Radio Pick: News 2.0

TORONTO, ONTARIO - This week's radio pick is a special presentation from the CBC.

Ira Basen has long been one of my favorite CBC producers; pretty much everything he has touched, from "Quirks and Quarks" to "The Hidden City" to "Spin Cycles" has made for excellent radio. His latest effort is a two-part series on the reality and future of news in the Web 2.0 world which has been titled "News 2.0". The second fifty-four minute segment aired this week on the Sunday Edition and right from the first story explaining how a blogger ended up greatly affecting a stock price, the impact of technology on news is explained in a compelling manner.

Listen to MP3 of The Sunday Edition "News 2.0 Part Two"

Media: Michael Jackson and Niche Media

TORONTO, ONTARIO - Generally speaking, on this blog I don't bother to express my opinion about topics if my opinion is well-represented in the so-called mainstream media or even elsewhere in the blogosphere or niche media--though in the later case I am more likely to link to that external coverage as many readers of this blog may have missed it. That's why I have avoided any comment on the death of Michael Jackson eight days ago, apparently of a heart attack at the age of 50--the level of coverage was almost nauseating and other people with far greater credentials than me had weighed in with pretty much everything I had to say.

Surprisingly, at least to me, the person I heard in many hours of Michael Jackson coverage who was most closely aligned with my views was the rapper Sir Mix-a-Lot, who appeared on the Dave Ross show on KIRO-FM out of Seattle a week ago today. During the interview, which can be heard at this link, "Mix" made points including the following:

• Michael Jackson's death represented the death of pop music, in that he may have been the last great crossover superstar spanning and combining genres
• Michael Jackson did not just transcend race, but transcended culture, bringing people all over the world together with his music, not just people of different races
• Michael Jackson's death caused everyone from convicted violent felons to juvenile girls to cry
• The Man in the Mirror was the quintessential Michael Jackson song

"Mix"'s first point was echoed over in the niche media at Scott Fybush's Northeast Radio Watch. In his weekly publication, Fybush pointed out that nearly the entire radio dial could do Michael Jackson tributes and not break their individual formats--and indeed even some that were arguably breaking format ran tributes anyway. The story was that big, and Jackson inspired that much emotion.

Yet, I fear that "Mix" was right that there are no more "pop" artists that have connected with the world the way Michael Jackson did--and extrapolating Fybush's point about hyper-niche programming of contemporary radio, it may not even be possible for another Michael Jackson to exist. Everyone is listening to just the music they are attracted to on their portable music players--and if they listen to the radio at all, they are most likely to tune to a station with an extremely well-defined format. Could a young Michael Jackson even get airplay today? It's not clear.

Whatever his flaws--and books will probably be written about them, both real and accused--Michael Jackson was fundamentally all about bringing everyone in the world together. It's a shame not only that the world has lost a media star with that perspective, but that it is entirely possible he will never have a successor.

Culture: Closed for Canada Day?

Patriotic colors dominated this scene from the Canada Day fireworks display at Civic Centre in Mississauga, Ontario on 1-July-2009

TORONTO, ONTARIO - As much of the media would have it, Canada's largest city did not celebrate Canada's birthday. Because of the city worker's strike, most city events including those on Canada Day have been canceled. To the rest of the country, this was further evidence that Toronto doesn't care about anything outside of the 416 area code.

Yet, that's not what I saw in the behavior of Toronto residents on this Canada Day. The city-sponsored events, most notably the fireworks displays over Ashbridge's Bay and Mel Lastman Square in North York may not have been taking place, but there are multiple layers of government in this country and provincial, federal, and private events went on. The provincial capital at Queen's Park hosted its normal suite of day-long events. The federally-administered Downsview Park went about its entertainment including a fireworks display. The privately-sponsored Festival of Fire at Ontario Place went on with its fireworks display, and the Toronto Blue Jays held some Canada Day-related events at their game, including after-game fireworks. All of these events were well-attended by Torontonians and tourists alike.

Admittedly, though, I chose to venture outside Toronto for my Canada Day fireworks fix. Having seen the Downsview Park display last year and with two other dates to see the Festival of Fire, I decided this was a good year to venture to neighbouring Mississauga--the sixth largest city in Canada that nobody outside of Ontario seems to have heard of. The inducement of free rides on Mississauga Transit--normally expensive at $3 a ride--was another reason to give it a try.

The diversity of faces at the Civic Square was a nice reflection of Mississauga itself--all the races of the world mixing freely--quite similar in fact to what I've observed in the past on Canada Day at Downsview Park in Toronto. The fireworks themselves are set off on top of City Hall, not unlike the North York display. The emcee for the day, made it clear on a regular basis that we were in Mississauga, and that the city was prouder of Canada than its larger neighbour.

The 25-minute display itself was worth seeing; my only real complaint was that Mississauga Transit did not run any extra buses over its normal holiday schedule out of Square One after the display--I guess it's free for a reason.

