This is the first instalment of something new I'm trying for the blog this year. Nothing big, just something to do for fun. Through the magic of the Internet, I'm going to sample radio stations from all across Canada. I'll just randomly pick a city or town. I'll do a Google search for the local classic rock radio station in that city/town. On the station's website, I'll listen to the live feed for awhile. The blog posts will feature the name of the station, its number on the dial, the station's call letters and catchphrase (if it has one), and where it broadcasts from. I'll list the first few songs the station played while I was tuned in. I'm also going to try to note some kind of a local reference I hear while listening (for example: the name of a local business that runs a commercial during the time I'm listening).

I guess the name of this section isn't entirely correct. If you're listening to a station streaming on the Internet, you're not really getting it over the airwaves, are you? But the name was chosen to reflect the idea of visiting many radio stations across Canada.

I got this idea a little while back when I was going through some old e-mails. Someone had mentioned to me his morning drive to work, listening to radio station C103. So I thought I'd look up C103 and give them a listen, and that led to the idea of checking out lots of different Canadian stations. Most classic rock stations -- whether in Canada or anywhere else -- probably sound a lot the same, but we'll see. Since it was C103 that inspired this idea, it seemed to make sense to start there. So, here we go with the first CANADAirwaves:

C103 - Moncton, New Brunswick (CJMO 103.1 FM) - "Moncton's Classic Rock" http://www.c103.com/

Playlist while I listened: Big Sugar - "If I Had My Way" Thin Lizzy - "The Boys Are Back In Town" Honeymoon Suite - "New Girl Now" Pearl Jam - "Even Flow" Pink Floyd - "Wish You Were Here" Bush - "Comedown" April Wine - "Weeping Widow" Local Reference: - Jungle Jim's Eatery (1134 Mountain Road) - "Swing Into Jungle Jim's" - Riverview Mall (Coverdale Road) - The Bay in Moncton is closing (that's too bad)

Most-viewed tabs for the month of December 2011:

25 - Harlequin - Thinking Of You
24 - Max Webster - Let Go the Line
23 - Doucette - Mama Let Him Play
23 - Harlequin - Innocence
21 - Honeymoon Suite - New Girl Now
19 - Harlequin - Sweet Things In Life
19 - Honeymoon Suite - Burning In Love
19 - Max Webster - A Million Vacations
18 - A Foot In Coldwater - (Make Me Do) Anything You Want
18 - Helix - Deep Cuts the Knife
18 - Max Webster & Rush - Battle Scar

Total Tab Views for December: 1,079

By section:  Canadian-747  Girlschool-108  Various-96  Chords-128

Most-viewed tabs overall (up to Dec. 31/11):

1,080 - Honeymoon Suite - Burning In Love
1,032 - Doucette - Mama Let Him Play
831 - The Kings - This Beat Goes On
805 - Harlequin - Thinking Of You
637 - Honeymoon Suite - Stay In the Light
630 - Honeymoon Suite - New Girl Now
622 - A Foot In Coldwater - (Make Me Do) Anything You Want
607 - The Kings - Switchin' To Glide
591 - Harlequin - Innocence
588 - Kim Mitchell - Patio Lanterns

Tabs reaching 100 overall views this month: Secret Information, Kick It Down, Ohio, Moonshine (Friend Of Mine), School, One

A notice to inform people that tab requests have been discontinued.

Doing a full tab properly takes somewhere in the area of ten hours. It requires a few nights (3-5 depending on length and difficulty) to do the tab itself, then more time to enter it into the computer, do a thorough check on it, and get it posted. Over forty of the tabs on this site have been done by specific request from various site visitors, representing some 400+ hours of my time doing songs others have asked for.

But a post I made on the site blog awhile back revealed (over a period of time) that not one site visitor had two minutes (or less) of time to give back. A particular link wasn't clicked on even one single time. No time, no interest.

This discrepancy led to a reassessment of my own time management, and ultimately to the decision to end tab requests. 

Mood:  blue

As it turned out, they weren't meant to be apart from each other for very long. My wonderful, big cat Paddy passed away last Friday (Dec. 9) at the age of sixteen and three quarters, only six short weeks after the passing of his lifelong cat companion Tara. (They were born about two weeks apart.) Paddy had been feeling unwell at the same time as Tara, each of them affected by totally different ailments. He has a nice, peaceful final resting spot right beside Tara, in his woods that he spent so much time in.

Paddy was a gentle, good-natured cat, with a heart as big as his considerable size. He was born in early April of 1995.  His mother (from a nearby neighbourhood) was a beautiful, long-haired black cat named Keswick. Paddy had her good looks, even after suffering a badly slashed nose while still a young cat. I don't know if that wound came from another cat, or if he tangled with a woods animal. All we know is that Tara led him home that night.

Paddy 2010

Paddy and Tara

Paddy Tracks