A network built for people with hearing loss

Our Mission

American Abilities is a broadcast, internet and media provider. Our mission is to create and distribute informational and educational programming and material for people with hearing loss and those associated with people with hearing loss.

Our goal is to become a credible and reliable major media source — not only stimulating awareness of hearing-loss issues, prevention, coping and advocacy, but also promoting good overall medical health and well-being.

The Founder's Story

Richard J. McCollough, M.Ed. is a 35-year veteran of television and radio broadcasting. He has worked at NBC, ABC, CBS and PBS affiliates in Baltimore, Washington DC, Los Angeles, Cincinnati, Spartanburg SC and Rochester, NY — and has been honored with 39 industry awards for his work on documentaries and television programs.

In 2002, as he was about to retire from WHEC-TV 10 NBC as Chief Meteorologist in Rochester, New York, McCollough pondered what to do with the rest of his life. Upon careful reflection, he resolved to use his talents in broadcasting and production to create a broadcast/internet service specializing in news and information of interest to people with hearing loss. American Abilities Television Network would be to people with hearing loss the way CNN and FOX are to news, ESPN is to sports, The Weather Channel is to weather and Nickelodeon is to kids.

The network is based in Rochester, New York — a city with one of the highest concentrations of people with hearing loss in the nation and a longstanding reputation in the deaf and hearing-loss world going back over 160 years. In its years on the air, American Abilities Television Network has established itself as a major media source on hearing loss and developed an alliance with major hospitals, educational institutions, and national and grassroots organizations.