Sunday, September 9, 2012

Post 2011 - Humidity, Go Away!

I am back in the city after spending a weekend with my mother in the Valley.  As I told you yesterday, she worked me like a show pony, up to and including Sunday afternoon.

I slept in.  A lot.  Right after I got up, Mom reminded me that I had promised her I'd fix the shelving in the hallway.  Dad hadn't finished the job from several years ago.  So after lunch, with all that humidity, I set out to remove some of the shelves he had put in and make them level for the first time.  It took much longer than it should have because I was sweating so much from the humidity.  The hallway is narrow, and my legs began to cramp.  I kept misplacing those little anchor thingies you nail into plaster before putting in a nail, in order to have a firm grip and not have the shelf fall off.  I had to run out to the garage twice to get the right size anchor thingies.

Is that what they're called, by the way?  "Anchor Thingies"?   I can't remember.

I returned to the city around mid-afternoon, arriving at the house shortly after 4pm.  Patricia was still at the cottage.  Gave me time to put my stuff away and shower before she got home.  The shower cooled me off.

I can now announce that a major Bevboy's Blog interview will be published on September 10th.  It should go up during my lunch hour.  I do hope you like it.  And I am still transcribing the next one.  It will be done before the Mayan's prediction of the end of the world.  I promise.

I got a comment from Julia Kirkey a few hours ago, regarding Saturday's blog post.  I had expressed elation at the news that K-Rock in New Minas was live much more than it used to be.  Julia pointed out that in order to pay for the new announcer in the evenings, that they had to, or chose to, cut one of the news positions.  The job that Julia held for 3 years no longer exists, having been replaced by the evening (and Saturday afternoon) announcer.  While I am happy that they have an evening announcer, and am especially glad that they have a Saturday night request show, I am disappointed nearly to the point of bitterness by the loss of the news position.

Julia covered stories that maybe only the local newspaper would bother to cover.  She would sit in council meetings for hours on end, recording audio, and then go to the studio late at night and edit it for inclusion in news packages the  next day.  She covered elections and travelled all through the station's broadcast area on election nights.  They have a vast broadcast area.  I dare say there were times when she would be the only media person at some of those ridings and some of those news events.   She would also cover crimes and accidents and interview folks at the mall when the lottery reached a certain threshold.  Other stuff, too.

Now, that position no longer exists.

When K-Rock went on the air in 2008, it was with the promise of significant local news hits.  The news coverage was actually pretty good, with morning news casts being quite a bit longer than the ones stations would bother with in the city.  Dave Chaulk would go on for a good five minutes in the afternoon.  And there would be live and local news on the weekends to boot.   The elimination of Julia's old position means there will be less local news, and one less voice and person to report it.

Thanks, K-Rock.  Thanks a lot.  Spend some damn money and hire another news person, will you?

Time to do some work preparing tomorrow's interview.  Look for it here, tomorrow!

Bevboy



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