Aaron Kellar: Owner and Long-Standing Producer/Engineer at VoiceAmerica Discusses Career and 20-Year Working Relationship with Host Joyce Bender

At Highmark Health, we believe what makes us unique makes us better. Our differences broaden our perspectives and foster a variety of skills to complement each other, creating a stronger and more vibrant workforce. It's this belief that earned us recognition as the Best Place to Work for the 10th year for individuals with disabilities in a survey by the American Association of People with Disabilities and Disability:IN. We'll continue to celebrate and benefit from the inclusion of all people. To find out more, visit highmarkhealth.org. Welcome to Disability Matters with your host Joyce Bender. All comments, views, and opinions expressed on the show are solely those of the host, guests, and callers. Now the host of Disability Matters, here's Joyce Bender.

Hi everyone, welcome to Disability Matters with Joyce Bender. I'm so thrilled to have all all of you great listeners. You know, I tell this story, it always changes, but like, I'm at the airport and someone will say, 'You're Joyce Bender, you have that radio show,' and I'm always so thrilled that they know. So I, I told my husband, 'Okay, if I ever want to be secretive, I'll have to like change my voice so the person doesn't recognize me.' But you know, When we started 22 years ago, can you believe it, that this year I have my 1,000th episode? And you know what? I found when it was Motovox, before we were so innovative, so moved forward, they would send CDs. I bet Aaron remembers that, but we would get CDs and I found them the other day, thought, wow. Unbelievable that we used to have CDs of the radio show. But come a long way since then. It's because of you. I have such great listeners. And I get notes from people around the world. How about that? Especially in Brazil. I have a good friend there that is wonderful that works with Johnson Johnson. And if you're listening, I'm saying hello to you. And Gangneung, Cho, and South Korea. But you know what? We have listeners, I was just looking, in like 73 countries. Now, some countries there's one person, that's it. But one person in a small country in Africa can still make a difference. I don't care if it's one, two, I really don't care. I care that you took time to listen. You've got to tell other people because we're on this mission for quality of life for people living with disabilities. You've got to tell them. And hey, I have to have my shout out to Yoshiko Dark. Hello, Yoshiko. I bet you can't believe that we've come to the end of a year and here you've been on for years with that shout out. I've told you before, Yoshiko is the wife and she is a widow of the late, great Justin Dart Jr. And you know, you've heard me say this for years. I want disability to be part of history. Right now, you know, walk down the street, "Hey, who's Justin Dart?" A lot of people will say, "I don't know." But we all know, we know in the disability community. And we know what a great man he was. And so every time I do this, I'm just reminding teachers and educators, we need to get this in schools. And a special shout out to Highmark. Oh my goodness, what a great company they are. They have been, you know, lead sponsor for all these years and the month of January 2026 is going to be Highmark month. You know, here they are, a $14 billion company, soon to be larger because they are acquiring Kansas City Blue Cross Blue Shield. And CEO David Holmberg, President Karen Hanlon, Chief Human Capital Officer Larry Kliman, CEO of AHN that they own are all going to be on. I mean, these are the people at the top, the highest you can go. That shows you how dedicated they are to this radio show and to all of you. So I must tell you, I was like really thrilled today about this radio show because I have the owner of Voice America Media and long, long, long, long time friend. And yes, he was my engineer for years. I'm so proud of him that, you know, he's in this role now. And here he is with us today. Welcome to the show, Aaron Keller.

Thank you so much, Joyce. It's a pleasure to be here.

Well, it's a pleasure to have you. I have you on my show and you're not the other end. You're not— you are actually the guest. Um, but I want to start with your story. You've heard me tell this many times, but listeners, uh, around the world, they want to know about the person. You know, they can send me a note even in the United States and say, oh, that was a great show, but they want to know more about the person. So let's hear your story. Tell our listeners about you and your journey.

