Construction Workers Trafficing Cocaine Ahead

A few weeks ago, Jenna and I visited my family in Nova Scotia. On a walk with my parents and grandmother in Dartmouth, we saw this sign near NSCC’s new Waterfront Campus:

So, um… watch out.

Radio Lab is great

I remember the very first time I heard This American Life. Shelley Robinson was the PD (or maybe station coordinator) at CKDU at the time, and I was doing my show, Dickey Drive, and she suggested that I check out Ira Glass and his show online. I wrote down the web address (thislife.org) on a scrap of cardboard, stuck it in my pocket, and forgot about it for several weeks.

When I finally got around to listening to TAL, I was floored. It was unlike anything I’d heard on the radio before. To my ears it was fresh and exciting, and I couldn’t believe I’d not heard of it before. After listening to several episodes, it became radio’s gold standard in my mind (something that has since caused me much great frustration with my own work, along these lines explained by Ira). Anyway, my point is that TAL told stories in ways I’d not heard before, in ways that seemed really inventive, and got me very excited about making radio.

And again, just today, I heard another program that excites me in very much the same way.

Over the past few weeks, I’ve had a couple people ask me if I’d heard any of Radio Lab out of WNYC. I hadn’t, so I made a mental note to check it out, which I didn’t until this afternoon. I downloaded a couple of shows to my iPod, and listened to the first episode of season three. It’s all about the Placebo effect.

Holy crap, this is great sounding show. Production-wise, it blows my mind. Almost every element is perfect. The division between narration and tape almost doesn’t exist. The whole thing sounds seamless. They producers use sound in such interesting ways. Not just music, and narration, and clips, but ambiances, sound effects, snippets of mic checks, and actors. I just love how the show is cut together, and how they tell stories with sound.

Seriously, download the MP3, and listen to the first three minutes.

If you’re at all interested in making radio stories, study Radio Lab closely. I certainly plan to.

CBC Radio Overnight all weekend?

Why, when I visit the CBC Radio portal page on Sunday evening, does it think that CBC Radio Overnight is playing in all time zones?

This is the second weekend I can remember CBC Radio Overnight supposedly playing all Sunday. Now, for the record, I do think the new CBC Radio page is an improvement over the previous version. The “Find a Program” filter is pretty slick.

But why can’t the site reliably display correct program information?

I mean, over at PublicRadioFan.com, I can create a list of my favourite stations, and it displays not just what’s playing on them now, but also what’s coming up in the future. Hands-down, it’s a better source of program information than the CBC’s own site. And from what I can tell, PublicRadioFan is run by one guy, Kevin A. Kelly, in his spare time.

Seriously. Come on.

Great video: Widget

I’m not usually one to post videos, but today, via the Radio3 blog, I found a great short by Nathan Fielder. It’s called Widget, and it’s hosted on the new Exposure site.

The scripting and pacing reminds me so much of my favourite cartoon, Home Movies.

Conceptually, I liked ZeD, but found the execution and quality hit-or-miss. I’m keen to see how Exposure pans out for CBC  when it launches in July.

Radio Summer = “CBCOvernightOverflow”?

Over on alt.radio.networks.cbc, Dan Say says CBC Radio’s summer schedule is “almost like CBCOvernightOverflow.” And I have to agree.

Browse through the lineup, and many of the shows start to look a little, um… similar.

Crossing Boundaries is

A 30 minute program featuring the best documentaries from public broadcasters around the world, including the Netherlands, Australia, New Zealand and Great Britain.

Global Perspectives is

Global Perspectives is a theme-based program featuring documentaries from around the world.

Spotlight is made up of

The best programs from public broadcasters worldwide, presented in their entirety.

WorldPlay is

Our annual International Festival of Original Radio Drama brings you original works from New Zealand, Australia, Canada, The USA, Ireland and Britain.

I honestly wonder what the nation’s appetite for international programming is, and whether it’s not currently served by the Overnight service. Or podcasts. Or, uh… shortwave.