Post 2629 - Sunday

Hello, my 4.7.

I am back in the city. It is past 9:30, less than 30 minutes before the season finale to The Walking Dead.  AMC is otherwise a channel nearly devoid of entertainment once you subtract its original programming. I keep wondering why I subscribe to the channel when I only watch a couple of shows on it and ignore it 98% of the time. I guess I make too much money.

When I got back home, Newbie was initially aloof. But after dinner and after my shower, when I retired to the recroom for the evening, he plopped himself on my lap. I shooed him off just now to write this blog post. He is behind my chair waiting for me to shut down the laptop. Soon, buddy. Soon.

I drove back to the city during the freezing rain incident today. I have driven in far worse conditions than today's. Even so, when I got back home, Patricia greeted me as if I had just traversed the Bering Sea with a broken leg. Please don't tell her, but it really wasn't that bad. I will just let her think that so that I can get 30 seconds or so sympathy from her.  Our secret?

I will try to stay awake until midnight so that I can see both The Walking Dead and the talk show after it, called The Talking Dead. Rick Grimes himself, Andrew Lincoln, is one of the guests tonight. In 3 seasons of the show, he has never been a guest, which makes me think this is beyond a pivotal episode for Rick Grimes. Will they kill off the poor bastard tonight?  Hard to say. I will know in just over an hour.

I will get up bright and early in the morning. I want to see what my buddy Neil Spence does on the Radio 965 morning show. Halifax morning radio is more interesting to me now than it has been in quite some time. I look forward to what Neil and Chelsea do on that fine station, starting tomorrow.

My show starts in 10 minutes. Time to give Newbie a snack to calm him the hell down.

See you tomorrow.

Bevboy

Post 2628 - A Quicki`y

Hi. I'm at my mother's for the weekend. Back to the city tomorrow.  

I had a big lunch even though I had a big dinner Friday evening. I really haven't eaten since noon and it is past 11pm.

Newbie remains in halifax.  

I thought you'd like to know where we had dinner Friday night.  

See you tomorrow. 

Bevboy

Sent from my BlackBerry 10 smartphone on the Bell network.

Post 2627 - Radio News

Welcome to  Friday, folks.

Sorry I didn't write on Thursday. I wasn't feel well last night. I pretty much lay down when I got home from work and didn't get up until this morning, except for a few trips to the young Bevboy's room. Is that TMI? I hope not. I feel I should share my news with you.

Speaking of news... I can now confirm a few things in local radio.

First of all, if you were listening to Radio 965 this morning, you may have heard Domink Diamond introduce a new character known as "Bev, the mis-informed goat". I have it on good authority that this was not a dig at me. Which is too bad, because being immortalized in that way would have been a gas.

Starting on March 31st, Neil Spence is the new morning guy at Radio 965. His co-host will be Chelsea Miller, with whom I am unfamiliar other than the fact that she once worked with Domink Diamond. Kate Venås, meanwhile, moves to mid-days. I will speculate that as the mid-day person, that she will take on the added responsibility of Music Director at that fine station.

I am very much looking forward to seeing what Neil and Chelsea do with the morning show. I have been a Neil Spence fan since his days at K-Rock in New Minas. If he ever wants to exchange vocal cords with me, I'm game as I would love to have his voice. (I doubt he would want mine, so I'd have to sweeten the post somehow.) Now, he gets to put forth that voice and personality on a morning show, and I wish him all the very best. It is a well-deserved promotion. I know he will kick serious anus.

What else? Brad Legere is at least the interim Drive guy at Live 105, starting yesterday. I do not know whether he will be the permanent Drive person or not. If it were up to me, if Gary Tredwell were to ask my opinion, then I would heartily endorse giving Brad a chance. He is young and enthusiastic and deserves a chance. Besides, Brad contacted ME in December and asked for the honour of posing with me for a Christmas tie picture.  Brad, buddy, the honour was all mine!

This opens up Brad Legere's weekend shifts at Live 105. Whether he will work 7 days a week until that position can be back filled or if they hire someone else, remains to be seen. I suspect Brad will keep working those shifts until a permanent decision is made on who becomes the permanent Drive host.

I get a lot of comments from people on my radio-related posts. I am glad that someone is reading this stuff. So I will make this announcement yet again: I have many extra Bevboy's Blog business cards, and I am willing to mail a passel of them to anyone who is reading this post.

If you would like a dozen or so Blog business cards, which have the official Bevboy avatar plus information about the blog, then you can send me an email, including your mailing address, and I will send them to you, at no cost or obligation to you.  All I ask is that you pass the cards along to interested parties.

That's it for today, me hearties.

See you tomorrow.

Bevboy

Post 2626 - Wednesday

Well, normally when we have a snowstorm, I have to suck it up, put on my big boy stockings, and get myself to work. Today, however, in a spurt of common sense, offices for the provincial government were closed. Emergency services were still covered, but that would probably not include me.

I haven't been beyond looking out my front door today. I can say it looks pretty bad out there. I am not sure if it is worse than it was in the Winter of 2004 when we had White Juan. But this evening, roads remain closed or are deemed to be so dangerous that they may as well be closed to traffic. I figure when the buses are called off the road, when the snowplows are called off the road, then it's bad out there, and I have no business being out there.

