Read with Me
WSMC Wins Award

CONTACT: Lori Futcher, SAU Editorial Manager, at 432.432.4034     
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WSMC’s Reading Program Honored at National Meeting

(Collegedale, TN - September 15, 2009) The Read With Me program, a partner of WSMC Classical 90.5 FM, was recently honored at the annual National Association of Counties meeting in Nashville. The program was honored for its efforts, in partnership with the Hamilton County reading initiative Read 20, to increase literacy in the area by encouraging kids to read and teaching them that reading can be fun.

The program, which began in 2006 through the efforts of Mayor Claude Ramsey, involves a weekly WSMC radio broadcast of a guest reader from the community reading to local grade school children for 20 minutes.

The Read 20 program was based on Ramsey’s belief that if parents or guardians of a child spend 20 minutes a day reading to the child, it will increase the child’s chances of academic success later in life. Each broadcast features a different class of students from various schools in the area, as well as a guest reader, which in the past have included several well-known political figures.

David Brooks, general manager of WSMC, says the original intention for the partnership was to find something WSMC could do to better the community.

“I approached Claude Ramsey and asked if there was something we could do to make Chattanooga a better place to live,” says Brooks. “I wanted to be able to do something tangible.”

WSMC was the first community partner after the program’s creation. Although it started out slow, the program has since grown in leaps and bounds. There are currently waiting lists for both visiting classes and guest readers. More than 4,000 children have participated in the program in the past four years, bringing many visitors and sometimes television coverage to Southern’s campus.

The recognition from the National Association of Counties has let everyone at WSMC know that the program is working.

“This is a prestigious award, and WSMC is a big part of that,” Brooks says. “This program is a good thing for the community and people out there recognize it.”

Shawn Kurrelmeier-Lee, chief reading officer for the Read 20 program, is appreciative of the partnership with WSMC.

“The value of the partnership is incredible,” Kurrelmeier-Lee says. “The station has really made the program what it is.”

The Read With Me program airs every Thursday from 10:10-10:30 a.m. on WSMC Classical 90.5 FM.