About us
Chatterbox, the Norwich Talking Newspaper was established in Norwich in 1978 as one of the first Talking Newspapers (TNs) to produce audio recordings for people who are vision impaired or blind in the UK. Today, Chatterbox is a substantial and well-respected charity still serving listeners mostly in the Norwich area but increasingly across Norfolk and further afield. Our Patron is Pam Petersen whose late husband, Stanley Petersen, was a founder member of Chatterbox.
Excellence in readers has always been a Chatterbox strength and, currently, our voices include John Francis and Caroline Oldrey former ITV presenters; Neil Haverson, former Let's Talk editor for Archant; David Clayton, former station controller for BBC Radio Norfolk and BBC Radio Norfolk presenters Maggie Secker and Stephen Bumfrey. Other voices often include Maddermarket Theatre actors.
The charity operates in accordance with Charity Commission guidelines and a committee and trustees are elected annually at an AGM to manage its affairs. The charity operates from premises close to the city centre, which includes well-equipped offices, production area, recording studio. All of the approx. 90-strong staff are volunteers.
The main audio publication since 1979 has been weekly news taken from the Norwich Evening News. A quarterly magazine of local live interviews was added in 1998. In 2013, a further magazine was added taking articles from Newsquest Media’s well-known Norfolk monthly magazine. Since 2016 Just Talk, our in-house entertainment magazine has been recorded monthly. Our quarterly audio magazine, Chataround, has been serving quality interviews and chats with Norfolk people since 2000.
All early recordings were produced on cassette tapes and Chatterbox always provided tape players to make the whole service entirely free of charge. Today, Chatterbox produces recordings using memory sticks and loans all listeners with compatible players.
At a peak, Chatterbox produced over 900 tapes per week!, As technology has changed so too have people's listening habits. the introduction of our website, online publishing and podcasting has cast Chatterbox's recordings across the world. And yet, some 280 local listeners still receive their weekly envelope with familiar voices and news from around the corner!
An independent listener's panel of people who are vision impaired or blind monitors all our recordings and regularly audits them for quality of sound and content.
Chatterbox continues as a friendly association of like-minded people with a strong caring spirit towards listeners and colleagues. For example, photographs of all founder members still hang on the wall of the main production room. Most have now passed away but fond memories remain.
Meg Muggridge MBE (1932 - 2013) was a principal founder who played a significant leadership role at Chatterbox over many years, finally retiring from active service in 2006. She served as chairman several times and also played a major part in promoting Chatterbox on the Norwich scene. Meg was also Chatterbox’s Life President.
Read Meg's history of Chatterbox here