It has been a quiet day. I did some laundry. I transcribed more of last month's  Courtney Amirault interview which is in the home stretch. And I rested. Meanwhile, Patricia did the dishes and threw some veggies and a lump of corned beef into the crock pot, resulting in a delicious corned beef and cabbage dinner. I drenched my dinner with French's prepared mustard, using so much that my lips pursed up and nearly collapsed in on themselves like some kind of black hole. That's when I know that I have used nearly enough  mustard on a food item.

This evening we watched "Dragon's Den". The five dragons were in a good mood tonight, so every contestant was made a deal that was accepted. It is  now nearly 9:30. I am down in my recroom. Newbie is right next to me on the arm of the chair I'm in. And I should fill up my drinking bottle because I had a lot of sodium with my dinner this evening.

The big question is: Will work be cancelled tomorrow as well? I guess it depends on how much progress the road-clearing folks make this evening, and whether the weather improves enough over night for that progress to remain in place. If it is like this tomorrow morning, then we may get at least the morning off.   But I am not a betting Bevboy, so I don't want to put any money on this.

At least I had an unexpected day off.

Got lots of feedback on yesterday's blog post regarding radio personalities. I shared the link with Andrew Douglas, editor of Frank Magazine. I am sure that their offices were closed today, so I doubt if he has seen it. He is a busy guy, so I doubt if he will even acknowledge my response, but I will let you know what he says, if anything.

I guess I should turn on Netflix for a little while.  Haven't had the tv on down here very much today. Time to rectify that.

See you tomorrow.

Bevboy

Post 2625 - Radio Comment

Yeah. Let's do this. The last time I ranted about radio, I was taken to task by Bobby Mac and a couple others.  More recently, Domink Diamond expressed disappointment for my stance about Radio 965, when I don't recall stating  much of anything about that station. Let's see whom I can piss off this time.

Late last week the Herald ran an article regarding Newcap's intervention over Seaside FM's application to the CRTC to increase its power such that people here in Timberlea will have a chance to pick up that fine station run by my friend Wayne Harrett.

I am not going to rehash the article. You can read it for yourself. I do find it passing strange, however, that Newcap would give a flying fig newton about  a small community radio station whose desired demographic is nothing that Newcap has ever  coveted. One can speculate on why.

Anyway, Frank  Cameron in the latest Frank Magazine wrote a pretty good refutation on that article, but made a couple of comments that I feel I must comment on.

He states, quite rightly, that radio stations play the same 800 or 900 songs "ad nauseam". I don't like it any more than he does, or than you do. There are songs that have been played on the radio so much that it would seem to me that every possible drop of entertainment value would have been wrung out of them by now, but they are still played. I am referring to anything by the Eagles, the half dozen Beatles and Rolling Stones songs one hears, and hoary old chest nuts like "Sweet Home Alabama" and "Patio Lanterns". As I like to tell people, when  Stevie Nicks' "Edge of Seventeen" was a hit, I WAS seventeen. Literally.

But I digress.

Radio stations have conservative play lists because, whenever they stray from the tried and true and familiar, people call in and complain. The songs I listed above? If the Q stopped playing them, or Jack FM didn't play any of that stuff, or The Wave eschewed that material, listeners to those stations would rebel. As my friend Dan Barton told me last year, there are some songs you can't kill. You might want to take them behind the woodshed and blow them away like Old  Yeller, but those songs will just come back from beyond the grave and make it back to the stations' playlists. I don't like it any more than you do.

Frank Cameron also states that today's radio personalities lack personality. He takes issue with the station that recently burned $5000 in cash. It was NOT a station in Halifax; rather, it was a Newcap station in Alberta.

I am not going to defend the burning of cash. I do defend the jocks Frank tars with the broad-brush comment that they have no personality. Disregarding the music they play, I find all of the jocks entertaining in their own way. The Q104 morning show is top-notch, and the Rant Line is a great delight to listen to, even though they have greatly cut back on the cussing. I love that Griff and Caroline are back on the air as much as I hate that it was at the expense of Chris Lawrence's and Lisa Blackburn's jobs. I think I would sell my soul to the devil, sacrifice a goat to Ba'al, or sleep with a porcupine,  in order to have Neil Spence's voice. Brad and Peter and Moya make it look so easy. I love Kate Milton's irreverence. That Denyse Sibley and Brad Hart do their respective morning shows by themselves (except for news hits) speaks to their level of talent. Floyd and Chris at Live 105 are forging a new radio show and it is fun to hear them try new things unheard before in Halifax radio. Not all of it will work, but a lot of it will. Christina Fitzpatrick is the new PD at Radio 965, which means I won't be able to hear her on the radio very much any more, which disappoints me because she's a wonderful talent. You haven't lived until you have listened to Courtney Amirault's "Late Lunch" on Live 105. She was born to do that show. It will be a loss when Domink Diamond leaves Radio 965 at the end of this week. Is there a better interviewer than Don Connolly?

I could go on and on, but then this post would be in danger of running as long as the James Taylor interview. I don't want to leave anybody out. Suffice it to say that I listen to pert near every station in the market. Drives Patricia crazy as we make our way to work or our way home at night, as I switch from one station to another, but I do it because I love the medium of radio so much that I am afraid I will miss something neat on a particular station.