Yeah, so, um, it's kind of funny. I never really considered broadcasting when I was a kid as a, as a career path, as something I'd be interested in. But I was always into technology and there was a job fair at my local college where I was just doing my academics. And my mom goes, "Oh, you know, you might be interested in broadcasting. Look at all this technology over there." So just to appease her, I walked over there and I started talking to people and I actually got genuinely interested. I was like, "This is really cool. I like these mixing boards and, you know, all these mics and all this different audio equipment that you have to work with." I liked learning about all the processes behind it. And I told my mom, you know what, Mom, for the millionth time, you were right. This is really cool. You've got me figured out. So I did my academics at Lorain Community College out here in Ohio. And then I moved on to a place called Ohio Center for Broadcasting, which is now known as Ohio Media— Ohio Media School. Out in Independence, Ohio, and I did a course there where they actually taught. It's basically like a trade school, but for broadcasting. It's very cool. They have actual broadcasters as teachers at the school, and we get to learn firsthand what the industry was looking like, the technology they used. We got to use— we did mock news sections where we each had a role in a fake newsroom, and we did like a whole newscast at the end of the year. That was our big year-long project. Project. And I just, I fell in love with broadcasting through all of the, the work there. And then I got an internship at WTAM 1100 working for Bob France and Mike Trevisano. It was really, really cool. They would let me on air occasionally, so I got to crack the mic, as they say in the industry, and, and I got to run some different boards. For the show. Um, and then my parents had moved to, uh, Page, Arizona, uh, because my mom had gotten a job teaching there. She had been looking for a teaching position, so they moved out there. I was all alone here. It was just, uh, my brother and I. And, uh, broadcasting is a really hard industry to break into. At the time, it was oversaturated. Uh, so I had to kind go where the work was. And my parents had mentioned, hey, you know, Page is a town of 7,000 people. We have been talking with the owner of this small mom-and-pop radio station out here called Jack FM, Lake Powell Communications, and she would love to meet you. And I said, okay, well, I'll move down there. You know, that's where the work is. So I got a job there. I was there for, I think, 2 years as the production assistant.. And I did a stint as the news director there. That was a lot of fun. So I got to see like different facets of the whole talk radio sphere. I also got to go on air. There was a segment called Bids for Bargains where we would announce people bidding on different things and it was a bidding war. So I was like the auctioneer, but on the radio it was really cool. We were getting live call-ins and I'd have to announce the quickest bid. And, you know, the love for broadcasting just even further from there. Um, I probably would have stayed there if it wasn't for the cost of living out there in Page. You know, if you don't own a business out there, you really— it's a tourist town, so you really have to have good finances to stay out there. Um, so I moved to Phoenix with my girlfriend at the time, and I got a just a stepping stone job as a delivery driver to pay the bills, uh, delivering food at a place called Bite Me Subs. Casey Trump, who was an executive producer at Voice America at the time, on one fateful day ordered a Philly cheesesteak and I was the delivery driver for it. I got back to the sandwich shop, I was just about to clock out, my boss said, "Hey, can you run one more for me real quick? Brian's running late." I said, "Yeah," and I'm glad I did because that ticket said Voice America. I said, "What is that? I don't know where that is." put it in my GPS and hope I can find it. I get there, it says WorldTalk Radio on the door, and I said, well, maybe that's, you know, maybe that's the company, maybe it's Voice America inside. And sure enough, it was. I gave Tacy the, the bag of her food, and then I looked around and I said, this is— what is this? This is really cool. I see all the plaques on the wall of all the hosts that have been there. I see the studio off to my right with someone recording in there. I see the control room. And I asked Stacy, I said, what do you guys do here? This is neat. And she told me, and I said, are you guys hiring? And she goes, you know what, let me, let me find out. And I had happened to have a resume, a stack of my resumes just ready. I'm always prepared. I had them in my car. I ran out, grabbed my resume, gave it to her. 2 weeks later, a man named Ryan Treasure, who is the VP of broadcast operations for Voice America, called me and said, hey, I'd like you to come in for an interview. So I interviewed with him. Uh, during that interview, he called Matt into the room. I got to meet both of them. And I mean, the rest is history. He hired me on the spot there. I worked as a board operator and audio engineer for, I wanna say, 8 years. Um, and then they promoted me to, uh, client success coordinator and then, um, technical operations director, I think a few months later, maybe, maybe a year. It's all very blurry. But after that, the VP of broadcast operations had stepped down. And when he did, I took that spot and was technical operations director up until the owner— let me back up a little bit. The original owner, Jeff Spinard, had passed in 2021, I believe it was.

Yeah.

