Summer 2015 edition of Eyes Only newsletter

Gatewave Radio 24/7 NEWS AND FEATURES BROADCAST SERVICE FOR LOW-VISION LISTENERS

Gatewave Radio is the latest in a succession of free audio news and features services based in New York designed for low-vision audiences.

It is carried over the internet, closed-circuit networks, and on special receivers. It also furnishes programming material to other providers.

Like its forerunners, it serves the Greater New York Metropolitan Area. With a population of 25 million, this area is the largest radio market in the United States.  

Gatewave Radio is the successor to the In Touch Networks news service, featured in these pages a few years ago. Gatewave’s principal and guiding objective is to broaden and deepen the content of the material it broadcasts for its audience.

To that end, Gatewave’s board now includes men and women with solid backgrounds in public service, education, and communications.

Gatewave’s executive director is Gordon Rothman, a 30-year veteran CBS News senior producer.

In addition, Gatewave has expanded and enriched the content of its service by including new, original programing of practical value to its audience. 

Gatewave is located in its new home at Helen Keller Services in Brooklyn, close to the practical aspects of low-vision living. This will be a new source of Gatewave programming.

All of this will be added to the current round-the-clock, rich and varied Gatewave broadcast schedule.

It features programs on:

 • Book reviews

 • Sports

 • Films, theatre, dance

 • Food and cooking

 • The Economy – the one that interests Bill Gates.

 • The economy – the one that interests you and me.

 • Women’s interests

 • Science

 • Pets

 • Hollywood & TV

 • Your health

And that is just a sampling of the range of topics of shows on the schedule.

The material used in the shows on Gatewave’s schedule comes from a roster of universally respected newspapers. The magazines are ones that occupy leadership positions in their categories or fields of interest.

The material may take the form of analysis, satire, commentary, reportage, criticism, instruction – and who knows?

The list of periodicals includes:

The New York Times

Wall Street Journal

Christian Science Monitor

The Economist

Rolling Stone

Dogster

Time

The New Yorker

O, The Oprah Magazine

Business Week

Vanity Fair

People

As you can see, Gatewave Radio offers much promise. But before you can evaluate that offer, there are a number of questions, big ones like program accessibility, and smaller ones, too subjective to be listed here, to be answered.

GATEWAVE.ORG is the well-done website that has the information you need, as well as a phone number to reach a well-versed staffer.

Note that there is a low-vision qualification to access Gatewave. If you are an EYES ONLY reader, you almost certainly qualify.