I love Frank Cameron. There should be a Frank Cameron shrine at the CBC radio building, which is adjacent to the Don Tremaine shrine, which is cheek-by-jowl with the Pat Connolly shrine. While I agree with his frustration over the Seaside FM power increase delay, I can't agree  with him over his stance regarding the jocks who toil in the trenches every day. They work really hard to put out the best product they can, day-by-day. I am in awe of them all. That they are constrained in what they can play, and what they can say, and how they can say it, and can still put a smile on my face or make me think about the point they want to make, just speaks to how good they are.  And I know that Frank Cameron knows that because he's been there.

All right. Whom have I ticked off?  Bring it on! I can take it.  I'm a tough sumbitch.

See you tomorrow.

Bevboy

Post 2624 - Meeting A Fan

Hello, my lovelies. How are you feeling today?

I spent a few hours this weekend sifting through hundreds of old vhs tapes, putting the vast majority aside to go into garbage bags, and the small minority being kept until such time as I could digitize their contents. I have quite a few old radio shows that I have recorded over the years, things that were only broadcast the one time and can never be heard again.Having them in a digital form would be very nice.

The ones I didn't want went into the afore-mentioned garbage bags. I dragged 7 bags of them upstairs and across the hallway to the front door. I stuffed all of those bags into the back seat of the car until it resembled the contents of a homeless person's shopping cart. By this time, my back was killing me. Patricia and I decided to drive to the Otter Lake landfill, not far from Casa Bevboy, there to get rid of the crap that had taken over two thirds of my car.

I had not been there in several years. We saw the sign that told us to report to the weighing station. Of course, I took a wrong turn and ended up at the place where you actually dump your stuff you don't want any more, which you are not supposed to use until you have submitted your shekels to the person at the weigh station. We could even see someone in the weigh station waving her hands at us (with all 5 fingers) in an effort to beckon us over.

Drove down the little hill and hung a right, but it wasn't the right right (if you catch my drift), so we ended up by the big bins where garbage goes.  Returned to the road and hung another right, but had to back up a bit because I couldn't make that sharp a turn.

Eventually, after what seemed like hours, we pulled up next to the weigh station. The way it works is they weigh your car before you unload anything, you pay them some money, you unload what you want to unload, and then return your motorized conveyance to the weigh station, where you either get some money back or have to give them some more.

I had thought it was just 5 dollars or so. A ten dollar bill should have been plenty.

The lady at the weigh station, whom I will identify later, had a good chuckle over my inability to drive to the weigh station. She then informed me that they required a 20 dollar deposit before you unloaded anything. They would pay you back the difference afterward. This was because some folks had lied about how much stuff they had to dump, and threw out some much stuff that the cost would have exceeded the 90kg for 5 dollars price.

The problem was, I only had 10 dollars on me. Patricia had no cash on her. The lady at the weigh station, whom I will identify later, told me where the closest banking machines were. We already knew where the damn things were.

We went  back into Timberlea and into Bayers Lake to get a snack, and some cash, before returning to the landfill. This time I drove right up to the weigh station without making a mistake. I shelled out the 20 dollar deposit, drove over to the second parking space, and got rid of the garbage bags full of vhs tapes and so on.

We returned to the weigh station. There had been 90kg of things tossed out, based upon the new weight of the car, which was below the threshold of 100kg, where the cost would be higher. The cost was therefore 5 dollars. I had to pay 20 dollars so that I would only have to pay 5 dollars, if you catch my drift.

We chatted with the lady at the weigh station. She was amusing enough that I decided to give her a Bevboy's Blog business card.  She took one look at it and her face lit up. "I know you!", she exclaimed. Turns out that Ms. Jeannette Chisholm is a regular reader of mine, and I didn't know it. Some folks read my posts, share them on their Facebook, and people reading those posts share them again. Somewhere along the way, Jeannette discovered me and the blog and became a regular reader.

She told us some funny stories, most of them involving men who go to the wrong road and don't end p at the weigh station, much like I did. One foolish dude, having left the weigh station to drop off his garbage, drove to the side of the bins facing the weigh station, and then complained that the couldn't throw the refuse high enough to get it into the bins. He was gently told that he was on the wrong side, that he would have to drive up the little hill to the parking lot and then throw stuff out, as he would then be standing over the bins and could just lug the stuff from his car and drop it in the bin. He felt like a dummy. Which he was.

Jeannette was so happy to meet me, and to get the business card, that I gave her a bunch more to share with people on her upcoming trip to Montreal and her co-workers at the landfill. I have many thousands of these business cards, so I can afford to be generous with them.

She told me enough about the blog posts to tell me that she prefers the radio posts, and remarked that she also finds many of my posts to be funny. I don't know which ones she found amusing. I just pray that it was a post that I intended to be funny.

Jeannette would not pose for  a picture with me. But I did get some pics as you can see.

We parted and returned to the house. My back was killing me. Jeannette had offered me some advice to help my back, but I had some prescription-strength anti-inflammatories and took one of those instead. I washed the dishes and made my way back to the recroom, where I have been ever since.

I am not sure where I am going with this. It is always a pleasure to meet someone who reads this damned blog. I try to put something out every day, and it is reminiscent of throwing messages in a bottle out in Halifax harbour. I have little way of knowing who reads the things and no control at all over who does. I can see that I get a certain number of hits, but not who actually reads the posts, save for the 4.7 folks who tell me that they read it. Putting a face and a name to one of my readers is something that I can never get tired of.