Ownership transferred to a silent partner, and that silent partner had decided that he needed to focus on some other things. And he had seen that I was capable and passionate enough to keep this company going, and he wanted that because he was great friends with Jeff as well. Jeff was a phenomenal guy. And one day while we were sitting at a burger joint, he tells me, he's like, you know, I think you have what it takes to to own this place. And, um, I, I sat there shocked, just eating my cheeseburger, just chewing away. And as soon as I swallowed, I was still speechless for probably about another minute. And he's just staring at me smiling. And I'm like, I have to say something. And I, I looked at him, I said, I— this feels like I'm going to wake up. I feel like I'm dreaming. I don't know what to say. I started getting choked up. Um, and then I told him, I said, yeah, I would love to. That would be amazing. It'd be a dream. I had always told my then-girlfriend Shante at the time, you know, if I ever get put into a position of power within the company where I can effectively make some real change, I'm going to flip the company on its head and I'm going to put out all these innovations and enhancements and it's going to be unrecognizable. And here's this guy giving me the opportunity to do just that and own the company. Um, so, you know, fast forward a few months later, uh, he shuts down his portion and transfers everything over to me. Uh, I have now been the owner of Voice America Media. Uh, we rebranded it to Voice America Media. It was Voice America. Um, we did Voice America Media because I wanted to explore all, all facets of the broadcasting industry, and media encompasses all of that, where I think Voice America is just audio. Now we have video capabilities, so it's really sticking to the, to the brand of media. So I've been owner of Voice America Media since January 1st of this year. It feels like it was just 2 months ago. This year has flown by. It has kept me very, very, very busy, but it's a great busy. We have an absolutely phenomenal team supporting us. I want to give a shout out to Matt, who's running the show right now. Matt Widener, who is our studio operations manager, and he's phenomenal at everything he does for us. He's great with the clients. Same goes for Jordan Henson. Harrison Ide, who is our marketing coordinator and creative director, handles our graphics, our social media, our promotion, our marketing. He wears a lot of hats in this, and he even fills in as engineer from time to time. And of course, Sandra Rogers, who has been a great partner in this. Our network director, and Diana Garcia, who's been keeping me on the straight and narrow with, with finances as well. So great team supporting us. It's, it's not just me. I want to make sure that that's clear, that I would not have been able to achieve what we have achieved together without this team.

Well, I'm not surprised to hear you say that. See, I want to tell all of you listening to the show First of all, this is a great career if you're interested in something like, you know, going into broadcasting. But if you are an entrepreneur, such as a disability-owned business entrepreneur like me, but some have very, you know, large companies. I just want to say though, if you're thinking of going into a podcast, You can't go wrong with Aaron Keller. You can't. I, I'm here because of him. I could have left, but I stayed because of him, because he was always there for me. Always, always. Just like in a second he was getting back to me. He's really a good person. But this show, I have had senators on, as Aaron knows. I have had celebrities on. I have had authors on. And you My show is shared with other people. They share it on LinkedIn and, you know, all different places. The woman, Molly Burke, who is going to be on some shows as a co-host or co-anchor, is an author and a model. And she has like a zillion, maybe, I don't know, 4 million people following her. On Instagram on her page. People like that are sharing this show. So I'm telling you that because it's, you know, if you have a message like mine you want to get out, but just helping your business, you really, really should look into this. And Aaron, if someone is listening and they are interested, how would they get in touch with you?

So they can go to joinvoiceamerica.com. And there's a section there that has— I think it says become a host or learn more, something like that. And when they click that, there's a contact form that they can fill out and that will go to our senior executive producer, Sandra Rogers, and then she will reach out or I will reach out and get in touch with them. And we'd love to— we'd love to learn, you know, what messages are out there that people want to promote. We'd love to help with that.

And from a business perspective, I mean, I've had all these CEOs on. Yeah, I mean, this really has been great for my business also. Just like the month of January, as I was saying earlier, Highmark, the CEO, president, all of them are going to be on that month because I call it Highmark Month. So now look, they have supported me, but I just want to tell you, you can get additional sponsors. So I'm just saying, this is something you really should look into. I love Voice America Media, and I would endorse this to anyone. So Aaron, as I said, I at one time had CDs during Motovox days. So what was like the history here of Voice America Media? How did it go from Motovox to voiceamerica.com and now Voice America Media. What changed?

So I don't know the full story of Motovox. I was told it multiple times. I just couldn't remember. But Motovox was its initial inception. Motovox was, I believe, the silent partner's company. And then Jeff Spinard came in with Voice America. And then after Jeff Spinard passed, that's when it became Voice America Media when I took over.

Mm-hmm. Yeah. And what has it seemed like to you since you were there, the transition or the changes? What, what has stood out the most to you?

