Tuning in a New Audience: Project Under Way to Make Closed-Captioning for Radio

Jan 09, 08:55 AM

Jan. 9--LAS VEGAS -- Radio may soon be available for a group that previously couldn't enjoy it -- the deaf.

Yesterday at the Consumer Electronics Show, three organizations -- National Public Radio, technology firm Harris Corporation, and Towson University -- announced an initiative to develop radios that will use HD Radio technology to provide closed-captioning for radio broadcasts.

"Hearing-impaired people have been disenfranchised from radio pretty much forever," said Hal Kneller, the senior manager of business development for digital radio at the Harris Corporation. "What we do here is we create a text screen of talk radio programs, newscasts, whatever, that you can see on the screen."

Using HD Radio, FM broadcasters can send up to three digital channels in the same space as a single analog channel. They can also transmit text over the same broadcast signal, which the receiver will translate into text on a screen.

The challenge is getting radio manufacturers to put larger screens on the radios so people can read the text.

Radiosophy, one of the largest manufacturers of HD Radios, says that such radios could be on the market by the second half of this year.

In the Triad, NPR affiliate WFDD is one of 10 radio stations that broadcast in HD.

"We've been fascinated by the possibilities of what you can do with digital transmissions that you can't do with analog," said Mike Starling, a vice president and chief technology officer at NPR. Making radio accessible to a community that couldn't enjoy it before was a natural step.

"All the radios are migrating to larger screens," he said, "so hopefully within two or three years all the screens will be large enough to support the captioning application."

In the early stages, stenographers will be used to transcribe live audio.

"Live captioners, we think, we would have to have, at least initially," Starling said, "because currently the speech-detection technology is not that good. You can't get near the accuracy you would need."

The new initiative will also encourage radio manufacturers to make radios easier to use for visually-impaired people.

"In the old days, radio had a volume control and a tuning knob," Kneller said. "A blind person could operate that pretty well. Today, radios have gotten very complex, with displays and menus. We're working with receiver manufacturers to create 'talking radios,' if you will, where you press the buttons and it speaks to you."

The initiative will be part of the International Center for Accessible Radio Technology, which will be at Towson University in Towson, Md.

Starling said he anticipates that stations will seek sponsors to finance closed captioning for radio broadcasts, much as television broadcasters do now.

-- Tim Clodfelter can be reached at 727-7371 or at tclodfelter@wsjournal.com.

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