One thing I would love is for everyone who reads a given post, such as this one, to let me know they had read it and what they thought of it. You can let me know via a comment on my personal Facebook page, the Fans of Bevboy's Blog page, a reply to my twitter @bevboy0223, or via a quick email to this address.  I mean this. I want to hear from you, and let me know what you think of my humble blogging efforts. I get surprisingly little feedback.

Thank you in advance. I thank you. Patricia thanks you. And Newbie thanks you.

See you tomorrow.

Bevboy

Post 2623 - Saturday

‎Watching the second zombie movie of the night with Newbie. 

Bevboy

Sent from my BlackBerry 10 smartphone on the Bell network.

Post 2622 - Friday Radio News

It is pushing 11pm. I am in my reclining chair with a laptop on the lap rest, and Newbie is waiting for me to finish so that he can curl up on my lap again. Soon, little buddy. Soon.

Sorry I haven't written very much the last few days.  Thursday night my body just kinda shut down on me. I feel better this evening.

Not much going on here. I have only 2 audio files left to transcribe in the Courtney Amirault interview. They are long ones, representing over 30 minutes of material. I will chip away it over the weekend and try to finish early next week.  Then I will finish my interview with Don Connolly and start work on that one.

Sometimes, I have to pinch myself. I never imagined that any jocks would ever want to sit down with me. I am not in the industry. I will never be in the industry. I just have this life-long interest in the medium and sheepishly approached Deb Smith. Gradually, I learned my craft and word got around that there was this weird guy going around interviewing people who were on the radio. I still sometimes wonder why they want to talk to me.

Oh, here's a bit of radio news. Kate Milton, Drive at The Bounce, is pregnant. She was a terrific interview for me in 2011. Congratulations, Kate. Er, K8!

Did you read Thursday's Herald story about how Seaside FM's request to move the Seaside FM antenna to Geizer's Hill has been temporarily thwarted by Newcap's intervention? Why would they do that? What do they have to gain, or lose, by intervening in this way, at this time? Could it be because, well, Newcap is contemplating another format change, or adjustment, so that its playlist more closely resembles what Seaside FM plays?  Hard to say. But my gut tells me that the person they hire to follow Dominik Diamond will represent change not just in the morning show, but for the station as a whole. A commercial version of "Seaside FM"?  Perhaps. But remember that we already had one "Lite" station in this market that didn't make it. Why would they try another?

Time will tell.

That's about it for tonight, folks.

See you tomorrow.

Now, Newbie, get your butt over here.

Bevboy

Post 2621 - Long Day

Worked all day. Then Toastmasters and home and headache and zzzzzzz.  

More tomorrow.  

Bevboy 

Sent from my BlackBerry 10 smartphone on the Bell network.

Post 2620 - More Radio Stuff

I forgot to mention last week that Christina Fitzgerald, presently the mid-day person at Radio 965 in Halifax, has been named the new Program Director at that fine station. That means two positions are available there: Domink Diamond on the morning show, and Christina's. He won't tell me, but I am thinking that Neil Spence will be the new mid-day person and likely become the Music Director as well. Time will tell.

Congratulations, Christina! You have a very bright future ahead of you. I knew you when.

I got a Facebook message this afternoon from Alex J. Walling, the long-time radio and TV broadcaster. He asked for my number. I supplied it. And he called to congratulate me on this blog and on my efforts to document the local radio market. He says I write more about radio than likely anybody else in Atlantic Canada.

I'm guessing he's probably right. Frank Magazine reports on radio stuff, but often times it's things I have already discussed here. They have cited this blog on quite a few occasions and used pictures of local jocks from the blog as well, not always with attribution (harrumph!) . They also report on aspects of the market that do not interest me. They would not mention Christina's news. They might mention  Dominik's departure; they retweeted my post from last week about him.

All NS Dot Com also reports radio news. I may as well reveal that they occasionally call me to see if I have heard anything about this or that station, or this or that radio personality. Many times I have not heard anything. Maybe that's why they only call me occasionally.

People in the market quite often write me through Facebook or to my private email address  to give me hot poop on what's going on at their station. That's how I found out about Neil Spence's resignation from Live 105, and Domink's resignation from Radio 965, and the layoffs at  Rogers a few months ago.  They tell me these things knowing that I will not reveal my sources to anybody. I don't even tell Newbie.

So, yeah, I guess I do write more about radio than anybody else in  Atlantic Canada. My question, though, is: who does write more about radio than I do? I want to meet this person and read the stuff he's written. Do tell.

Alex J. Walling, thank you for the phone call and the many kind words you threw at me. Thank you for the quick anecdotes. I hope you spend some time reading the blog interviews and the other radio-related blog posts. You  have many, many hours of reading ahead of you. I hope that time is not wasted.

Been a long day. Time to turn in.

See you tomorrow.

Bevboy

Post 2619 - This And That

I am back in the city, having returned several hours ago.  it is past 10:30 and I should be turning in soon.

Newbie has been giving me the cold shoulder. He hid from me at my mother's this afternoon. It took the business end of a broom to coax him out from underneath the couch. He was not happy with me. If he had scurried downstairs to, say, my father's old workshop, then he might very well still be down there. Maybe he will try that next time.

