Sunday, October 27, 2013

ERRATA

Since the FLQ crisis occurred in 1970, the tape of 1050 CHUM mentioned in a previous post is from the day before Thanksgiving, 1970, not 1971 as previously stated. The Alex Horton Blog regrets the error.

Friday, October 18, 2013

AN INTENSE SERIOUS WEEKEND OF DXING

Thanksgiving weekend was definitely one of the highlights of this dxer's hobby.

It started Thursday afternoon, as all weekends should. On "World of Radio", Glen Hauser mentioned tuning one of his I'm sure many radios to 87.75 FM to pick upthe audio from a Mexican television channel 6.

That night, I tuned my fancy portable shortwave to the same frequency and was able to hear the audio from CJOH-tv's Deseronto transmitter on Channel 6.

I continued to tune around the bands and picked up:

89.5 CIUT Toronto with "Higher Ground Radio", later with the end of some other show, an ad for Canzine and into BBC news.

90.5 WBER Rochester with the mayor of Nickville with Primus "Jerry Was A Race Car Driver", then letting us know Dr. Spin, the intern, would be taking over from him for the rest of the night.

107.7 WLKK Buffalo, now with alternative rock after switching from simulcasting WBEN.

I was also able to pick up one of the WRVO stations which meant I was finally able to catch "Tuned To Yesterday", the successor to "The WRVO Playhouse." Thank goodness! I could finally get that good feeling.

The broadcast included the feature "Soundbeats" which was about the Belfer audio archive, then into NPR news. Later with "The Whistler", I believe from 1955 doing a story they'd originally done in 1948.

Friday morning, probably in an efert to avoid some CBC retardity, I tuned up the dial on my sterio and picked up 99.1 CHRI Ottawa. Though this obviously indicated conditions were excellent, I could not DX that morning because I had work to do on the computer.

As compensation, CHRI proved to be a very interesting radio station. When I tuned in, they were broadcasting a local program. Then, "Haven Now." After this, another local show, "The Inside Track On Real Estate.; then two hour-long syndicated Christian music shows,: "Soul To Soul" and "CCM Magazine." After this at noon, news and a lunchtime request show. A welcome break from UCB's boring fair.

CHRI's signal finally began to seriously fade out around 1:00 so I tuned up the dial and listened to WDCX Buffalo with "Breakpoint" and Dave Ramsey.

Friday night I decided to tune around the FM band again and picked up:

88.5 WRUR Rochester with "Blacks In Blues."

107.7 WLKK Buffalo with alternative rock.

I also tuned back into 89.9 and heard "Q" at 9:00. I thought, "How in the world am I picking up an Atlantic CBC affiliate from southeastern Ontario." It turned out that WRVO (can't remember which specific station is on 89.9) was broadcasting the Friday evening edition of that program.

"Tuned To Yesterday" came on at 10:00 with "Exploring Tomorrow" from 1958. In the 11:00 Mark Levonier promised programs including "Hollywood Hotel" and "The Comic Weekly Man", which he played a clip of.

Saturday morning was a definite bright spot in my DXing life as well. Highlights included:

89.5 CIUT Toronto with "Clave", the always abulient Jacqueline playing older-style Latin American music and talking about an upcoming event for the Hispanic community, mentioned they needed volunteers.

Jazz 90.1 Rochester with German show.

91.5 WXXI-fm Rochester with "Fascinatin Rhythm." Quite a fascinating show indeed, talking about ragtime with lots of cool information and mostly modern versions of ragtime songs.

93.5 WBLK Buffalo with female anncer Jazzy T and rap music.

94.3 WIYY Rochester with commercial for baby expo.

102.9 CKLH Hamilton with ID. I don't think I've ever logged any Hamilton FM stations where I live before. I've picked up CKPC-fm Brantford on a number of occasions but have never logged any of the four commercial FMers from Hamilton.

105.3 CFCA Kitchener with ID. Another first-time catch from a city I've never logged from my homebase before.

105.9 WJZR Syracuse with anncer and jazz music. A very interesting first-time catch.

It was a DX weekend for the logbooks, that's for sure.

Wednesday, October 16, 2013

INTERNET STUFF

I like the new design of Wattpad. Quite handy to be able to browse by category.

I also like the new design of RBN's site. It just looks a whole lot better, and the buttons are labelled on the Flash player so that's good, too.

Went to Epguides today for the first time in years.

Monday, October 14, 2013

LISTEN TO WIRES IN THE WALLS AND THEIR LATEST SINGLE "ROAD SHOW"

A quintet containing peculiar influences; such as a member with a background in film-making, and another with a keen ear for harmonic texture due to his academic study on music composition, allows this band to shine through with a unique flavor of lyrical depth and smooth emotion.


