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Sunday, June 27, 2010

Things to know from the good old CRTC.

This is an interesting read for those of us who feel that the radio world is actually getting smaller and smaller, what with so many talented  people who have studied and know the music getting their pink slips. Then it is time we go the other route...

New Media Project Initiative In 2007, the Commission's New Media Project Initiative was established to examine the cultural, economic, and technological issues associated with new media broadcasting and what actions, if any, the CRTC should take to ensure that the Canadian new media broadcasting environment meets the objectives of the Broadcasting Act.




The purpose of this Initiative is to provide a solid basis for policy development in the new environment. It will build on the foundation of 14 December 2006 report entitled "The Future Environment Facing the Canadian Broadcasting System".



The Initiative commissioned research and solicited stakeholder views on the new media broadcasting environment from leaders in the Canadian broadcasting and telecom industry, academics, and policy-makers (nationally and internationally) and has compiled this information in Perspectives on Canadian Broadcasting in New Media.



The Commission released a public notice in May 2008 calling for comments on the scope of a future proceeding on Canadian new media broadcasting. The public notice also invited Canadians to participate in an online consultation to discuss issues and questions related to the public notice and assist in defining the scope of the new media broadcasting proceeding.



Related documents

Regulating content on the Internet: A new technological perspective

March 2008, A Report for Industy Canada

TV or Not TV: Three Screens, One Regulation? [.htm] [.pdf]

CRTC New Media Broadcasting eConsultation Report [.htm] [.pdf]

Perspectives on Canadian Broadcasting in New Media [.htm] [.pdf]

Changing channels: alternative distribution of television content [.htm] [.pdf]

Access to News Sources (Decima Research, July 2007)

An Overview of the Canadian Program Rights Market 2007 (Peter H. Miller)

Report on 'Research on the New Media sector: International New Media Regulations Environmental Scan' (Nordicity Group Limited, November 2007)

Study of Canadian OTA Local News Economic and Audience Trends (Nordicity Group Limited, May 2008)

Report on the Future Environment Facing the Canadian Broadcasting System

Call for comments on a request by the Governor in Council pursuant to section 15 of the Broadcasting Act to prepare a report examining the future environment facing the Canadian broadcasting system (Broadcasting Public Notice CRTC 2006-72)



The CRTC commissioned the following report related to this process:



Fast Forward Trend Analysis (Solutions Research Group Consultants Inc, August 2006)

Comments received



The Future Environment Facing the Canadian Broadcasting System



October 1, 2007 New Media Invitational Session

Background

Agenda

List of Participants

Presentation - National Content on New Media (Peter S. Grant, Senior Counsel, McCarthy Tétrault LLP) (available in English only)

Friday, June 25, 2010

Just to let everybody know,
The Tour Dates for BABE RUTH

Be There!

Yes in Quebec

I have just found out that Yes are performing this Sunday here are the details;
Yes Free Show in Quebec on June 27


Yes will be doing a free show in Laval, Quebec, on Sunday, June 27. This is part of the city's festival. Show time is 9:30 pm.







Amphitheatre Loto-Quebec

Espace Montmorency

475 Boulevard de L'Avenir

Laval, QC Canada

I felt the earth move…but what is BP doing about it?

Okay on Wednesday Ottawa experienced what they say was a 5.0 earthquake, which rattled allot of nerves that is for sure. For myself, well I was at the library when it hit and like everyone else said, “What the hell is that?” However, as the place was shaking I just sat there and let nature take its course. I was surprised to se exactly how people panic which as you are reading this, you are probably thinking that I was sitting there and I should have run outside as if everyone else did. Wrong people! The best place to go during a quake is under a table, or between a doorframe. Running outside is the WORSE thing anyone can do. Where peoples are minds when things like this happens?

Now here is a theory that I came up with after the quake. After the quake hit I proceeded to go home, thinking on the way that Oh no, all my bottles are probably smashed on the floor. Okay at this point is when my mind started visioning what surprises awaited for me at home. Well upon entering my place started to check for damages. All my bottles on the wet bar were fine, but then I turned around and looked into my living room Disaster, because as I eyeballed the two shelves that I have all my figurines on and other memories were either on the floor or were shaken around. Then I look around, see my aquarium, and noticed water all over. I should mention here that when I returned from the west coast a few weeks ago. My aquarium was leaking so I had to do a repair job on it; ironically, I had just filled it back up on Monday. Well it was all over, I started to think oh no it\s leaking again dammit! However, cleaning it up it was not leaking but the water had actually swished and splashed out from the top. Therefore, my place must have shaken good then.

Okay so a few things got broken at my place but really no biggy the real biggy I started thinking about was what really caused it?