Today was my mother's birthday.  She is 82 today. This was her first birthday in her nursing home. It still feels odd to refer to it that way. I still expect to see her at the house when I go down to visit. It took a good 2 years after my father died, to stop expecting to see him come around the corner into the living room and greet me with a big smile. It will take a while longer for me to get that thought out of my head about my mother. Her nursing home is her new home, and she likes it there. She gets her own room and bathroom, her own phone and cable, 24x7 support, meals covered, and so on. And she certainly has enough money left over to go to Frenchy's whenever she wants to.  We kids make sure she is well stocked in gift cards for Swiss Chalet or Boston Pizza or Wal*Mart. We want the remainder of her golden  years to be, well, golden. She's earned a good rest after all those years of hard work.

It was hard to come back today. There is much to be done here at my house in Halifax. There is also much to be done at my mother's. The days are not long enough here or there. Being responsible for more than one house is not my idea of a good time.

Let's see here. What else is going on? Sunday night, before another oddly-paced episode of The Walking Dead, I transcribed 3 audio files on the Courtney Amirault interview. Only 3 more audio files remain, but they are long ones. Obviously, it's too late to do any of that stuff this evening, but there is always my lunch hour tomorrow, and I will try to steal a bit of time before I turn in tomorrow evening.

The first half of the Don Connolly interview went swimmingly. I have to contact him soon and work out another get-together for the second half. I am also hoping to get some kind of tour of the CBC radio building. I was a guest on Maritime Noon in November of 1996. Last week was my first time back upstairs since then. CBC will be moving out of that historic building in the next 10 months or so. A new chapter and all that; but the people who have come through that building in the last 70 years would  be staggering if one took the time and went through the effort to compile such a list. I will be sure to get some pictures on my next visit and put them up here because I doubt if anyone else in the media will bother to be honest about it.

Earlier this evening I watched a movie called The Company Men, starring Ben Affleck and Tommy Lee Jones and a bunch of other folks. It's about Affleck being affected by the big downsizing of the last few years and how he struggles to support his family after that. The big American movie about the American Recession has yet to be made, but this was a good start. I already knew this, but watching things like this reinforces it: I am lucky to have work. I am lucky to have been able to stay in Nova Scotia when an awful lot of my friends from university either could not or would not seek employment here. I like to think that my friends who moved to Ottawa or Toronto or whatever, have been happy with those career choices. It is too late for me to second guess my own decision, but things have more-or-less worked out for me. I just have to remember to count my blessings.

It's been a 3 day weekend. Back to reality, tomorrow.

See you, tomorrow.

Bevboy

Post 2618 - Sunday

Watching "The Walking Dead " with Newbie.  

Back to the city tomorrow. Rats. 

See you then.  

Bevboy.

Sent from my BlackBerry 10 smartphone on the Bell network.

Post 2617 - Saturday

‎I'm here at my mother's fo‎r a couple of days. 

This is the first blog post I've written on my new BlackBerry.  

Very slowly getting the hang of it. The "flick" feature takes some getting used to say the very least.  

Anyway I thought you might like to see a picture of Newbie with his face down in the bowl.  

Maybe not. 

See you tomorrow.  

Bevboy.

Sent from my BlackBerry 10 smartphone on the Bell network.

Post 2616 - Halifax Radio News for Thursday March 13

A trusted source informed me in the last hour that my friend Neil Spence resigned from Live 105 on Wednesday, March 12, to take a job in the market at a competing station.

I do not know this, but I am guessing that Neil will be moving over to Radio 965.  I was told that Newcap had "a plan" for the morning show, and now the first piece of that plan may be falling into place. I reported on Tuesday that DD will become the new morning guy at The Edge in Toronto. Neil was on the air at Live today. I do not know if he will remain at Live through the end of ratings at the end of  April, or will leave that fine station around the end of March, just as Domink leaves Radio 965.

Neil is a great guy, and a broadcaster who has come into his own in the last couple of years. I have great respect for him. I know that whatever position he's taking at whatever competitor, he will own it and rock it and do it like nobody's business.  I wish him all the very best.

Now, who will take over for Neil at Live 105? Will  Evanov promote from within, or consider someone from another station or someone who's at loose ends at the moment? I do not know.  The position hasn't been posted yet, and hasn't even been vacated yet. Time will tell.

Of course, what I find out, I will pass along to you.

See you tomorrow.

Bevboy

Post 2615 - Halifax Media News

Okay.

On Tuesday my friend Wayne Harrett reported that it was Ruby Carr who was going to leave the Bounce and move out West. She will remain at that station through the end of ratings. I do not know where she is going, and if I did, I would not tell you.

Why?

Let me use an example.  A couple of years ago, DJ NoLuv (Jeremy Slattery) left Z103/Energy 103 and moved to BC. He would not tell me what he would be doing, and where he would be doing it. Turns out that he was going to a station that was going to flip formats in such a way that its current listeners would feel out of place, not to mention the on air staff at the time. The on air announcers were all fired and replaced by other folks, including Jeremy. Now do you understand why he couldn't/wouldn't tell me where he was going?

I am not stating that this is the situation with Ruby Carr. I am just telling you that I understand when a jock can't (or won't) tell me where she is going, and what she will do when she gets there. And I am not  going to pry in an immature attempt to find out.

In other news, Tim  Bousquet has resigned from the Halifax alternative weekly, The Coast. His last day there will be the 28th of March. He will be going to California to visit some friends and family before he returns to Halifax to resume his life. He says he is a Haligonian, and will remain that way.

Where will he end up? I get the feeling that his days in the media are not behind him. I can't imagine someone like him going to work in a call centre or becoming one  those guys who sell stuff at Staples. I did email Andrew Douglas, editor of Frank Magazine, and out-and-out asked him if Tim would end up there. Andrew did not answer the question. I will leave it at that.

