Reading Radio - New Orleans

No illustration today because this is about a radio station for the blind and vision-impaired.  WRBH, 88.3 on my FM dial (link: here).

I wasn't terribly interested in writing about the Times-Picayune's comics pages yesterday, having enough on my plate.  When I go home though, I turned on the radio and found myself on 88.3.  What to my wondering ears should appear but someone reading those very same comics pages that I slogged through earlier in that morning.

The reader was very accomplished, describing what was happening in each panel and changing voices to define the characters' dialogue.  He really brought Dilbert to life, which is saying something for so static a strip.  The comics are read every Sunday at 6:00 PM.  Unfortunately, only a half hour is allotted so all the comics can't be read aloud.  Though all six pages only take me about 15 minutes, I can absorb the visual information without lengthy description.

I fetched the discarded newspaper out of the trash (no recycling on my street yet) and the lady of the house and I read along until the episode ended.  The host was eclectic in what he chose to read aloud.  Of note: he read Prince Valiant with relish and took extra time to describe the eerie scene depicted in the last panel.  More disappointing, Curtis was described at length.  While this wasn't the worst installment of Curtis (how can you tell?) the punch line was weak, eliciting a groan even from the narrator who didn't really know how to deliver it.  I feel that way when I read this strip silently to myself.

I don't listen to New Orleans' Reading Radio often, but often enough that it delights me when I turn the dial down into the lower register of frequencies.  The station has a very interesting schedule and I'll have to put this gift of the airwaves into my more routine.  They read the New Yorker and the newspaper but I've usually already read what's delivered by the time it hits the air.  There are other things that interest me.  Full program schedule here.