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You'd think it would be impossible to host a radio show if you can't say a single word. But somehow two ardent Beatles fans have managed it - and one of them is only 15 years old.
Both are autistic and never had any real way to communicate, until a text-to-speech program made it possible to allow them to communicate in a way that sounds like someone speaking normally. And SiriusXM decided to put them both on their service where they could share their obsessive knowledge of the Fab Four.
"Their words are converted into audio using text-to-speech software and voices they selected themselves. Because Levy communicates by pointing to one letter at a time, producing about 10 minutes of finished commentary can take several hours. "It's a very long process," the high school student says.
Bonker credits Microsoft's Speech Studio for helping make their voices sound more natural. The result is a show that feels like eavesdropping on two friends obsessing over the Beatles."
It's an unusual story that combines two people who refused to give up with the world's greatest rock band into a single show. And the result is remarkable radio.
He's 15, obsessed with the Beatles and changing what radio sounds like