I have never met Tim Bousquet, but have exchanged pleasant emails and tweets with him. The morning the issue of The Coast that had the long cover story by Bousquet about the enduring mystery of my friend Holly Bartlett's death, he tweeted me to let me know it was out, and then told me he had read my "very moving" blog tweets about Holly. He spent months writing that story, researching what may have happened that evening, and asking probing questions about the inconsistencies in the official police investigation.  Here is a link to that story. Go read it.  I think it says something that he took the time to write that story when nobody else in the media would have bothered.

I hold Tim Bousquet responsible for getting the police to re-open the Holly Bartlett investigation. I am convinced they would not have done this had he not written that story. Thank you.

I have not always agreed with  Tim Bousquet. But he always wrote what he wanted to and did not care whether it ticked off the right people. He had the courage of his convictions, and I respect that.

On a personal note, I will fondly recall the tweets we exchanged one hot summer's night when I was at the cottage idly asking what crime fiction I should check out for my next reading experience. He wrote back and extolled the virtues of Walter Mosley. On his recommendation, I read one of the Easy Rawlins novels, and liked it enough to want to read more.  I hope he checks out Max Allan Collins  sometime.

Mr. Bousquet, my very best to you as you start the next chapter of your life.

See you tomorrow.

Bevboy

Post 2614 - Halifax Radio News

In the last hour, an unimpeachable source informed me Domink Diamond resigned from the Radio 965 morning show today. His last day at the station will be March 28th. He will be the new morning guy at The Edge in Toronto.

I will be very careful when I speculate and analyze radio news from now on. I am still smarting from the flesh that was ripped off me a couple of weeks ago.

It is unusual for a person to leave a station half way through a ratings period. I am not going down the road of wondering why someone would leave a station during a ratings period to take a job in another market also during a ratings cycle. But it is happening, twice in fact. See below.

Newcap apparently has a plan in place, someone to take over for Dominik after he leaves Radio 965. I do not know what that plan is. I can speculate, of course; but doing so would involve wondering about people who have feelings and perhaps existing jobs at other stations who might be embarrassed and/or chagrined by my speculating about them. I will just state that there are plenty of radio people currently at loose ends in this market who would make excellent successors to Domink. Not replacements, as Domink is a one-of-a-kind broadcaster. Successors.

A note about Domink. When he first went to Q104 a couple of years ago, he told me that he had read some of my interviews in preparation for taking the job there, to get to know the jocks he would be working with. He left before I could interview him. When he came back to town, barely six months ago, he did promise to sit down with me, but I failed to follow up. My bad. When I asked him today for an "exit interview", he wrote back and politely declined, citing that I was bigging up the station's main rivals and that sitting down with me would not be appropriate.

I feel like shit about this.

When I sit down and talk to radio folks, I do not care what station they work for. I care about the work, the craft, and not where the work and craft are practiced and performed. I treat all broadcasters with respect. I want to discuss their careers in great length and do it in a way that should make them feel good about what they do during their daily shifts. God knows they probably don't get enough credit for what they do from other sources.

Earlier today, I interviewed Don Connolly at CBC's Information Morning. Would my friends in private radio then conclude I do not want to talk to them any more?  I hope not, because that is not the case. I just want to talk to everybody is all.

So, Domink Diamond, I hereby apologize for any hurt I put your way, as well as any ill feelings I may have generated with anybody at Newcap because of any recent comments I may have made. And, of course, sir, I wish you the very best in your career. You will kick serious rear end at The Edge.

In other news, someone at either C100 or The Bounce is leaving that station's morning show. I do not know who it is, or which station. I will find out and report back to you.

See you tomorrow.

Bevboy

Post 2613 - Monday

It is Monday evening, past 10pm. Newbie is here with me on my recliner. I have the FM radio built into  the sound bar on and tuned to News 95.7. I will turn in shortly.

Patricia made cream cod fish for dinner. You smash up some boiled potatoes and pour the fish mixture on top of it. It's a very hearty meal, and very filling. And delicious.

I am preparing for some Spring cleaning around here. I have a bunch of old vhs tapes to throw out. I am holding on to some of them in order to digitize the contents. There are shows on some of these tapes that simply do not exist in any other form. You may recall that a couple of years ago I located a tape of a show about notorious Halifax madam Ada McCallum. I have other unique items on other tapes, including some editions of the old Maritime Mysteries program hosted by the late Bill Jessome. He did the books later on, but in the 1990's, he produced these 3 or 4 minute features for Live at Five. From time to time, CTV would fill a half hour evening time slot with quite a few of these features edited together. I recorded two or three of these programs, and they languish on some old tapes in the house. I have found but one of them, but I know I have more.

I miss these old features. Live at  Five is now called CTV at Five or something, but they don't do that kind of stuff any more. CBC radio has a bi-weekly feature discussing stories of old Halifax, which became a book that I now own, but I still miss Bill Jessome's "Maritime Mysteries". Since his retirement from CTV in 1998, the tv feature ceased to be; but he did 3 of those books before his health reached the point where he could no longer do them. He died in 2013.

I have old editions of CJCH AM morning shows from the mid 1990's, hosted by John Biggs and Kelli Rickard. When CHNS had its 75th anniversary in 2001, they had a weekend-long celebration, and I recorded as much of it as possible. I found most of those tapes this weekend.