Their latest offering off the EP, "Roadshow", speaks from the remnants of a melancholy heart as the chorus "this is the year of the roadshow, this is the worst of my ideas", transcends above the up-beat tempo to strike with an emotional delivery. With a rather speedy pace, contrastingly slow-hitting lyrics, and sudden chorus down-tempo's, a roller-coaster is how your day will surely become; at-least for the moment!   The sound of this song is in large part respectable enough to be called alternative but the track also contains elements that will appeal to a broader audience.

RADIO-RELATED STUFF

Tuned my fancy portable shortwave radio to 87.75 FM and was able to receive the audio from CJOH-TV's Deseronto feed.

Couldn't pick up WTWW 9480 Saturday morning.

John Wideman truly does an excellent job doing the play by play of the Blackhawk's games.

I see "Breakpoint" got a new host to replace the late Charles Colson.

RADIO-RELATED STUFF

Been getting that numbers guy on WTWW 5830 again.

Picked up Vatican Radio for the first time today.

Picked up WWV on my crank radio where before I had only been able to get it on my fancy portable radio.

Loved Sunday night's episode of "The Strombo Show." It was radio, man!

Ditto Sunday night's episode of "This American Life."

From the little I've heard, WBZ's overnight show seems to have new life in it.

Friday, October 11, 2013

IT'S OVER: THE AMAZING JAM AT THE MARMORA INN

Dear all,


It’s over. The fat lady has sung for the Amazing Jam at the Marmora Inn.

After several months of very low turnout, I conferred this afternoon with our generous hosts – Rui and Kathy Ferreira – about the future prospects for the Amazing Jam at their location in the Marmora Inn.

Attendance has been low since June. Last month Rui had asked that we cancel our September musical gathering due to a conflict with his own work schedule. This month the date for the Amazing Jam fell on the Sunday of Thanksgiving weekend. I had spoken with several of our core group of musicians who all declared their inability to attend this weekend due to conflicting family obligations....

Although I have heard from a number of people how this event has been really important for them, the numbers just don’t add up. The effort required to host and run our Amazing Jam once a month compared to the numbers of people coming out to play no longer seem to make it worthwhile.

So, it is with regret (and some sense of relief) that Rui, Kathy and I have agreed it is time to close it down.

Many thanks to them for the kindness and generosity of their hospitality over so many months. Many thanks to each and all of you who have participated: bringing your instruments and voices, your songs, your stories and your smiles to share together.

There are other venues to play, other places to gather. I recommend an absolutely fabulous open mic in Brighton (every Wednesday evening from 6:30 pm at the Timber House Lodge – contact: Frank Blanchet – blanchetfg@hotmail.com). Twice a month (the second and fourth Mondays, from 6 pm until....) there is an excellent song circle at the Beaufort Inn in Belleville (contact: Paul King – paulking0@sympatico.ca). There is an excellent open mic in Marmora –“First Friday’s” (at the Marmora Curling Club, 7 pm on the first Friday of every month, contact: Eileen Quinn – litgid@aol.com). There are house concerts, kitchen parties and all kinds of opportunities to play music with and for other people.

The Amazing Jam has had a phenomenal run. In August 2010 we were welcomed by Tony Long at the original premises of Amazing Coffee in Madoc. In January of 2011 we gladly moved the jam into his ‘new and improved’ location across the road. We ran the jam there every Sunday for almost 2 years. When Tony sold up the Amazing Coffee, Rui and Kathy Pereira kindly offered us the Marmora Inn as a new location and we re-invented the jam with a new, once a month, schedule. Now, alas, it is time to let it go.

My thanks and appreciation to everyone who has ever played with us, brought us a song or a story to share and enjoyed the music we have made together. The friendships continue and the musical connections remain. I include the email for the Marmora Inn (marmorainn@gmail.com) and invite all of you who have enjoyed the hospitality there to drop a line to Rui and Kathy and thank them know your appreciation. Remember too that the dining room and service at the Marmora Inn is superb and that Rui’s kitchen produces possibly the best food in Hastings County, and as the sign on the wall says, “Life is too short to drink bad wine!” If you haven’t eaten there yet, you owe it to yourself to check it out.

“I t’s all unplugged and it’s all good! Guitar, baritone, bass, harmonica, banjo, mandolin, ukulele, fiddle, accordion, flute, celtic harp – the list goes on.

“A place for ‘first-timers’ and experienced players alike. A good bunch of people playing all kinds of music together. People in their teens all the way through proto-geezers. Maybe even an incipient-geriat or two.... Any acoustic music from punk to polka!”

It’s been good. It’s been something very special. Stay in touch and keep on playing and singing.