Now I am no rocket scientist but lets take a look at what I started thinking? If my memory is correct, then go back to geography class and remember that lesson on the earths crust and the different layers of rock that move. Well since the BP oil spill that is oozing probably more then 100, 00 gallons of oil per day as what the media is reporting, which is what they are getting from the BP execs.
Well if that much oil is coming out each day and how many days are we into now with this? Well all that oil that is pumping out came from the earth. OUR EARTH! In addition, this is where you really have to think about it? If that much oil is coming to the surface THEN there must be a void somewhere beneath the earths crust, which is going to affect the different layers of the shelves of rock well bingo we have movement and hence earthquake.
So is that oil gushing out daily is it affecting our lives, well sorry to say YES! It is, that is it is affecting our planet making it unsafe in many areas because after the quake I looked at my globe and tried to see where the line sort of goes to from the gulf oil spill.
Sure enough that line goes along up to the area where the quake was ….



Lately everyone is getting on this but who is in charge?
Reports tell us this and that, then we are told something else then they say they are going to tap the leak again and again they tried no avail. Oil still oozing out at a massive rate. Then CEO goes in yacht race, and now the oil-oozing out we are told that: Wait for it, Oh it is now bigger then the Valdes spill.

What is wrong here?


Jun 25, 3:41 PM (ET)

By MICHAEL KUNZELMAN

NEW ORLEANS (AP) - Tests show BP is on target for mid-August completion of a relief well in the Gulf of Mexico, the best hope of stopping the oil that's been gushing since April, the company said Friday.

The crew drilling the first of two wells ran a procedure this week to confirm it is on the correct path, spokesman Bill Salvin said.

"The layman's translation is, 'We are where we thought we were,'" he said.

Several such tests are needed to determine the relief well's location relative to the well that blew out April 20 when the offshore drilling rig Deepwater Horizon exploded. Once the new well intersects the blown-out one, BP plans to pump heavy drilling mud in to stop the oil flow and plug it with cement.


Salvin said the relief well should be done by mid-August, but that didn't seem to help the company's stock price, which plunged following the company's announcement that the price tag for the response has risen to $2.35 billion.

BP shares fell more than 6 percent in New York on Friday to a 14-year low. If the decline holds, BP will have lost more than $100 billion in market value since the spill.

The company's shares closed at $60.48 the day of the rig blast. On Friday, they dipped as low as $26.92 - their lowest level since July 1996. They traded at $27.06 Friday afternoon, down $1.68. At that price, shares have lost $104.6 billion in value since April 20 and $14.71 billion this week alone.

Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen said Vice President Joe Biden will head to the Gulf on Tuesday to visit a command center in New Orleans and the Florida Panhandle, where a section of a popular beach was closed because large pools of oil washed up.

Meanwhile, officials kept a wary eye on an area of low-pressure in the Caribbean that threatened to turn into the first tropical depression of the Atlantic season.

BP would need about five days to move all of its equipment out of harm's way if a storm threatens, Salvin said. So far, the company hasn't started that process.

Lt. Cmdr. Dave Roberts, a Navy hurricane specialist at the National Hurricane Center, said an Air Force reconnaissance plane was on its way to investigate the system Friday and would likely know later in the day whether it will develop further.

The equipment to be secured would include ships working to process oil being sucked to the surface from a containment device and the rigs drilling the two relief wells. The way the system is set up now, oil would flow unabated into the Gulf if BP had to abandon its containment effort because of a storm.

The first well, started May 2, reached a depth of 16,275 feet on Wednesday before workers paused for the first test known as a ranging run. Although the first relief well is only 200 feet laterally from the original well, the crew still has to drill around 3,000 feet deeper before it can intercept the original well, according to Salvin.

"We have to hit a target essentially nine inches in diameter," he said.

The second relief well, started on May 16, has reached a depth of 10,500 feet.

Worst-case government estimates say about 2.5 million gallons are leaking from the well, though no one really knows for sure.

August seems a long way off to many dealing with the fallout that includes oil washing up on beaches and creeping into delicate wetlands.

Along Pensacola Beach in Florida, part of which was closed Thursday, lifeguard Collin Cobia wore a red handkerchief over his nose and mouth to block the oil smell. "It's enough to knock you down," he said.

Others weren't happy about the situation but declined to second-guess the BP engineers.

"I have no clue at all about the correct way to stop it," said Rocky Ditcharo, a seafood dock owner in Louisiana's Plaquemines Parish. "'Powerless' - that's a good word for it."

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Tuesday, June 22, 2010

You want knowledge then do your homework!

Okay here it is the first day of summer and now it is time to get this blog going because well I am tired of hitting my head against a brick wall, in other words it’s time to take my ingenious idea and put it into full gear.


Therefore, after being in and out of the media world, this includes radio, television, and newspapers. It has come to my immediate attention that indeed the media world has really taken a spiral turn thanks to the information highway.



Therefore, after looking at plan B after Plan A did not work I concluded that from 1997 when this whole thing hatched within me being the station manager of one of the very first internet radio stations on the internet. I now have decided Screw it! With trying the very hardest to get back to the lust of working in the rea I love and flourish, even if I do have a vast knowledge of the music world. As many of my close friends call me the walking encyclopaedia of music… okay I do not like to brag, but this came about from learning the industry at an early age. Which meant I spent allot of money on trade magazines like Rolling Stone. I have script ions from when they started until the late 80’s.I also would buy Melody Maker, Billboard, Variety, Creem, and many others … and I still buy the issues that have real interest to me.