Margin Notes: Upsetting Scenes, CBC, KNX

The garbage collection site at Étienne Brûlé Park in Toronto, Ontario was quiet--and not particularly smelly--on 28 June 2009

TORONTO, ONTARIO - The largest city in Canada is now entering the second week of a strike by city workers. In rather extensive tours of the city the past few days with my visiting aunt and uncle, there were a few places where the lack of garbage collection was apparent, but it wasn't nearly as bad as I might have guessed. One reason may be that the city has opened nineteen locations to collect garbage across the city. I was surprised to find that one of those locations was my local Étienne Brûlé Park near the Humber River. However, when I walked by the location for the first time on Sunday since it opened, I found that that despite a reasonable amount of collected material, it didn't have a bad smell nor did it really disrupt the use of the park much for locals, as it mostly took up a parking area. Of course, the bad smells may be coming if the strike goes on for too long.

* * * * * *

One thing that has a bad smell to me is the CBC's summer schedule. Most years, the programming on CBC Radio One during the ten weeks of summer features a variety of innovative new shows or old summer favorites, some of which go on to become permanent additions to the schedule. That's not likely this year. If I am reading the web page correctly (and that should be clear in the coming week), then only six summer shows are producing new content this year, and only one of those (Socket) is a new series never heard before. Other shows are things we've heard in previous years, and in some cases, it appears that the old series are being rebroadcast (including the excellent "Hidden City" and "White Coat, Black Art"). I know the CBC is in budget trouble, but at the rate things are going we're going to be listening to "As It Happens" repeated continuously before long.

* * * * * *

More non-news out of the radio industry came out of Los Angeles. I thought I was going to be reporting that another major AM station had started a FM simulcast. However, it turns out that the only change at KNX 1070 AM is a simulcast on a digital subchannel of smooth jazz KTWV 94.7 FM. That's nice, but considering that almost nobody has a digital radio, that's about as consequential as if I decided to re-broadcast KNX to my neighborhood--just about nobody will hear it.

* * * * * *


A crew cleaned the Monument to the War of 1812 on the Toronto Waterfront on 27 June 2009

Fortunately, just about nobody will see the vandalism that apparently occurred on Douglas Coupland's controversial Monument to the War of 1812 located near Fort York in Toronto. By chance, I caught the cleaning crew already well into their mission on Saturday, so I don't know if it was American hooligans upset by the message of the sculpture or what.

* * * * * *


The Frankenstein Museum and Burger King were engaged in a bit of co-marketing at Niagara Falls, Ontario on 26 June 2009

Some might consider the scene above upsetting, but I found a certain appropriateness to the Frankenstein Museum and Burger King mixing their signs in the tourist-crazy zone of Clifton Hill in Niagara Falls, Ontario. Somehow I can just see Frankenstein saying "Sometimes you've gotta break the rules."

Photos: Union Pacific Steam

Union Pacific's Western Heritage Express crested Sand Pass, Nevada with steam locomotive #844 providing the only power on 5-May-2009

TORONTO, ONTARIO - This week's update to my photo site goes back a couple months. The early portion of a trip to the west coast of the United States in spring 2009 focused on following and riding the Union Pacific "Western Heritage Express" between Roseville, California and Winnemucca, Nevada via the former Western Pacific route through the Feather River Canyon between 29-April and 5-May-2009. The experience included riding the train from Portola, California to Winnemucca where the steam locomotive was unassisted and ran at 70 mph. Also included are aerial views from the westbound flights and scenery along the route.

Radio Pick: Women in Iran

TORONTO, ONTARIO - This week's radio pick comes from The Current on the CBC for the first time this year. There have been many interesting angles on the elections in Iran in the past week as evidence has mounted for fraud. Arguably, the most interesting aspect of the situation, besides what happens next, is not what happened during the election but how the situation of the past few weeks was created. Host Anna Maria Tremonti took an interesting tack by looking at the influence of women in Iran in this 22-minute segment, introduced by a nice piece of satire.

Click the "Listen to Part One" Link on this page to listen to The Current "Women in Iran"

Transport: Parking in the Median

A car was parked in the median of Queen Street near the Centotaph in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario on 26-June-2009

TORONTO, ONTARIO - While visiting Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario today, it was noticed that delivery trucks tended to park in the middle of Queen Street to make their deliveries. Drivers making a fast run into stores on the street would also park their cars in the median for a minute or two, then rush back and drive away. Whether technically legal or not, the practice was clearly commonplace, and seemingly functional.

Locations with parking in the middle of a street usually exist because of some unusual history or geography on a street. Burnett Avenue South in Renton, Washington once had a railroad right-of-way in the middle of the street. When the railroad was abandoned, the city decided to turn the space into parking. There is parking in the middle of Lake Shore Drive West in Toronto largely because of substantial space created by bridges and other obstructions that caused the lanes in each direction to be separated by some distance.

There seems to be little advantage to having parking in the middle of a street--it creates vehicles exiting and entering from the "fast" and unexpected side of the street and it creates a challenge for those who have parked to get to either side of the street except perhaps in a one-lane situation like Niagara-on-the-Lake. The only positive seems to be using geography--like the area around the Cenotaph in Niagara-on-the-Lake or in the Lake Shore Drive situation in Toronto--that cannot be used for flowing traffic.

The strangest thing about the median parking in Niagara-on-the-Lake is that there is parking on each side of Queen Street. It would seem to me that what the city needs to do is re-designate some of that parking to short-term (e.g. 15 minute) parking to allow its use for the purpose used by the vehicles in the median and then physically barricade the median so that it cannot be used for that present purpose. Until something is done, there will be interesting scenes on Queen Street in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario.