Instead of inciting the usual riots in various political parties with my comments, today I'm going to talk about radio.
I thought I would talk about radio since news broke that longtime CJNB radio morning man Harry Michael Dekker is citizen of the year in the Battlefords.
People who know me well realize I am a heavy radio listener who is pretty much glued to the radio during my off hours. Not only do I rely on the radio to wake me up, but I tune in during the afternoons and evenings consuming any information I can possibly find.
Many people these days like the clear sounds of the FM band, which is good for listening to music of all kinds. I still prefer AM, though.
For one thing, the signals on AM travel for miles at night. A quick scan of the AM dial at night can pick up stations from Chicago, Boise, Seattle, Denver, Salt Lake City, Omaha and any number of places. I find it fascinating that I can be sitting in the Battlefords miles away, listening to a signal from Salt Lake City boom in on my radio on 1160 AM on the dial.
I also find it fascinating to tune in to Saskatchewan stations on the radio whenever I am outside the province. The most booming signal from Saskatchewan comes from CBC 540 and their 50,000 watt transmitter in Watrous. One time when my family was on a trip in Â鶹´«Ã½AV Dakota years ago, we actually tuned into CBC 540 to find out the score of a CFL game from earlier in the day, only to learn the Riders had lost to hated Winnipeg by one point.
On a recent trip to Kelowna I heard CBC Saskatchewan come in clear as a bell at night, along with GX 94 from Yorkton and 900 CKBI from Prince Albert. Just for laughs, I tuned to 1050 AM to see if I might hear North Battleford. Sure enough, through all the static came the familiar identification for "CJNB the Battlefords! CJNS Meadow Lake! Rawlco radio stations!"
Another reason I prefer the AM band is because I usually like the programming. When you tune in to AM you can find plenty of all-news or all-sports stations, and I prefer that to the music you usually find on FM.
It's especially great during the baseball season when you can tune into the broadcasts of baseball teams like the Seattle Mariners, Chicago Cubs, Minnesota Twins and the Toronto Blue Jays. During the winter, AM is great for picking up football and hockey games from just about everywhere in western North America.
I also like hearing these "old time" radio broadcasts from yesteryear. Each night the booming signal of CHQR 770 from Calgary runs repeats of old radio shows: Burns and Allen! Dragnet! Duffy's Tavern! Suspense! The Green Hornet!
I am not without complaints about the state of radio these days. In the old days it seemed there was more variety on the radio and more identifiable deejays and local personalities.
As well, the talk show hosts covered a broader range of subjects. Larry King used to host an overnight radio talk show on the Mutual Broadcasting System. He hosted authors, celebrities, politicians, you name it.
There also used to be a ton of local talk show hosts with diverse topics on different stations. These days, though, local talent has been shown the door and the syndicated talk shows have gone totally to heck. Tune in to American stations now, and it's all politics. Rush Limbaugh. Sean Hannity. Michael Savage.
If that's not enough, you also have folks ranting and raving from the left on these "progressive talk" stations. It gets really tiresome hearing people spew their usual party lines. I get enough of that in my job.
There is also sports talk radio. I happen to like sports talk radio, but it seems to be all one channel these days. Almost every sports station on the AM dial these days is "ESPN Radio" of one sort or another. Tune in 1500 from Minneapolis and you get ESPN Radio - same for 1600 and 1700. Tune into 680 or 700 or 710, and it's also ESPN. On AM 710, if you point the radio antenna one way you get ESPN 710 from Seattle; point it south and it's ESPN 710 from Bismarck.
You also hear it on Canadian stations on 1260, 1290, and elsewhere. Much as I like ESPN Radio, I want to see more variety. Besides, ESPN's hosts don't care about hockey one bit.
I'd like to say radio in Saskatchewan is better, but too many stations run a lot of boring programming that puts you to sleep, like endless religious shows. I guess a lot of people in this province need saving.
There is plenty of uncertainty among radio people generally about the business and where it is going. So many conglomerates have been taking over stations and slashing personnel. People at home have been trading in transistor radios for smart phones and text-messaging. People are getting music by listening to their iPods and other devices.
But there have been some advances for radio. You can now easily tune into radio stations online. Thanks to the Internet, you can listen to stations as far away as Europe, Africa and Asia on the Internet. Plus, satellite radio is available as well.
I don't know what the next several years will bring but as long as I have something decent to listen to on my radio I'll be a happy camper.
