Memories Of Christmas on the Radio

I can remember being just a little lad and listening to the AM radio on Christmas Eve. We all know the excitement of Christmas Eve and the anticipation of Santa coming. The old tube type radio would crackle and hum as the radio announcer would break in and say the U.S. Air Force and NORAD had spotted an unidentified object flying at high speed from the North Pole headed towards the United States.

They would play some Christmas music and then the announcer would come on saying that the USAF had sent fighter planes to intercept the object. Then more music and they would have an officer talking from a base somewhere and he would report that the planes had spotted a sleigh being pulled by reindeer and they were sure it was Santa but where investigating. Sometime later it would get closer and closer to the SW Ohio area. I assume that it was a low wattage station and therefore knew their listeners would be in this area.

Fond memories indeed.

700 WLW's Mike McConnell unhappy?

Mike McConnell, broadcaster from 9AM-Noon on 700 WLW, I cannot help but wonder if he is the most unhappy man on the face of the earth. As I listened to the beginning of his broadcast again today it suddenly dawned on me that in the months I have listened to him I don't think I have ever heard him say he likes anything. It seems that he is always sharing bad news or is complaining about something. Granted, sometimes there is a lot to complain about but not all things in life are bad. Maybe I just haven't been listening long enough.

New Technology - New Radio?

With the spread of social networking services some say it is inevitable that radio will someday go the way of the dinosaur. Hopefully not or at least not in my lifetime.

One "station" I was recently told about by a friend is on Justin TV. If you like classic rock and have no problems listening to a wide variety of dirty jokes I encourage you to check out a British VJ that broadcasts from his farm in northern Wales. You can find him HERE.

As Spike (the VJ) says "It's like radio only better".

I have been listening for a couple of days now and am looking forward to hearing him again today.

A Boycott for WLW

I have been a listener to 700 WLW for as long as I can remember. Now, with the lame a** coverage of a sexual predator, drug addicted freak I am boycotting WLW and all Clear Channel stations. Not just because of the constant coverage of the Michael Jackson funeral but because even most of the announcers on WLW talk about how the station is overdoing coverage of the freak show. Well, I have had enough. Our 40+ year relationship has come to and end.

Reds on the radio

I just finished listening to the Cincinnati Reds on 700 WLW, flag station of the Reds. I remember listening to them on the old tube type radio and the smell of ozone from the tubes and listening to the Big Red Machine...all those great players like Bench, Perez, Morgan, Concepcion, Foster, Rose, Geronimo and the rest. Ah those were the days. A great time in which to grow up in.

To make it even sweeter, the Reds defeated the St. Louis Cardinals 5-3.

Go Reds!!!

Arbitron

After over 4 decades of radio listening something happened today that has never happened before. I received an invitation from Arbitron to take part in their ratings program. For those of you have never heard of Arbitron, they are an audience research company that collects statistics on radio listeners and the radio companies get that data from them to learn what age groups are listening, the times they are listening, etc. Kind of interesting even if you are not a radio station owner.

I looked up a little information about the history of the company because I know I have heard of them before. Seems the company was started in 1949 by Jim Seiler and in those days it was called the American Research Bureau or ARB. In the early 1950's the company merged with the west coast based Coffin, Cooper and Clay. In the 1960's the company name was changed to Arbitron as it is known today.

Like I said, kind of interesting. They send out a radio listening diary and for a week you record your listening habits and send it back. I wonder if they know what they have gotten in to by asking me to participate:) After all, I love to listen to the radio.

Good night...

Weather Alert Radio

If you don't already have a weather alert radio I would suggest that you get one. It gives you piece of mind and can literally save your life. In the event of a weather emergency we don't all live or work in an area where the weather sirens can be heard or we sleep soundly enough that the siren wouldn't wake us up anyway. In one personal instance I was living in Florida when a storm was so severe that it blocked the sound of the siren that I could usually hear quite well.

There are several manufacturers of weather alert radios, the one I currently have is the Midland WR 100B which I paid $24.95 for. The weather has battery backup in case the power fails, it has both alert tones and the radio comes on to broadcast the warning from the National Weather Service and there is a display on the screen that tells you what the watch or warning is about.

The new S.A.M.E. coding lets you even set your radio to the specific county you live in. You can get more information from the National Weather Service web page located here http://www.nws.noaa.gov/nwr/nwrrcvr.htm

The SAME code for Warren County, Ohio is 039165 and that is broadcast from the transmitters in Covington, Kentucky (KIH42 on 162.550) and Dayton, Ohio (WXJ46 on 162.475).

For those of you who have scanner radios and would like minute by minute coverage of the weather from amateur radio operators, I have listened for years on my scanner to the Weather Amateur Weather Network which broadcasts in times of severe weather on 146.880 and 147.090. You can check out the WARN web page at http://www.warn.org/