So I think just being in the position to make the changes, you know, I'm the one researching, I'm the one looking at how can we improve this, what can we do for our hosts here? It really opened my eyes to a lot of potential that had not been taken advantage of for many, many years. It seemed like we had just had this consistent model, which was a great model, a working model, but it didn't evolve with the industry. And this is a fast, rapidly evolving industry, and I wanted to make sure that we stayed at the forefront of it. So when we looked at everything that we had been doing, we took a look in granular detail at what's working, what's not, and what we can actually capitalize on to drive even more value. And we cut, you know, we trimmed the waste, we trimmed the fat of what wasn't working, and we reinvested those resources into things that we think the industry is going, such as this video capability that we have now. A lot of people didn't use the e-cards that we had because they weren't guest-centric. Of course, you want your guests to be able to promote your show, and in order to incentivize them to do that, you their picture right there and, you know, their big bio. And we decided just to recreate the e-cards from scratch and then put all of those out into a customizable format so that people can brand it around their specific brand. So just looking at everything that, that the industry is doing and the direction that it's heading and aligning Voice America Media with that direction. Has been the goal since I took over and just making sure that we have the infrastructure and the resources to support it.

That is great. You have done a great job. I love that it's on YouTube now. I always tell my guests, I'll say, get ready, this is like CNN. You're going to see the news people on there. But I do, I love that. And it's great for my guests also. You know, I mean, have you been getting a lot of comments from the host now that it's on YouTube?

Oh, absolutely. So the most comments I get is how dynamic it is. You know, it feels like a real live production now because you're not just— it's not just audio. People get to see the person behind the mic. There's personality that's given to the episode, to the show now, whereas if it was just audio, it's just, you know, another, another track that you're listening to on your iPod or even iPods anymore, on your iPhone or your iPad. But yeah, so it's a lot different from just listening.

It is. I like it. I like it a lot. And by the way, if you go to YouTube, Disability Matters with Joyce Bender, you too can see the show. I don't know, Aaron, is there an easier way or just go to YouTube and put my name in?

Well, the easiest way is we recommend people go to voiceamerica.com and then click on the Variety Channel at the top, and then you can click the big black box that says Voice America Live, and that will take you right to our YouTube channel where they can click the live stream.

Oh, okay. Well, there you go. I'll be telling that to everyone. So, Aaron, I wanted to talk to you about, first of all, how many hosts do you have right now? And like, how, how does this work? How does this— people ask me all the time, well, how does this work? And I'll say, Oh, ask Aaron Keller. He'll tell you how it works. But you know, how does this whole world of podcasting work? And do you see this in the future, like, taking over a lot of things? Because frequently on the news, they'll say so-and-so podcaster. I mean, really give that person a lot of credibility. What do you see as the future here of podcasting? And tell us how it works.