Back a few years ago I got the chance to work for CHUM on a new project that was putting over 200 channels of music on a web site, it was named Bonzaroo.com. It was in effect the idea I thought of back when I got my first computer because I saw the potential that was coming. Guess the constant watching of Star Trek could be a factor of that to.



It seemed everyone working there was or were involved in radio or television who like myself were trying to hold on to their careers that they, like myself put out allot sweat, cash, long nights and lots of studying… and not to forget partying… part of the subject matter when at school.



Well things were looking good and from what I was, hearing this could become a good way of informing people of new music and also opening up areas for unsigned bands, and musicians. Then the unthinkable happened the owner came to the boss and said he was selling Bonzaroo to Standard Broadcasting in Toronto. That to me was the demise of any future in the business.



Of course, Standard offered the people positions in Toronto. My boss asked me if I wanted to continue. Maybe I should have but I am glad in the end I did not. The boss and friend Gary Aube and many others left for Toronto. Of course, as I told Gary, sorry I just do not like Toronto and I had something in the works going anyhow. Therefore, I stayed behind. Then about two years after I receive a call from Gary. At first, I thought maybe he was going to offer me something new as I found out he left Iceberg.com well he had called me to inform me that he and his wife were moving back to his hometown in Bathurst, New Brunswick and that he was retiring. Nevertheless, what he said was an indication of what was happening in Radio. We talked for a while about the way radio is going today. Now like I said before I do consider myself a musicologist in music as I look back and think. Yeah that is what I studied, paid good money to be trained and get the proper schooling and then to have it all taken away because of the way the world is turning now.



The thing that Gary said was and I had to firmly agree with was, “There is no talent left in radio today it’s all salesmen doing everything in radio now.” However, to bad, that is what they are and they are nothing else except Sales people like everyone else. Because think of it people if you look at yourself or the person next to you, we are all sales people because we are constantly selling ourselves. That is a different forum of selling in my books.



Nevertheless, when radio takes on people for their sales and look for someone who can increase revenue then hey that person is going to get the job. However, does he know anything about music NO! That is a very BIG NO! For my part.



A fine example of this took place just yesterday when I did call one of the local stations who wanted people to call in to tell the person on air something. Well I took it a bit farther only because of the subject that the broadcaster was asking about. Well after I told, allot of jokes along the way telling my story. Well the person did not I think get it or just did not care. Man and that to me is not really operating the phones in a professional manner. Hmm something that most PD’s want in a good broadcaster, at least that is the way it was.

This is one area I loved to do because if you wanted listeners then you would be the best friend of theirs on-air and on the phones.



Yes, I do get upset at this. From being a Program Director, I know that to have many listeners and get the best ratings one must know something about the music he or she is playing. This even goes for a news announcer, sports caster. If you are not people friendly then this job is not for you.



Therefore, I hope that people who are in radio or television will be checking in and learning things from myself. As I get into the business, I am working on now. I will now get on my Blog to keep you informed on a more regular basic. Even for the people who just like to keep informed and like to read Blogs.



All I know is that starting a business is not just an overnight thing that happens. It is allot of hard work because of the simple fact that there is so much preparation, paperwork, overhead and knowledge to get you there and then as your business will thrive or die is how hard you work at it. You are the boss.



Well now, I have to get back to the business of it. All because when your flying solo at the start you are the whole biz which means eighteen to twenty hours a day at the moment because of the work I am doing which by the way if you can do it yourself then you will actually be saving yourself allot of headaches and cash.

Of course depending of the vision now, which I believe, will flourish considerable, I hope to expand the idea into the new media forum I have envisioned for the future. Stay tuned!

Morning has Broken. However, your synapses have been up all night!

So are you a morning person or a night person and when do you have your creative activity? Well for my part, I have to say my hours are all over the place. Seems our synapses are working all the time at least. For my part nowadays.


If your like me you try to remember every little or big idea that crosses the great divide. Well let me tell you since I notice that say I have a creative idea at night for oh I don’t know say a cool movie idea, I find out by morning Hmm that idea is gone. So here is a little advice go and get one of those little note books the ones that you can slip into a pocket and always carry a pen or some forum of writing material.

Why you might ask? Well think when your creative juices are flowing you should be writing it all down or else you forget. In addition, the fact that when I am writing down an idea I also seem when I am writing it down will come up with a few different versions, or just get creative as I am writing. If you work with others who are say the think tank of your organization then you probably do this with your others to enhance or colour the idea.



Now if you are like myself then you can understand that writing an idea down is a major step in remembering your impulse, which at the time seems like a great idea. Just do not do what I have done. Which is writing a short description, then find it a month later look at it, and try to figure the idea out? Try to write everything every idea down so you don’t forget.