The Alaska SeaLife Center in Seward, AK contracts CRIS to provide 45 smartphone audio exhibits using QR Codes to trigger the tour. The audio tour features three unique elements: native Alaskan voices, the Alaska SeaLife Center’s staff voices, and CRIS Radio’s volunteers’ voice talent.

• The state Dept. of Aging and Disability Services awards CRIS an ARPA (American Rescue Plan Act) grant that significantly expands CRISAccess® Tours and CRISKids® Audio Book Club programs. As a result, CRIS triples the number of children served and provides 10 museums with smartphone audio tours using QR Codes.
• CRIS partners with the Bristol Lions Club and the Town of Bristol to create a smartphone audio tour – using QR Codes – of Bristol’s Veterans Memorial Blvd. The monuments honor veterans who battled in U.S. military conflicts since the Revolutionary War.
• An ARPA (American Rescue Plan Act) grant significantly expands CRISAccess Tours’ and CRISKids Audio Book Club programs.

CRIS provides human-narrated audio versions of The StoryWalk’s display of the children’s book, “Froggy Plays Soccer” at Colt Park in Hartford, Conn. in partnership with the Hartford Public Library, City of Hartford, Cigna, and Hartford Athletics.

CRIS records a smartphone audio tour of the historic Revolutionary War Winter Encampment at Putnam Memorial State Park. Funded by the National Park Service, the project, called the Forgotten Voices of the Revolutionary War, convened a team of 40 historians, archivists, anthropologists, archaeologists, and Central Conn State University masters’ students who researched the unacknowledged roles of women, African Americans, and Native Americans during the Revolutionary War at the winter encampment. The research narratives also were recorded by CRIS and are available at CRISAccess.org. A mobile app was developed for the project.

CRIS records 20 historic documents and makes them available online as part of its Voices of Woman Suffrage project, funded by the William Pomeroy Foundation. A team of historians and archivists researched and transcribed the documents recorded by CRIS Radio, providing access to historic documents otherwise not accessible to individuals who are blind or unable to read due to other disabilities.

The Hartford Foundation for Public Giving selects CRIS Radio for its competitive Social Enterprise Accelerator program to generate earned revenue through our CRISAccess Tour program.

CRIS launches its smartphone CRISAccess Tour at Mark Twain House & Museum.

• Voices of World War I launches as a partnership between the CT State Library and IDEAL Group, funded partly by the National Publications & Records Commission.
• CRIS begins streaming CRIS Radio and CRIS en Español to each patient room at Saint Francis Hospital, Hartford, Conn.
• CRIS celebrates the opening of its Norwalk Studio.

2015
Logo celebrates the CRIS 2015-16 launch of mobile apps.

2014
CRIS offers the nation’s first dedicated stream of Spanish-language magazines.

2013
CRIS partners with Comcast to deliver streaming children’s magazines over the cable network at CT Children’s Medical Center.

CRIS launches CRISAccess as a pilot with Old Sturbridge Village. The service provides audio descriptions of museum exhibits using QR Codes.

2012
CRISKids for Schools kicks off as the nation’s only library of children’s magazines, Common Core materials and customized classroom materials, all in human narration.

2010
CRIS celebrates 30 years and begins planning for enhanced programming and listener options.

2009
CRIS moves into its own, newly constructed broadcast center in Windsor and begins offering its programming on its website, www.crisradio.org

2008
Construction begins on a new building at 315 Windsor Avenue in Windsor.

2006
The Norwich Studio at Three Rivers CC was relocated to the Disabilities Network of Eastern CT in Norwich. CRIS develops plans to build a new broadcast center in Windsor.

2002
CRIS begins the transition from analog to digital recording.

2001
CRIS moves into new offices and studios in Windsor.

2000
CRIS celebrates 20 years of service and institutes its Telephone Reader Service, which allows listeners to hear programs by toll-free phone.

1994
Connecticut Community College instructional television makes CRIS programming available on its secondary audio program (SAP) channel. The Danbury Lions Club partners with CRIS to start a satellite studio in Danbury.

1993
CRIS opens a satellite studio at Three Rivers College in Norwich and adds readings of the Willimantic Chronicle, Norwich Bulletin, and The Day of New London.

1990
Tele-Media Company of Northeastern Connecticut, Cablevision, and United Cable of Eastern CT add CRIS programming. CRIS changes its name from Connecticut Radio Information Service to Connecticut Radio Information System.

1989
Cox Cable and United Cable of Eastern CT begin to carry CRIS. The University of
Bridgeport studio is closed, and CRIS relocates to Trumbull High School.

1988
The University of Connecticut begins carrying CRIS on the subcarrier frequency on its college radio station, WHUS. Continental Cable adds CRIS to its audio channel line-up.

1986
CRIS continues to expand its programming, thanks to the dedication and commitment of numerous volunteers who provide on-air voice talent.

1984
The first regional satellite studio opens in the University of Bridgeport’s North Hall. Readings from the New Haven Journal and the Bridgeport Telegram and Journal are included. CRIS begins to air 24 hours a day.

1983
WPKN in Bridgeport becomes the second station to provide CRIS programming on its subcarrier frequency. Daily programming is increased to 14 hours per day.

1982
CRIS begins broadcasting seven days a week.

1981
CRIS moves into a building behind the Board of Education and Services for the Blind offices in Windsor. It introduces “Bookmark,” a program featuring a New York Times best-selling book, and increases programming to eight hours per day, Monday through Friday.

1979
The first CRIS program broadcast articles featured in the Hartford Courant and a national magazine. Volunteers Alan Sagal, Jim MacPherson, and Ron Milligan shared reading responsibilities for the two-hour broadcast, which was aired on WJMJ’s subcarrier frequency.