Yeah. So to answer your first question, we have about 70 shows now, 70 active weekly shows. Some of them are also monthly. We have monthly options as well, but some of them are live like on YouTube and some of them are just managed podcasts where they just do audio based on, you know, if they don't want to be on, on camera or what have you. And how it all works is just, you know, you have a message you want to get out to the world. You have a brand or a business you want to promote, or you just want to get on there and talk, we're happy to be part of that. And the way we do that is we are a full-service suite of, of options across the broadcasting industry. So we start creating your graphics, make sure that you have the banner that you're envisioning from the very beginning. And then we also create the scripts for the show. And that means like the open that says, welcome to Disability Matters with Joyce Bender. The close, thanks for tuning in today. Rejoin, feel free to join us and email us here at blah, blah, blah. Now back to the show. And then we also create up to 2 30-second commercials or a 60-second commercial for them. We do the full production with 10 different voice talents to choose from, male and female, different inflections for people to choose from so that it can match the tone and represent them in the way that they want to be represented. And then we have a library of over 12 million music tracks, royalty-free, that people can choose from to use as the theme for their show. That's just the very beginning. That's the core offering that we have. The rest is people are there to record with you, like Matt is recording the show right now. So we've got two engineers, Matt and Jordan, that are ready to record. He is right now monitoring for my dog to bark or a siren to go wailing in the background, and he'll write that down. As an edit note, and then he will, uh, after this show, go in and edit it and take out whatever he can. Um, if I were to cough, he would do the same. And Matt, I'll tell you, I'm fighting one right now, so be ready. Um, but yeah, it's, it's, uh, it's great because they have that live support the whole way through. If something were to happen, if we got disconnected, Matt would be on it doing his best to, uh, to get the guests back, whether that's you know, calling them up on the phone and giving them a new Zoom link or whatever it could be. That's what the engineers are there for, full support. And then their, their support doesn't just end after the show ends. You can send them files and they can get it ready. They're there in the background all day, every day, working around the clock to get everything ready for shows. Like if you were to prerecord, they would be there to support that. And then we also have our creative director and marketing coordinator Harrison. Who is absolutely fantastic at what he does. So he creates those graphics that I mentioned earlier, but he also does marketing. He comes up with campaigns around Twitter and Facebook and Instagram and LinkedIn. He aligns your brand with our promotions so that it's supplemental to what you're already promoting, increasing the impact. He works through different social medias. He does press releases. Um, really just trying to make sure we affect every single aspect, uh, to get your show and your message out to the world. So that's the core. Those are the core, uh, services that we offer. Um, we have some extra features that we added this year to, uh, the Voice America Media website that we've never had. Um, on the back end, hosts now have access to IAB-certified analytics.. And these are completely accessible 24/7. They're updated every 24 hours so that you can really dive in granular detail and see exactly what my show's performance is like. You can look at different episodes and say, okay, this is working, this isn't. And then you can kind of gauge your performance and strategize around what's working, what's not. We also have the option for people to leave reviews directly on Apple Podcasts and Spotify through Voice America Media now through a 5-star standard rating system. There are options for newsletters to be linked on the website. So if people have a newsletter they want to get out to the world, they can link that in to their show page. And everybody gets their own show page on voiceamerica.com. So that show page consists of an embed player that people can embed, and that is a Libsyn player, which is very industry standard. Libsyn is fantastic. They can download the episode directly from the player. They can share it directly from the player. And then on that show page, it has all your episodes that you've ever done. And you click that, you can see all the info that you've entered for the show's description, the picture of the guest, and anything else that you've chosen to upload for it. So it's very, very easy for the host to use, very, very easy for the listeners to leave reviews and listen to the shows. And of course, we're syndicated across Amazon Music, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and iHeartRadio, just as the core offerings for syndication. And then, of course, organically, the show gets picked up across other platforms like Deezer and Gaana and so on and so forth. So we have a great network infrastructure for supporting the show from the creation of the show to the production of the show to the promotion of the show and even further with continued supplemental promotion. So That is essentially what Voice America Media stands for and what we do.

Great. Well, remember, Erin, I told you we have this new superstar news anchor that's so famous because we have news on the half hour. And here we are with Mathis on the Mic with Jennifer Mathis. Jennifer, how are you?

I'm good, thank you. Happy to be here.

Happy to have you here. Aaron is the owner of Voice America Media at his young age, and, uh, he has been with me before he moved into this prominent role as the engineer for a long time. So that's why before we started, I was telling him about you and how honored we are to have you. Jennifer. And you know, even before, uh, we start, I want to extend from Voice America Media, Bazelon, and Bender my condolences to the Reiner family. I know that, uh, such a good man, such a caring family. And I just want to send on behalf of all of us my sympathies and best to everyone in the family. There is no— there are no words. This is what I always tell people when there's a tragedy like that. There are no words. But I will say that we have the same. Isn't it terrible that I also have to extend my sympathies to the families in Australia. And then again, to the people at Brown University. I hate the day that is here that I have to say that, you know, to so many people. And Jennifer Mathis on the mic. Jennifer, I know you feel the same way.

Absolutely. It's heartbreaking. So many tragedies.

It really is. So Jennifer, what news do you have for us today?

