Goodbye 2012. Hello 2013

2RPH (Radio for the Print Handicapped) has been doing more than just reading books and magazines for blind people. It rang in the New Year with a description of the fireworks on Sydney harbor.

”The description of the fireworks is not a detailed commentary: this colour shell is firing from this barge now,” Aneurin Coffey, the producer of the city’s New Year’s Eve celebrations, told the SMH.

”It’s very much like a cricket commentary, where they talk about everything but. It’s talking about what the experience is, what the feeling we were trying to achieve is, more than the exact image.”

2RPH listener Lisa Hays, said ”If you’re with your family and friends they’re sitting there going ‘Wow’ and all you’re hearing is explosions: it’s the extent of [your] experience. But if someone’s describing what’s going on and what things actually look like you can feel part of it.”

2RPH commenced operations in 1983. Originally designed for the vision-impaired, elderly, and infirm, currently many English language teachers instruct their students to tune in and follow the printed word on air.