North To Alaska!

I was thinking recently that it's been far too long since I've embarked on an epic road trip. The idea of hitting the highway and seeing the world from behind a windscreen has an almost primal appeal. And since it doesn't get much more epic than Alaska, the idea moved from concept to reality quite rapidly.

For the record, it's been 8 years since I've spent the summer in the 49th State. My folks still live there of course, and Tonya and I both have sisters there, along with some very dear friends. I've never driven the Alaska Highway and Tonya's lone trip was in 1989. What's more, we're already "halfway there" from the perspective of our Lower 48 neighbors. So with all that in play, it was pretty obvious that a trip was in order. So, we're packing up the Jeep and heading out early tomorrow morning.

According to our trusty copy of the 2010 Milepost, it's 2160 miles from Calgary to Anchorage. We plan to take it in three driving days. Day 1 will take us through Alberta into northern British Columbia and an overnight stay in Fort Nelson. We'll head from there to Whitehorse, Yukon Territory on the second day and cross the Alaska border and down into the southcentral part of the state for some long overdue catching up time.

We plan to stay 8 or 9 days and then head back to Calgary, but by a slightly different route. We'll head down the Cassiar Highway into the heart of BC and see parts of the province neither us has experienced to date. And perhaps we'll get our hands on some terrific Okanagan wines in the process too!

Be sure to stay tuned for the occasional travel post. And all my legions of radio fans, don't despair. I'll plan on returning to the CJSW airwaves upon my return to Calgary in August. Of course I'll still be working in the wee small hours but hey, it's a great gig regardless.

So until then, wish us ¡Buen viaje! and safe travels eh!

"Are We On The Air, Sugar?"

Yes, Geraldine, it's true.

For those unfortunate enough to be awake in the wee small hours of Tuesday morning and near your radio or computer, you might have heard yours truly broadcasting on the Calgary airwaves. Yes, that's right. After a hiatus of more than 15 years I am once again a real live radio DJ.

How's that, you ask? Well, it went down something like this. I submitted a volunteer application to CJSW 90.9 FM (our local college radio station broadcasting from the U of C campus) here in Calgary a couple months back. I've been wanting to get back into the music scene for a while now, and this seemed like the perfect opportunity. After two relatively painless orientation sessions, I set to work on the low end of the food chain - cataloging music in the library.

Ironically, most volunteers hate this part of the deal. They find it tedious and unappealing. Not me. Quite the contrary, actually, as I really dig seeing all the new music that comes in to the station as well as the 100K+ title library we are privileged to maintain. Though it's mostly CDs these days, there are still lots of great albums which are only available on vinyl. What's more, many are out of print, which even makes them all the cooler.

I'd probably logged 20 hours or so in the last few weeks and was content to keep plugging away and trying to help out in any way I could, when last week the Program Director (Mark Shields) pulled me aside and asked if I might fill in for some open shifts that needed temporary hosts. He knew I'd done radio before and deftly put me alongside an expert DJ (thanks Hayley Em!) for a quick refresher in the broadcast booth last Monday afternoon.

Although quite a bit has changed in radio since the early 90s, the basics are still the same. Good on-air presence, a sense of timing and, of course, enough musical sensibility to actually program a show that flows from start to finish. Another hands-on session with Mark the PD on the 30th allowed me to "solo" for over an hour. Afterward, he apparently felt I was capable of handling things on my own, so he plugged me into an open overnight slot which needed a host. Which brings me to this morning.

I arrived at the station 'round midnight (cue Thelonius Monk) and started selecting music from the library. Overnight shows like this one (2am-6am) don't get heavily programmed with ads or public service announcements (PSAs) or other required content, so there's a lot of freedom to play a range of music. We are required to select 4 songs per hour off the current playlist, as well as insuring at least 4 Canadian-content offerings are played. But still, with 12-15 songs per hour (I do try to avoid the live version of In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida) means a lot of preparation is needed to adequately cover a 4-hour shift.

When the clock displayed 2:00 I was on the air! The time passed quickly as I served up a blend of old-school college radio staples along with our new material, plus a generous sampling of blues, jazz, reggae and some choice international beats. I think the final product, though still a bit rough by my standards, went over quite well. No one called to complain which means a) I did OK or b) no one was listening. What the heck - I had a blast despite being up way past my bedtime.

Even better, I'm on again in the daylight hours this week (Wednesday July 7 from 4-6pm MDT) so perhaps my legions (ha!) of fans will be able to "stay up" this time around. If you're not in Calgary, no worries. We stream live 24/7 on our web site.

Thanks in advance for your support and hope you can listen in!