So I would like to highlight a letter that was sent yesterday by 5 senators to Secretary Kennedy of the Health and Human Services agency around A new policy. It's not that new. I think it was a policy that was effectuated in, in August or September, an HR policy. But what is new is, I think, how it is being interpreted by at least certain parts of HHS with respect to telework or remote work as a reasonable accommodation for employees with disabilities. And this is something that there have been a bunch of press reports about. It seems like there are a lot of different interpretations potentially among different parts of HHS about this policy. There have been press reports that at the CDC, Centers for Disease Control, that employees have been told that if they have remote work that was approved as an accommodation, that that approval is now going to be withdrawn and that they would have to resubmit their request for the same accommodation and that there would be, from what the press reports say, a lengthy waiting period during which, for months potentially, during which people would be expected to not work remotely and to come into the office regardless of whether they needed that as an accommodation for their disability and whether it had been previously approved as an accommodation for their disability for those people in those jobs. So, um, this letter from, uh, Senator Kaine and Senator Warnock and 3 other senators, the Maryland senators, um, uh, Senators Van Hollen and also Brooks and, and Mark Warner, um, raises concerns about this issue and highlights a number of specific people who they have heard about who have been impacted by this. So they talk about disabled veteran with PTSD whose telework accommodation was denied and then approved and then denied again, and it has no clear guidance now on what to do. Another employee who sought a telework accommodation due to his PTSD— actually, I shouldn't say his, I think it's unclear— but an employee who sought telework as an accommodation for PTSD after the attack on the CDC that happened last summer and who was threatened with demotion from a supervisory position if they pursued that accommodation request. And they previously had that accommodation. So there— these are a couple of examples. There are more examples in the letter. The senators are asking the HHS Secretary for a lot of information about this to understand exactly what's going on and who may have been denied and why, and whether people are in fact waiting for months now for new approvals of accommodations that had already been approved. What's happening with new requests for remote work as an accommodation? But if in fact people are being asked to wait for months to continue receiving the same accommodation that had already been approved for them and to have the prior approval rescinded just because, as a matter of policy, obviously that would present significant concerns under the law, under Section 501 of the Rehabilitation Act. That requires federal agencies to provide reasonable accommodations to people with disabilities, to their employees with disabilities. In fact, it requires more than nondiscrimination. It requires the federal government to take affirmative action to ensure it's hiring people with disabilities and to serve as a model employer for people with disabilities. So, I hope that we will understand more about what's going on and be able to resolve the concerns, but this is pretty significant, so I wanted to highlight that.

I have a couple questions here. Now, with— is this people that are already employed?

Well, it sounds like they are raising concerns about both people who are— yes, people, people who are already employed.

Who—

okay, raising concerns about people who already had accommodations approved and also people who are newly requesting accommodations.

Okay, so what I'm meaning, the person will say, "I have epilepsy." So let's say it's a person working from home because they cannot drive a car. So now they've been working remotely, all of a sudden they get this from the company, or the government, whatever, that you have to come back to work, but they are going to deny the accommodations. Is that only in the federal government, or is that also the private sector?

Well, it's not— I mean, what we know right now is it appears to be happening in the federal government. They wouldn't say, I think, that they're denying it. They would say that they are withdrawing the approval of the accommodations that had been granted already and reassessing it. But apparently, if reports are accurate, requiring people to go through a very, very lengthy period of time during which this reassessment would happen, and in the meantime not having the accommodation. So that is happening not across the federal government, as far as we know. It is happening, I think the report reports have been, and the letter indicates that it is part of HHS, and I think the press reports have indicated CDC is the place where I think the reports have been that this is specifically happening.

Terrible, terrible, terrible. That would prevent people that need a personal attendant or people with epilepsy or so many things. So, okay, so what can our listeners—

and to be clear, what it is is not all accommodations. It is this remote work as an accommodation. That is the piece that they are focused on. So I think what people can do is, I think if this is something that you are experiencing, I mean, frankly, if you've experienced the denial of an accommodation that you believe is needed and appropriate and reasonable, then You should always, you know, reach out for help, and you can do a number of things. You know, you can go to your protection and advocacy agency in your state. I think that's often the best place to start to try to get help. If you work in the federal government in particular, I think right now it seems like because of what is reportedly happening within HHS, within the CDC, if people are experiencing denials or withdrawals of approvals, of prior approvals of remote work as an accommodation, please let people know. I think, you know, people should— they can contact their protection and advocacy agency. They can contact other disability rights groups, the Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund, the Baselon Center, National Disability Rights Network. I think all of us are monitoring this. All of us are interested. And I think also people should— we can do this for people, but the senators who wrote this letter should know if people are being denied remote work as an accommodation in the federal government, right?

One other thing, go to the media, go to your local news, go to the newspaper. You don't know how often I hear right here in Pittsburgh on the news about different topics. Hey, if you have any news about that, you know, get in touch with us. That's something I would do. But Jennifer, we're going to look forward to having you on our year-end show as we always do. Uh, but Jennifer Mathis at Bazelon, uh, Center, and that's bazelon.org, is that right? Yes, B-A-Z as in zebra, E-L-O-N. Go there, you can make a donation today because we want to keep Mathis on the mic here. All right, Jennifer, have a great day.

