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Radio station needs about 1,500 square feet
By Carol Biliczky
Beacon Journal staff writer
Published on Monday, Nov 17, 2008
After years of financial setbacks and legal problems, the local reading service for the blind is facing what may be its biggest hurdle.
The not-for-profit organization is poised to be evicted in the next few weeks from its home in a former roller rink on East Market Street in Akron.
''We've tried to do as much as we can,'' said Jim Bunnell, president of the board of directors of the Written Communications Radio Service (WCRS). ''We inherited a building in foreclosure and we never could recover from that.''
The station has remained on the air virtually every day over the last three tumultuous years. Station Manager David Binkley said about 75 volunteers continue to read newspaper and magazine stories that are transmitted via subcarriers of two commercial FM stations.
He estimated that WCRS serves perhaps 4,500 blind and physically handicapped listeners who are supplied with special radios to pick up its signal, although he didn't know exactly how many of the radios the station had given out over the years.
''This wasn't the best of record-keeping in the past,'' Binkley said, adding that in the early days, the roof leaked and destroyed records.
But he said he is sure the station provides a worthy service.''When I talk to somebody and he tells me that I give him his eyesight back, I don't know what more I can say,'' Binkley said. ''I hear stories like that from people we affect every day.''
WCRS was founded in 1976 by Marcia Jonke and operated for years on an annual state subsidy of about $50,000, plus donations and voluntary subscriber fees of $20 a year.
About 18 months ago, the station raised the fee for the first time in its history to $25.
Bingo brings in funds
In 1990, Jonke moved the charity to the former Akron Rollercade and began to offer bingo games on Friday and Saturday that attracted about 400 people a night.
The games helped enable WCRS to buy the building, spend $400,000 on state-of-the-art equipment and remodeling, and pay for three full-time employees, including Jonke.
Jonke received commendations for her work, including the Lifetime Achievement Award from Ohio Radio Reading Services in 2005.
''She had given over 30 years to the radio reading service and worked on the national level,'' said Sandy Turner, president of the membership organization for eight radio reading services statewide reaching as many as 80,000 people. ''We enjoyed working with her. She did a nice job.''
But by 2005, the good times were nearing an end.
The Ohio Attorney General's Office questioned the station's request for a renewal of its bingo license on the grounds WCRS was not the educational organization Jonke claimed.
The state pulled the license, closing down the bingo games and stopping the charity's biggest stream of income.
In June 2006, Jonke filed suit in Summit County Common Pleas Court to dissolve the station on the grounds that it was insolvent. The attorney general's office intervened, arguing that the charity's finances had to be straightened out before it could be dissolved.
Eventually, Jonke retired from WCRS and Common Pleas Judge Patricia Cosgrove turned the organization over to a fresh board of directors.
The U.S. attorney's office also investigated and in 2007 indicted Jonke and others on 17 counts of illegal gambling under the guise of charitable fundraising that benefited WCRS. Jonke pleaded guilty to two counts this year.
Request for leniency
According to court documents, Jonke's attorney, Robert A. Dixon, asked U.S. District Court in Cleveland for a lenient sentence for his client.
''For many years before there was any bingo fundraising, Ms. Jonke toiled tirelessly on behalf of the radio station, often running it as nearly a one-person operation on a shoestring budget,'' he wrote. ''Ms. Jonke remembers volunteers reading on the air as the roof leaked over their heads.''
Dixon told the court that the only way she benefited from the bingo games was ''a steady salary, use of an automobile and payment of some other expenses.''
Jonke, 66, was sentenced in June to two years' probation, including six months in home confinement without electronic monitoring.
She could not be reached for comment.
Today, WCRS continues to founder.
Without bingo, it could not pay its $435,000 mortgage, said Binkley, the only one of the original three employees to still work at the station. FirstMerit Bank foreclosed in June 2006 and the building was sold at auction this October for $354,000.
The station also had $80,000 in other debts, including $19,000 to the University of Akron, which WCRS pays to transmit its signal on a subcarrier of its WZIP radio station.
WZIP station manager Tom Beck said the university forgave half the debt and WCRS has paid down the balance to $1,500.
Bunnell, the current board president and a former volunteer reader for WCRS, said he resolved the rest of the debts and is working to rebuild the organization from scratch.
Some progress already is in hand — the station has extended its coverage by broadcasting via a commercial station in Mansfield. It has distributed 75 more radios to qualified listeners in Richland and Ashland counties.
''We've tried to do as much as we can,'' Bunnell said.''We're looking for a spot to move into. We want to get out of the building by the end of November.''
The station needs about 1,500 square feet and is willing to pay for the facilities, he said. For details, call Binkley at the station at 330-784-3393.
Carol Biliczky can be reached at 330-996-3729 or cbiliczky@thebeaconjournal.com.
After years of financial setbacks and legal problems, the local reading service for the blind is facing what may be its biggest hurdle.
Get the full article here.
Comments
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Akron, OH
Posted 10:28 AM, 11/17/2008
The bingo games kept a very worthwhile charity afloat. The state called it gambling and now a whole bunch of blind people are in danger of losing their contact with the world. This doesn't make sense.
Stow, OH
Posted 11:21 AM, 11/17/2008
What a sad story, such a severely underserved segment of our population. I can't imagine not being able to read the paper every day. Hopefully this organization will get a building AND the leadership they need soon.
Cuyahoga Falls, OH
Posted 12:37 PM, 11/17/2008
To Kenmorekid:
The state cares too much about taxing the little people because they think that not taxing big businesses will bring companies to Ohio. How's that working out, Ohio? How's the unemployment rate? The shrinking population?
As for gambling, I don't know why people can't worry about themselves and just let other people do it if they want.
akron, oh
Posted 12:49 PM, 11/17/2008
Rich - get with the program. The U.S. has the second highest corporate tax rate in the devloped world.
Stow, OH
Posted 06:45 PM, 11/17/2008
With all the waste in our government, they can't scrape up enough money to fund something like this ? If they were performing abortions in their studio the government would gladly cough up the cash then .
