Audio Information Service Awards Given; Pfanstiehl Honored

It’s one of the quieter corners of the big world of radio, but for the people it serves, it’s indispensable.
The International Association of Audio Information Services’ 2002 Awards were presented at its annual conference recently. IAAIS is an association of independent, volunteer-driven services that use audio technology to turn print into speech. Among its distribution methods are radio reading services.
The winners: Houston Taping for the Blind Radio, in the categories of narrative reading and newspapers; In Touch Networks in New York for interviews/call-ins and newspapers; Radio Reading Services of Greater Cincinnati for narrative reading and entertainment; Sun Sounds of Arizona – Phoenix for news digest; Talking Information Center in Marshfield, Mass., for magazines and information; VoicePrint of Toronto for public awareness and thematic production; WCRS in Akron, Ohio, for on-location, entertainment and interview/call-in; WLRN Radio Reading Service in Miami for news digest; and WXXI Reachout Radio in Rochester, N.Y., for information.
The organization gave its highest honor, C. Stanley Potter Award, to Margaret Pfanstiehl, founder and president of the Metropolitan Washington Ear.