Thank you so much. Bye-bye.

Bye. Erin, do you know, and you can talk about this sometime on Voice America Media, that we are the only place in the world that has a weekly show on current news that impacts people with disabilities? No other place but Voice America Media. How about that?

Yep, yep, absolutely.

Yeah, that, that is a, that is a wonderful thing. Um, okay, well, I have to— before I have other questions, but before I do all that, I do have to ask you something. I, I, you know, you gave that example with your family and how they got you interested in this overall, Aaron. Who is your role model?

My parents, for sure. Just knowing everything they've done for me, I couldn't, I couldn't pick anyone better. Like, my dad worked his butt off to provide for us, and he was still always able to make, you know, my events at school and everything else. He always prioritized me and my brother over anything else in life. My mother made a lot of sacrifices in her job to stay home with me and, you know, raise me and my brother. I am forever thankful for them, and I look up to them. If I were to have my own family, I would— they would be my first avenue to reach out to and say, how did you do it? How did you raise me? Because I was a monster growing up. I don't know how they deal with how they dealt with me. But, uh, yeah, definitely my parents.

Well, you know what, if I would be talking to them, I would say you did a great job. You did a great job. Uh, so Aaron, we're talking— I, I mean, I just— look, you can even come here for the news. This is such a great thing you can do. Um, you told us how to reach out to become a host.

Yes, I actually want to clarify that on that real quick. Go ahead. If you go to joinvoiceamerica.com, joinvoiceamerica.com, and then click Contact Us in the top right, that'll pop up with the form at the bottom that they can fill out and we'll reach back out.

You want to tell that one more time?

Yep. Joinvoiceamerica.com, click on the Contact Us tab at the top right, and then scroll to the bottom and fill out that form and we'll reach back out to them.

Um, and you know what, the host on Voice America, they, you know, sometimes they have each other on their show, but this show became so well known that a podcaster in Chicago had me on her show, and then I had her on my show. So, you know, this really, really is a great thing, and it really gets around. Here's someone that did ask me What does it take to be a host? I mean, what are the credentials the person has to have?

So I would say credentials, you know, we want to help as many people as possible. We say very few nos to people. And that is because everybody that applies has something that they're passionate about, that they want to talk about, they want to get out to the world. We are a free speech platform. We don't censor anything, but we also want to keep things, you know, non-offensive. In any way, shape, or form. So as long as they've got, I'd say, a good head on their shoulders and they've got that message that they want to come with, reach out to us. We would love to talk with you.

And what is the difference between, you know, do they have to have an entire setup? I mean, can they just do this the way I am right now, which is with the camera on my laptop talking to you through Zoom. What, what, what are— are there different ways?

Oh yeah.

As I recall, though, it's kind of hard on a cell phone.

Yes. Yes. We don't recommend cell phones. The best way to do it is if they have a computer, they can hook up a headset or we recommend buying a Blue Yeti microphone. Blue is the brand. Doesn't— the color doesn't matter. But it's called Blue. They get a Yeti microphone. It's like $120, might be a little bit more nowadays, but it's a great budget microphone. It has all the settings that they need to get started. And then of course, just a pair of headphones. And the headphones just serve the purpose of making sure that the sound doesn't come out of the speakers and feedback into the mic. It's going right into their ears. Headsets are good too, like you've got. If you have a decent headset, then headsets are okay. If you're more comfortable leaning back, like I am. I like to lean back and, you know, kind of showcase Voice America Media every so often. So it's really not— if they're just trying to do it like a hobby, it's really not going to cost them a whole lot of money or resources. If they have a good internet connection, that's the only other thing that I would say. Make sure they're hardwired if they can be. If they have a great Wi-Fi connection, great. That's good too. Um, but hardwired is best. And, um, really just making sure that, you know, they're working with the engineers to understand how to use it all, because we're, we're, we're gonna train them. We, they would have a one-on-one training with me when they come on board. And, uh, I always make the joke, we're, we'll be here till 2:00 AM, uh, until you have no more questions, cuz I'm gonna make sure that you're fully confident in your ability to host and use this equipment. So, um, Those are the, those are the main things that they need. You can go a little bit more in depth with it. If someone wants like pristine audio quality, they can get an interface, they can get a mixing board, and they can really dress it up and get this $2,000 microphone on a mic arm that hangs down. You know, we have professional podcasters out there like, like Joe Rogan, who's the number one podcast right now that does that. But for most people, just a simple headset. Microphone and headphones is just all you need.