Let's see here. The Hotline on CJ was simulcast on television in the 1995-96 season. I recorded quite a few of those shows to boot. My favourite one was on March 19, 1996, when they discussed old unsolved murders. When it was first broadcast, I was scared crapless, mostly because one or two of those crimes took place in the part of the city where I was living at the time. They talked at some length about the 1955 murder of Michael Resk, still the oldest unsolved murder on the books (although I think there were murders during the war that were never solved, and very likely ones from long before that. Let's amend it to say that the 1955 Resk murder is the oldest one the Halifax police keep track of).

I have lots of old documentaries broadcast on A&E and TLC back when it was called The Learning Channel. One of them from 1996 was about survivalists, people who didn't trust the US government and who had decided to live off the land and in a way that did not require intervention of others. I wonder if those people still live like that, or if they decided that a world of iPod's and tablets and Netflix isn't that bad after all.

I have a lot of these vintage things. I also have a lot of movies I recorded back in the day, and which I have on dvd or on a hard drive or whatever. No need to keep those tapes. Gone. Episodes of "Politically Incorrect" with Bill Maher were very interesting back in the day, but I can't digitize everything, can I?

After I have decided what stuff to transfer to an electronic format, I will have to sit down and gradually perform that task. It is a real-time process, so it will take a long time. But it will be done, and when it is done, I will have a collection of interesting broadcasts and the like that will make me the envy of... of... well, maybe somebody somewhere.

But,first, I have to get off me arse and figure out what to keep and what to toss.  That's a big job in itself.

Too tired to think about it tonight.  Maybe tomorrow.

See you then.

Bevboy

Post 2612 - A Flu?

It is late Sunday evening. I just finished watching  "The Walking Dead", and am half-watching "The Talking Dead". I can't help but notice Laurie Cohan and the other lady's legs. They are both wearing very short skirts, to the point where I have no idea what they are actually saying.

Where was I?

I am not sure if I am coming down with the flu or what it is. I woke up with a headache and didn't get up until very late. I ate, and did some work upstairs before deciding to take a short nap around 4:15. I didn't get up until past 9:30, in time to watch the I mentioned above.

Speaking of which, I have a theory about this season of The Walking Dead. The pacing has been off something fierce. And since they came back from their Winter break, the cast has been broken up into several different camps. They don't show all of them together during this half of the season. They say it's to provide characterization to these splinter groups and to focus on them. I'm sure that's part of it. But a larger part of it, in inestimable opinion, is that the producers don't have to pay all the actors every week, if they aren't all in a given episode. I am guessing that the producers are saving a ton of money this half season. Which makes me wonder: is the story driving the show, or is it the other way around?

Since I slept the day away, there is not much else to report. Newbie has been all over me and probably wants a snack before he climbs back on top of me. I shooed him off so that I could produce this blog post on my laptop. Time to feed him something, feed myself something, and turn back in. After all, I have been asleep for an entire 6 hours today.

See you tomorrow.

Bevboy

Post 2611 - Saturday

Hi. It is Saturday evening. I am in my rec room listening to my newly-purchased sound bar which has a built-in FM radio. I am listening to Randy's Vinyl Tap on CBC Radio. Like could be a lot worse.

I'm sorry I didn't write the last couple of nights. My body shut down on me very early Friday night, and I got home fairly late on Thursday.

My post about Theda Bara the other night has been read by quite a few people. A silent film email list I'm on has distributed that blog post amongst its readers, and I have learned that  Charles Brabin's nephew is trying to piece together Theda Bara's and Brabin's life together. Perhaps this gentleman and I can pool our resources and see what we can find out together. Once again, there would be few, if any, primary sources after all these years. Nobody seems to have a picture of the cottage they built in Harbourville/Bay View, which they called Baranook.

There's not much else  to report. The sound bar I got today at  Xscargo was 50 bucks. It has built-in bluetooth, so I can pair my BlackBerry to it. The FM tuner is good enough to pull in all the local stations except for Wayne Harrett's Seaside FM. Live 105 comes in great. CBC comes in great. It comes with a remote.

I guess that's it for tonight.

See you tomorrow.

And, I mean it.  See you tomorrow.

Bevboy

Post 2610 - A Unique Challenge

I have been interested for some time in the life of silent film actress Theda Bara.  I have been interested enough to read two books about her.

 Only a few of her films survive; most were destroyed in a studio fire a long time ago. She was a true silent film actress as her career was over before sound films existed. There is only one known recording of her voice, in a 1930's radio show. 

Most of you don't care about this, and I don't blame you. My interest in Ms. Bara is mostly because of her Nova Scotia link.

Do I have your interest yet?

In 1921, Theda Bara married a man named Charles Brabin, an Englishman. They stayed at the Digby Pines hotel and were so taken with the province that they purchased 900 acres of land and put a house on it, which they named "Baranook".  This property was in the Digby Gut area, in Harbourville.

According to my research, they kept the property for about 20 years, selling it in the very early 1940's to the phone company. It has been subdivided many times. It is hard to say whether their home stands today. I doubt it.

Bara's professional career is fairly well documented, but little seems to be known about the time they spent in Nova Scotia. When they were here, were they "of" the community, or did they mostly keep to themselves? Did they go for jaunts into the city of Halifax? Did they go tubing along the Gaspereau River? What did they do in these here parts? I don't know. And I am not sure who does.

