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It seems almost impossible to believe a guy who can't see anything could be commenting on the action of a fast moving basketball game. But Allan Wylie not only does it, but has listeners who don't believe he's completely blind.
How does he do it? He "sees" with his ears.
This isn't the only instance of someone with a disability being able to fill a role that you might think only a sighted person could do. I'm not sure how he did it, but there was an operator at WABC-AM in its Top 40 rock days who did regular shifts behind the board. And you know how tight that format was. But somehow he was able to keep everything running smoothly.
Dale Patterson once told me about a local guy named Sam Ward who was blind, but did his own radio show on a station.
It's pretty inspiring to know these guys never let what would seem like an impenetrable barrier keep them from on-air success. Wylie's story only adds to that.
How a blind college student became a radio broadcaster for an NBA G League team
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A college classmate of mine was born blind, but has been working in radio in New Brunswick for just over 20 years now, primarily at Moncton's country outlet, Stingray's CJXL-FM "New Country 96.9". He's the music director and one of the jocks, and is a wizard with MusicMaster, using a screen reader like JAWS to "see" what's on the monitor. He's able to do live on-air shifts on his own, as he programs, in MM, "pause" points on the automation playlist, then simply hits a button on the console to start what's next on the playlist.
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That's how me, as a blind person watches the Argos games.
Argos!
Cant whate for this upcomming seson.
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Can't forget Cliff Lorimer: