The Wellingborough & District Talking Newspaper was started in 1979, thanks to a grant of £ 4000 for equipment from Wellingborough Lions Club and permission to use news from the Evening Telegraph, still the main source of our news. The first group of volunteers came from a small group of workers and their families from what was then Reliance Systems, where the earliest tapes were made. The new studio, at the bottom of Park Road, 5A, Dexters Chambers, to be precise – the one we presently occupy – was opened in 1980.
Wellingborough Talking Newspaper produced its first CD recordings in 2004. During a trial period of three months a small number of listeners who had agreed to take part in the pilot scheme received their magazine programmes on CD. These early recordings were first made on 90 minute cassette tapes and then downloaded and shortened to 80 mins on the computer’s hard-drive.
The editing and copying were down outside the studio on home computers. To get an idea of how this all works take a look at our “Photo page”