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.