Radio . . . and Me - 32

In the 1960s, when wanted to relax, I could listen to WQXR, the quiet, 50,000-watt classical music station from New York, ‘way down on the right side of the AM radio dial.
ID: ‘This is the radio station of the New York Times, WQXR, New York.’

There it was, a quiet spa on 1560, amid a sea of loud rock ’n’ roll stations: WMEX, 1510 Boston, WKBW, 1520 Buffalo, and WPTR, 1540 Albany.
Quiet, too, because they had commercials, usually read by the duty announcer, but … without jingles!
And, of course, as they were owned by the New York Times, they had excellent hourly newscasts.

Bonne fête de l'Acadie!

Attention tous les Acadiens / Acadiennes, de l’Acadie, de la Nouvelle-Angleterre, et nos cousins / cousines de la Louisianne, du Texas, et de partout au monde -- c’est demain que nous célébrons notre Fête nationale.

On va faire, ensemble, un grand 'Tantamarre,' pour proclamer:
'Asteure q'on est là, c'est pour y rester!'
Célébrons aussi la fête de l'Assomption de la Vièrge Marie, 'Stella Maris,' notre Patronne.
Félicitations, et bonne fête Acadienne!

Yarmouth Tourism

I’m in the process of drafting a letter to Mayor Pam Mood of Yarmouth, about the level of tourism infrastructure in her town.

--Your Honour:
About two months ago, my wife and her friend wanted to attend a Class Reunion on Cape Cod, Massachusetts.
We had a great idea: The new cruise ferry ‘Nova Star’ had just begun operations; I could drive the girls to Yarmouth and stay there overnight; they could board the ferry to Portland, Maine, where they would be met by their girlfriend, who was also attending the Reunion.
I need to explain here that I use a walker, cannot use steps,

I’ve Got the ‘Bifocals Blues’

For the last couple of months, I have been wearing bifocals.
‘Big deal,’ you might say, and you would probably be right.
Thousands, indeed millions, of people have had to adjust to changes in their vision correction, and that is usually a process that works out well in the long run.

For me, the experience has been 'mixed,' at best.
- Driving is okay. Better than I expected.
- Computer: okay.
- Reading a book, or newspaper, is good, bordering on very good or even, dare I say, excellent.
- Watching Digital TV: I can usually read the bottom line 'news ticker' at CBC News, which is rather tiny. (The font for the news tocker at CTV News Channel is much larger, and never was a problem for me.)

Radio . . . and Me - 31

The ‘bottom-line’ question, Dear Reader, is: How well did the 10-10 WINS Westinghouse Radio 1965 shift to all-news format pay off?
Answer:
1. It’s the longest-running all news station in the country’; and, as the remind us often,
2. ‘More people get their news from 10-10 WINS than from any other radio station in the nation.’
Not bad, considering they have strong competition from sister news station, WCBS 880 (which has now restored ‘all-news’ after starring as the flagship radio voice of the New York Yankees) and some all-sports and all-business stations.

The 10-10 WINS format has been copied (with only slight variations) in such large-market U-S markets as Los Angeles, Chicago, Detroit, and Boston (on WBZ 1030, which I listened to each day during my year-long stay), on News 1152 in London, England, and on Rogers, across Canada.

Radio . . . and Me - 30

I have been a ‘news junkie’ for as long as I can remember.
In the 1950s, when I started listening to radio, news on local radio was usually presented as a 5- to 10-minute summary, without commercials.
News on the American stations, at night, was a mixture of 5-minute summaries on ‘block’ programs, usually on rock ’n roll stations, along with a few well-respected holdovers from the World War II era, who presented 10- to 15-minute newscasts, complete with commentary, and a couple of commercial breaks.

It was a delightful surprise for me in April, 1965, to hear the following slogan every 20 minutes on what had been a favourite rock ’n roll station in New York:
“All news, all the time. This is 10-10 WINS: You give us 22 minutes, we’ll give YOU the world.”
That is the same slogan — as you can hear — that they still use today.

Radio . . . and Me - 29

My earliest memory, Dear Reader, of great rock ’n roll radio brings in Alan Freed on 10-10 WINS, New York.
It’s late on a Sunday afternoon, he’s putting out a steady stream of rapid DJ patter, then introducing the monster hit, ‘Don’t Be Cruel,’’ by Elvis Presley. (That must have been in 1956.)

A couple of years before, the legendary Freed (even back then!), who had coined the term, “rock ’n’ roll,” had moved to WINS, from Cleveland, to take the evening shift.
In 1958, another legend, Murray “the K” (Kaufman) arrived, starting overnights, and then worked in the evenings, when I began listening to his ‘Swingin’ Soirée,’ ‘on clear radio nights.’