James Reid

Thursday, October 3, 2013

DOWNFALL OF THE MAINSTREAM MEDIA

Popular Science Shuts Down Online Comments Section: Mainstream media doesn't like the two-way aspect of the internet. They would be happy to post stuff up there and have it be like the old days. By this I mean there would either be no interaction with the public in response to what was disseminated, or if there was, it would be heavily controlled as to how much of that response the rest of the public saw.

These days, when you keep promoting things that aren't true, such as manmade climate change, people are no longer going to just sit there and take it. The public can finally conjecture and talk back to the media and they love this and do it often. Granted, the public doesn't always respond in the wisest or most intelligent way, but you can't put the genie back in the bottle and any media outlet that tries will face it's downfall.

Fake Reviews On Yelp: Companies admitted years ago they pay employies to go onto social media sights (Facebook, Twitter and the like) to talk up their product. If these companies have been doing this in the Facebook age, is it any great stretch to believe these companies have been doing such things since near the dawn of the web?

Many times, when I've looked at articles, forums or blog posts dealing with the subject of elimination communication, there have been a bunch of detracters on these sites. While at least some are probably legit, at times the number of naysayers in the comments section of the particular thing I'm looking at strongly leads me to suspect people from the diaper companies are trying to sully ec to keep business in their hands.

Naturally, then, it follows that employees would be writing fake reviews on Yelp. Hopefully, this will start a trend toward the death of mainstream internet media along with the death of traditional mainstream media.

Conservative Talk Show Hosts To Be Thrown Under Bus?: It appears the once mighty and popular syndicator Talk Radio Networks is doomed. Along with this, it looks to me as if another syndication outlet for talk radio (which is mainstream media despite what the hosts claim) is headed for a change. From what I've read in the trade, Premier is no longer programming it's channel on Sirius XM radio, which means some popular talk show hosts aren't heard on the satcaster anymore. Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hanity are no longer going to be on a number of Cumulus-owned stations, many in large markets such as New York. While these two talk radio giants will be on Clearchannel stations in some of the same markets, this personally makes me wonder if people such as Limbaugh, Hanity and the like are on their way out.

CBC Being Retarded Again: Monday, in the wake of the imminent U.S. government so-called shut down, "As It Happens" was taking the stance of wondering why anyone could possibly be against Obamacare. From what I've heard from the radio side of the Mothercorp, CBC has failed to mention the fact the Affordable Care Act is nothing like the government healthcare system we have here in Canada. Also, they fail to mention how many Americans are against the legislation and all the problems with it.

Also, CBC, next time people get food poisoning from an event, I don't need to hear people describing their symptoms.

You could have done a better job on the story about the home daycare that was shut down in Vaughn a couple weeks back. Did that woman you interviewed not check out the home before she sent her daughter there? I mean, people can window dress and clean up to make things look sanitary and safe when they normally aren't, but if the house was as dirty as described on the news, they couldn't have just thrown a bunch of things in the closet and made everything look good.

Also still no mention of why Amanda Todd, at twelve years old, didn't seem to know she shouldn't show her private parts to total strangers, even if they said they'd be her friend, *which is normally a pretty good reason for doing anything.* **

** Asterisks indicate sarcasm.

RADIO-RELATED STUFF

Wonder why Jen Bryan is no longer on WBZ?

I like the new "As It Happens" opening theme a lot better than the old one. As far as the closing theme, they need to start it after the drum solo.

Have heard some more ham chatter in the past few weeks, guys talking about their technology.

91x appears to be back on the air.

LOOKING BACK-NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2012

            Based on notes to myself.

On a day when I was feeling very discouraged, I got to minister the Word to a few different people.

I was thinking a lot about "South Park" at this time.

Was reading Lee Strobel's books.

Heard about Sandy Hook while listening to a top 40 station from Italy online. They broke into their Friday night dance party program with coverage.

Was making friends with a guy down the street.

A week before Christmas, another friend and I had the best day together we'd ever had, just looking at funny things on YouTube all day.

My sister kept a couple hamsters at my place for a few days.

Was grooving to a lot of good music at this time, from new alternative rock to older alternative rock to blues to jump blues to standards.

For Christmas, we went over to a former neighbour's house. We had different kinds of Oriental soup, pork wrapped in a lettuce leaf, duck, roast beef with all the trimmings for the main course, and lots of good desserts.

For that wonderful time known as the week between Christmas and New Year's, I just hung out, read and relaxed. I was listening to a fair amount of AM 740 at this time.

For New Year's Eve, went over to the local pub in a snowstorm. I got really lost. Fortunately, a woman walking her dog happened by and steered me in the right direction. I was only a few minutes late for my reservation. I had Cornish hen, a really good dessert that I can't remember what it was and a couple glasses of wine. The pub worker drove me home and I gave her a hug. Then I watched the ball drop in Time Square, then listened to "As It Happens: The Midnight Edition".

The next day I spent downloading stuff from the internet, then went over to mom's house for dinner.