understand the world. Thus, it is not strange that music is very important to them and it is one of the most common ways to express themselves and have fun.
2. Doing radio programs and being capable of handling a complex radio software make them feel confident. Being a radio producer is very in fashion among youth and now all the students of Thessaloniki School for the Blind know and discuss about the new web radio station and … them of course.
3. It is the best way to communicate with local community, young people and family as they can be heard from  every corner of the world through internet. Moreover, Radio Server gives users the ability to communicate with listeners with a chat box.
4. People in Greece are quite familiar with listening to radio and web radio stations. Even from the first week of live streaming, number of listeners reached 18 and our facebook page has 81 likes.
5. They are very motivated about promoting the Radio Station and as a result they use more the social media, like Facebook, and suggest fresh ideas, developing their imagination and creativity.

After two seminars, many many technical problems and me being absent for a month due to job responsibilities, we finally did it! Blind Dates Radio is on air and we officially broadcast on s9.myradiostream.com/8022.htm . 

Radio schedule and short CVs of radio producers are available online on the blog theblinddates.wordpress.com.

Mixalis Mouratidis wrote something very important which represents one of the main goals of  Blind Dates Project [gr]:

Ο βασικός όμως λόγος είναι ότι θεωρώ πως είναι το καλύτερο μέσο για να προβάλουμε την κοινότητα τυφλών και να δείξουμε σε άτομα της κοινότητας πως δεν είναι μόνοι και πως μπορούμε να βοηθήσουμε ο ένας τον άλλον και μαζί να καταφέρουμε πολλά.

I think that the basic reason (I participated in the project) is because I strongly believe that radio is the best mean to promote blind community and show to its members that they are not alone, that we can help each other and if we are united, we can succeed lots of things.

Due to limited budjet, we decided to upload the radio station to a free web server. My first suggestion was listen2myradio, which unfortunately proved to be inconvenient for participants to use it. Second and final choice was freestreamghosting. In the beginning we have created an account to the 6th server but we noticed that server was often down. So, we have changed server and moved to server 9. Our lucky number from now on…

How a visually impaired person can do a radio program

Each participant uses computers and internet in a different way. Some of them use screen readers and keyboard shortcuts and some others digital magnifying glass. After the solution of technical problems, two seminars have taken place. The first one was about solving technicalities and teach participants how to use the radio program, SAM Broadcaster depending on the tools they use,

The second seminar was held in order to discuss about some basic radio rules, the radio schedule, and to test the sound in each participant's laptop. We structured 9+1 Gold Rules about radio, which have been sent through emails but also printed in Braille language and distributed to participants.Participants were asked to write a short CV about his life, hobbies, the reason why they participate in the radio and the name of their radio program. Truth is that almost all of them are quite excited with doing radio programs, more than writing for the blog. Sound and music are very important to visually impaired people and through radio they approach more the local community and local youth.

With the help of Panhellenic Association, sound messages about blindness will be included in the schedule. One participant, who is musician and lives in Mutilini, has composed a special audiotrack to use it as jingle for the radio.

You can listen to it here:  Blind Dates Radio Jingle.