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Recoveryspeakers.org is a historical Alcoholics Anonymous Audio Archive which is the result of many years of dedicated effort by a few members of the fellowship. This website is only a small piece of a much larger project.
First, let me tell you about the website. This website is currently offering thousands of downloadable recordings of A.A., Al-Anon, and recovery-related talks. All of these talks are being made available for “free”. We ask only that if you are able to support our project financially, you will please make a contribution. Every little bit helps in this ongoing process. Please tell others about this site, especially those new to recovery. We pray that this project will add to the worldwide resources currently available that are carrying a message of hope to those that still suffer.
We are currently in the process of preserving and restoring the largest historical A.A. & Al-Anon tape library ever assembled. This library was originally known as “The Midwest Tape Library” and conservatively, we estimate that there are over 30,000 individual talks. The majority of these recordings are on old reel-to-reel tapes dating back as far as 1946. We are storing, protecting, and converting all of these recordings to a digital format (wav file) giving us a truly archival quality for preservation. We are then compressing each file into an mp3 format so that it can be downloadable on the internet. Professional quotes given to convert this audio archive have been over a million dollars.
Up to this point the project has been funded by the owner and his family with only a few small donations from some friends in the fellowship. When we began this project several years ago we had no idea what we were getting ourselves into. Please note that this is not a complaint. This has been a privilege and an honor. But we now need your help to keep this project alive.
We are thrilled beyond words to be able to make available almost 5,000 downloadable recordings over the next few months. Some of these recordings have been added to the library over the past few years from various sources. Which means you will be able to find some of the speakers that you currently hear at conventions. About 3,500 of the current database are from the original library.
In the late 1950s Bill & Arbutus O. of Texas began the Midwest Tape Library. The mission that they adopted was “to preserve the history of the fellowship of Alcoholics Anonymous from its inception in 1935 and to continue as an ongoing record. Particular attention has been given to the early pioneers and founders.” Bill and Arbutus relied on the voluntary contributions of members who shared their goals.
Bill O. dedicated nearly his entire 48 years of sobriety to helping to carry the message of hope to alcoholics all over the world. His wife Arbutus is one of the pioneering members of Al-Anon. Many groups and loners alike were assisted in their recovery by using tape recordings provided by Bill & Arbutus. Bill O. had a dream that this library would be available to all future generations of A.A. and Al-Anon and we are working now to complete his mission.
The original library is contained on more than 3,500 reel-to-reel tapes, over 5,000 cassette tapes, and one hundred records. Over the past few years we have slowly begun to digitize the old reel-to-reels and many of the cassettes. This project has not only been very expensive but quite time consuming. The earliest recordings date back to 1946 and include all of the International Conventions and many recordings from other countries. The audio archive is very extensive and also includes talks made at Yale School on Alcoholism. Some of these recordings have never before been made available, including some from pioneering members.
Thus far in the process we have converted more than 3,500 hours of the oldest recordings. We are continuing to work on the conversion of the reels as well as the cassettes.
If you experience a problem downloading a particular talk, or the talk is not complete, please email us the title with the complete file name and we will attempt to either fix it or remove it.
The current files do not list the file size or time length of each talk. It is possible that one talk may be 90 minutes while another might be only 10 minutes. All files have been converted to the smallest size possible without compromising quality in an effort to speed up downloading times. You will find that most talks run 45-70 minutes. Our plan is to launch phase 2 of this website later in 2009 and at that time we hope to be able to indicate in the listing the approximate file size and length of the talk.
As you search our database you will find many interesting talks by members and friends of A.A. in the 50s and 60s. You will be excited to hear interviews of early members and even some rare radio broadcasts.
We ask you to please share this site with your friends and come back often to see what other exciting gems we have found. Remember, this project is a work in progress and it can only happen with your help.
After reviewing our database you may want to share a speaker talk that you have. We welcome all such donations and would be happy to add them to our growing library. We ask that you mail CDs or DVDs to the following address:
RSO
P.O. Box 2736
Chandler, AZ 85244-2736