GO Transit train #257 sat dwarfed by the construction cranes at West Toronto after hitting a vehicle at the Old Weston Road crossing on 17 March 2009
TORONTO, ONTARIO - How often have you read or seen a news item about an area in which you have some expertise and were simply appalled at how many mistakes were in the newspaper article or broadcast report? For those with some knowledge of railroads, this happens all the time. However, I'll give a bit of credit to my local Bloor West Villager. On Tuesday, a mid-day GO commuter rail train had a grade crossing incident at Old Weston Road near the West Toronto "Junction." I happened to be in the area, found out what was happening, and checked out some of the trains stopped as a result of the incident. When I read the paper on Friday, the article on the incident, while not lengthy, was an accurate piece of journalism which confirmed what I had suspected and hoped--that no one was injured in the collision.
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I wish I could say that people will not be injured by Pope Benedict XVI's statement earlier this week that AIDS is "a tragedy that cannot be overcome by money alone, that cannot be overcome through the distribution of condoms, which even aggravates the problems." To my knowledge, no credible public health authority in the world agrees with the Pope's position against condoms, certainly not in Africa where the comment was aimed. It is very unfortunate that this Pope is proving to be completely out of touch with the reality of the world.
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I don't seem to be the only one to have noticed the reality of seafood prices being matched by the price of other meats. On CBC Radio One's local Metro Morning show this week, it was noted that lobster and bologna were the same price. That was an easy choice for the show's host.
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Another effective follow-up to an entry on this blog airing on CBC Radio One came on today's Cross Country Checkup. The very last caller, from British Columbia, claimed that Shaw had told him that it would cost $60,000 to provide his residence with broadband Internet access. That really drives home the need for affordable rural broadband technologies I wrote about earlier this week.
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In order to hear the Marketplace Morning Report here in Toronto, I need broadband Internet. There might now be some reason for me to actually tune in. Longtime KUOW-Seattle host Bill Radke will now be the fill-in host of that show, as reported in BlatherWatch. Radke was probably the most memorable Morning Edition host KUOW ever had, and his "Rewind" comedic week-in-review show was nationally syndicated in the United States for several years.
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Much darker news in radio comes out of New York, where ABC News freelancer George Weber has been found murdered. No details have been released. I have fond memories of listening to Weber as an evening talk show host on KOA out of Denver and KGO out of San Francisco. As just a small example of his humor, I remember one of his first nights on KGO filling in on the 7-10 pm shift. At 8:10 he made a grand pause and asked, "What time is it?" KGO is 810 AM, and that number is obviously featured prominently in the station's liners. So, Weber played the "810" portion of a liner, then stated, "I've been wanting to do that for a long time." For many years at KOA, Weber's show ended at midnight with a "Goodnight America" segment in which people could call in and say goodnight to anyone. Weber was 47. Goodnight, George.
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