Anyone from the Harbourville area who would have remembered Theda Bara and her husband from back in the day is either very old or very dead. It is possible that children of these people would have some recollections of them, but that is hard to say.

So, in addition to trying to learn more about Norm Riley, I am now sleuthing for information about Theda Bara.  Wish me luck.  I will need it.

See you tomorrow.

Bevboy

Post 2609 - Tuesday

Hi.  Sorry I didn't write last evening. Monday night was all about helping Patricia print off some email attachments and scan them into after signing them and then sending back to the sender. We both nearly called off the engagement. Afterward, I was in no condition to write a blog post.

Tonight was a lot more pleasant.  We had dinner with our friend Dan Barton. We talked about all things radio, including the big Facebook blow up of 2014. I have got a lot of support from those posts from people who told me not to give up writing about radio.

It was never about not writing about radio again. I was just hesitant about writing opinions about radio. Interviewing folks? Sure? Reporting news? You betcha. But, writing about how women are often treated as laugh tracks? Maybe not. Even though women presently in the industry wrote me to give me an attaboy, they couldn't go public with it. They had to write me privately.  Which is fine.

Here. I will write some radio stuff now.

Scott Pottie is the new co-host to Floyd on Live 105. The morning show is now called "The Floyd Factor", and I am enjoying so far. Of course, Floyd could read the back of a cereal box and I would find it compelling. Not in a creepy way, I hasten to add.

I have met Scott, and he is a nice guy. I think they will prove to be a formidable team in the weeks and months to come. I wish them all the best. And be assured I will be listening on a regular basis. After all, I want to win one of those Zombie Survival packs.

Much further down the dial, at 92.9, is Jack FM. Their music is all over the place. Adele one minute. AC/DC the next. Then the Beatles. Apparently nearly anything that has been a hit recently or going back a long spell is potential fodder for this station. This evening I heard AC/DC's "Back  in Black". I thought I had heard that song not long before. I was right. It was the first song in the 7 o'clock hour on Q104 this morning, just before the Rant Line.

Remember when I discussed the Venn diagram last week that depicted the overlapping playlists on the Halifax radio stations? Of course you do. One of my less sucky posts so far this year. Well, turns out that Jack FM is going to be playing songs you can hear on Q104, Live 105, C100, Radio 965,  The Wave, and maybe even Energy 103 and The Bounce. Wonderful. One stop shopping.

Better news is that Griff and Caroline are back on the air, this time as morning hosts on Jack. I wish them all the best.

I also wish Lisa Paterson and Chris Lawrence the best as they cope with their sudden unemployment. Last week marked the first time Lisa had been fired from a radio station, after 21 or 22 years on the air. On the one hand, she was lucky not to have been let go from a station all these  years. On the other, it must be devastating for her, doubly so because her husband Jamie was let go from the same station 4 months ago. Two incomes to one income to no income. How would that feel to you?

The last piece of news is about an upcoming interview. I got a FB message from him an hour or so ago. I am to call him in the next couple of days to work out a time and a place and a date. This is with one of the deans of radio broadcasting in this city. I feel honoured that he is even sending me messages let alone agreeing to an interview. When we hammer out the particulars I will tell you who it is. Until then I don't want to jinx it.

I guess that's it for this evening. You guys stay warm and dry and comfortable.  i will see you tomorrow, unless Patricia needs me to help her with something else and we end up killing each other.

Bevboy

Post 2608 - Sunday

It is Sunday evening, past 8:30. I have a bit of time to kill before I watch this week's  The Walking Dead.

I am hesitant to refer to it as a male soap opera because lots of women watch it as well; but TWD I think resonates more with men than it does with women. I think it has to do with the many strong male characters on the show, and how even the women have to have figurative testes in order to survive after the zombie apocalypse. There is little time to discuss one's feelings or to decide what to do next. You just have to react before the Walkers get you, and you become one yourself.  Even the kids get involved. Among many other things, Carl had to shoot his mother in order to keep her from becoming one of them.

Anyway, the show starts in just over an hour. Patricia knows better than to disturb me during the show. It is JUST.NOT.DONE. I don't bother her when she is watching her cooking shows, so I expect this reciprocity. It is only right. One time she forgot and walked downstairs into the recroom to ask me something before the show was over. She did not repeat this error.

Not much to talk about today. Patricia prepared an excellent breakfast. I replied by preparing a decent fish dinner with mashed potatoes. She reported that the fish was really good. The secret is to stop cooking it as soon as you notice the fish start to flake. It is very easy to overcook fish, and thereby ruin it. Don't do that.

Newbie has had a quiet day. He has not been his usual rambunctious self today. He has not been running around the house like a crazy person on steroids. He has been pretty chill all day. Good for him. He awaits me on the la-Z-boy chair around the corner from me. I will join him shortly.

I guess that is it for today. You guys have a good evening, enjoy TWD, and...

See you tomorrow.

Bevboy

Post 2607 - An Accident Waiting To Happen?

These are the actual partial contents of my top drawer at my work.

What would happen if I accidentally used Visine to open my car door on a cold day? Or if I used lock de-icer in my eyes? Or if the contents of either got on the batteries underneath?

The things I think about! The things that occupy my mind.

At least this post has nothing to do with ra-oops.

Never mind.

See you tomorrow.

From Bevboy's BlackBerry to Bevboy's Blog!