Entered December 21, 2010

Remember what I said about it being unseasonably warm here?  Well, never mind.

What is warming, and exceptionally gratifying, is the number of warm holiday wishes coming this way from former listeners, even though I’ve been out of the “public earhole” for going on two years!  Some of these lovely, thoughtful folks remember my on-air work from as many as 40 years ago.  I can barely remember what I had for dinner last night!

From the bottom of my heart, thank you for remembering and caring enough to reach out with your Christmas greetings.

Many people have included good wishes for Mary Ann, who spent parts of the last two years dealing with breast cancer.  She continues to be amazed by your kind support.  All her checkups in recent months have shown her to be cancer-free.  This is the gift we prayed for during the uncertainty of last Christmas, the gift we celebrate this Christmas.

I hope you have found lots of good reasons to be happy this holiday season, and that joy and prosperity visit you regularly in the New Year.

Cheers!

Bob

Entered September 22, 2010

Hello, again!

I hope you had a lovely summer.  The weather here has been mostly spectacular ... for months!  It started in early May and continues through this week.  Oh, it got up around 90 degrees (F.) a few times and we had maybe two week’s worth of humid days altogether, but the rest – all five months of it – has been outstanding, with just enough rain to keep everything green without needing to use the sprinkler system very often.  Today’s high temperature was in the upper 70s with lots of sunshine.  And I’m writing this on September 21!  In Canada!  Does that shatter your image of this part of the world?

Y’know, I’ve had a feeling for several years that the day will soon come when a lot of people who moved south because of weather are gonna feel like they made a mistake.  Climate change is having a wonderful effect on places like southern Ontario but not so much in the southern U.S.  People who couldn’t stand two or three months of winter with its colder temperatures and periodic snowfall up north are now down south trying to cope with the annual half-year of continuous, oppressive heat and humidity.  What a bargain!  They’ve traded three months of unlivable weather for six months of unlivable weather!

In the meantime, our pleasant, comfortable summers seem to be getting longer while the winters are getting shorter, less severe, easier.  Other forms of severe weather are something we watch on the TV news.  We don’t live with the threat or reality of hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes or flooding.

Can you tell I like it here?

Good thing, too, because this is where we’re going to stay.  I looked over the radio landscape during the past year and saw nothing of interest, nothing I fit or that fits me.  Nobody cares about the audience that's over the age of 45.  Well, I do, but most advertisers do not and, as a result, neither do advertising-supported businesses like radio, especially music radio stations.  If an opportunity arises to do some liners or shows from here for a station somewhere, that would be something to consider, but we’re not moving again.  I calculate that I’ve moved 38 times during my 50-year radio career.  That’s about enough, doncha think?

Mary Ann continues to gain back her strength and energy.  We had a couple of little scares and setbacks over the summer but nothing of lasting consequence.  She’s even got enough hair now that she can blow-dry it!  That may not mean much to you, but it felt like a great achievement to her.  She is so very appreciative of all the support and prayers she's received from family, friends and my former listeners -- terrific people like you who she doesn't even know.  Thank you for helping her through this ordeal.

I’m still not sure what I want to do with this blog and, frankly, the Almanac has been keeping me plenty busy on a daily basis.  It’s been well received and continues to slowly grow a loyal following.  Also it keeps me from thinking I've given in to the dreaded "R" word, retirement.

Not much else to report.  I just wanted to say hello and bring you up to date while wishing you a beautiful autumn.

Bob

Entered July 5, 2010

Hi!

Thanks for checking back.  I hope you’re having a great summer!

Thank you for all the e-mails of support and encouragement during my wife’s run-in with cancer.  It’s been a difficult 7-8 months for Mary Ann, for the whole family, while she’s endured surgery, chemotherapy and radiation treatments.  But now she’s feeling much better, regaining her strength, her energy … and, yes, her hair.  The doctors say she’s healing well and, best of all, there’s no further evidence of cancer.

I’m thinking about resuming this blog, perhaps as early as next month.  In the meantime, you might be interested in my new blog – OldeDiscJockeysAlmanac.blogspot.com – that was first developed as an alternative to this one during that recent period when it was having technical issues.  It has since evolved into what could be a helpful service for my fellow broadcasters who, like me, have been frustrated by not having a trustworthy, reliable, accurate source for this type of information.

You can access the new site by copying and pasting into your browser the URL in the previous paragraph, or just scroll down to Links in the right-hand column of this blog where you can click on a direct link to The Olde Disc Jockey’s Almanac.  The site is updated daily.  I hope you’ll bookmark it and visit often.

Bob