Yeah, yeah, I'm not to his level yet, Aaron.

We'll get you there.

So Aaron, you know, look, you've done so much and you're so excited to be in this role. So what are some of your plans, some things you want to see happen over the next couple years at Voice America?

Well, for sure, I want Voice America Media to be the number one place, uh, for people to host a podcast and a live internet radio show. I want the effect— I want it to be the Voice America Media effect. That's what I call it. I want you to go to somebody and say, oh yeah, you want to be on my show? I'm on the Voice America Media Network. And they immediately gasp and go, you're on the Voice America Media Network? We want to be a household name within 5 years, earlier if possible. I would like to host and produce The official podcast awards. I'd like to create that and really get our name and our credibility out there and really get some more infrastructure to support that. Really just capitalizing on the channels that we have now, adding some new channels. I would like to launch a faith channel that is— I'm in talks with my local church at partnering with them to launch that. So We'll see if anything comes of that. We want to continue to add more features to the website and we are doing that just about every few weeks, trying to make sure that everything is integrated with all the new technologies that are coming out. Of course, AI is the big buzzword these days. I am a big proponent of AI as long as it's not replacing, you know, our team because you cannot replace this wonderful team, but really just taking advantage of all the resources that are coming out in the technology space to get to those goals.

Yeah, well, first of all, that would be great if you got that. Everything you said is great. It would be great if you got that new chat, that new channel, that Faith-Based Channel. I'm sure you would get a very large listening audience to that. Uh, but you have, I would say, a myriad of different types of shows— medical, uh, legal, financial, uh, just fun shows. Wouldn't you say it's pretty much across the board?

Yeah, absolutely. So we've got 3 different channels. We have Variety, which you're on, which we're on right now, um, which has anything and everything under the sun. Um, we've got Business, which is like, you know, your financial shows, um, and your entrepreneurs, um, things of that nature. And then of course we've got the, uh, Empowerment Show, which has your medical shows and your spiritual shows. That's where we would currently put spiritual shows, uh, and like, uh, your healing shows would go on there as well. So most of our— well, all of our shows are either assigned one of those categories, uh, and then adding that Faith Channel would just allow us to, you know, increase that, uh that with that broad spectrum of shows that we can offer.

And to know what, when, what shows are available, like, oh, I want to start listening to a podcast, you just go to Voice America Media and you can see on the website all different types of shows. Is that correct?

That's correct. That's correct. So there, as soon as they get to the home page, they're going to see all the podcasts that we have. If they are looking for a specific genre, I would recommend clicking the Variety, Business, or Empowerment channel up at the top, and then they can break down what kind of show they want to listen to from there. There's about 20 to 30 podcasts on each channel. They just scroll down below that live button once they've clicked the channel and they can see all those shows associated on that channel.

Well, you know what, Aaron, we just like had a show that could be your marketing show. Because you talked about so many great things. And I just want to say again, I really endorse Aaron because he was— for those of you with disabilities around the world, the United States— he was always behind me. Always, always, always. That means you have to tell other people to listen to VoiceAmericaMedia.com, Aaron Keller. Owner, chairman, CEO, the whole shebang, the big Greek pooba. Uh, Aaron, it was a pleasure to have you on.

Joyce, the pleasure was all mine. I was so excited to receive that invitation from you. Thank you so much. It's been great.

Yeah, it was great to have you, and you better have this out on your website the way I tell all of our other guests. Now go put that on your website so people can show it share it with others. And Matt, there's Matt. He's right on target with his 4 minutes, 3 minutes, 2 minutes. He is the man. He is, he is so awesome.

Matt, thank you so much.

Yeah, we end every show, every show with a quote. And today that quote is growing your podcast audience isn't just about reaching more people. It's about connecting with the right people who resonate with your message, said Jarden Barbinger. And you know what? Isn't that the truth? It is about connecting, making a difference. That's what it's about. So in the words of Mary Brooker, as we close the show today, remember, when you get up tomorrow morning Choose joy. You can't go wrong. This is Joyce Bender, America's Voice, where disability matters, at voiceamerica.com. Talk to you all next week.

Voice America would like to thank you for tuning in. Please join Join us next Tuesday at 11 AM Pacific time and 2 PM Eastern time for another installment of Disability Matters right here on the Voice America Variety Channel. We are the leader in live internet talk radio. VoiceAmerica.com.