It's Friday!

A week ago we learned a fast and furious lesson in emergency preparedness when the entire city went 7 hours without power. It also put a halt to the grand weekend plans several of us had so we are hoping to resume those plans this weekend. Yay!! TGIF!!!

All in all it was a pretty quiet week around here. Everyday we fine tune the AM logs a little more. It's the same process we went through when we the FM came online. I'm really excited by our programming on 1360. I've never been one to listen to talk radio or even AM radio but the guys Eric has lined up are great! John Gibson is especially entertaining in the late afternoon early evening. He gets really fired up about the issues. The best thing I like about our talk line up is that while you may not agree with everything the hosts say they definitely get you thinking.

Election Day is a little over two weeks away. Please vote. Voting is the best way for you to make your voice heard. We have several important issues on the ballot including Measure A. Now is a great time to take a moment to do some research on the candidates and the issues. Make your voice heard, VOTE! Apply for an absentee ballot if you can't make it to the polls. Our website is a great resource for information on our local government and elected officials and since it has been revamped, that information is even easier to locate!

Have a great weekend everyone and we'll see you here next week, Same Bat-Time, Same Bat-Channel!


~Sara

If You Blink You'll Miss It

So all this time, I have whined about not having routine. Well duh! It's exactly what I have been going through. It IS routine to have some technical problems. It IS routine for the show to feel a little different every day. It IS routine that the competition is going to do stuff to piss me off. It IS routine that the power goes off....oh wait, well that one maybe not so much. It's just me trying to come to grips on a couple of things...first, being the operator of two radio stations is different than being "the dude in the back". Next is reminding myself, that if all of my work is done at 4pm, go home! We've done that the last couple of days and that's when it dawned on me that the routine I have been craving is right in front of me.

I can't remember if I have talked about this (yes I think my short term memory is going), but there is going to be a boost to the downtown renaissance. "Old Town Ridgecrest" is what it will be called. There will be signs and even more events. We are SO proud to be downtown. There is so much history here. A little bit of it is either gone (The Card Room-Bamboo Club next door) and of course the whole Rite Aid deal across the street. So we need to really support and take note of the whole rejuvenation in downtown Ridgecrest. There are some great folks doing wonderful things. There are some upcoming events and I hope everyone will come out and support them. We'll be broadcasting live at least the first couple of hours of these events.

Meanwhile, I'm going back to my "routine".

-Eric

That Incident Number Is Closed...

That's what Edison has told us. Everything has been repaired and anything new that happens would be a new incident. Huh? Well I suppose there is some comfort in that. I was outside a little bit ago and a raven landed close by. I looked at him and yelled "stay away from the @#$%^&*&@ power!". By the end, at around 7pm Friday when all of the power returned, we all knew that we weren't as prepared for an emergency as we thought. I will say the City of Ridgecrest did a fine job in managing information and traffic. We know now what we have to do and by the end of the week, we'll have phase one of that in place.

As always, with any Sunset Media effort, the community stepped up and helped us where we were lacking and Marcus, who owns Ridgecrest Taxi and his boys, AND Chuck Griffin and the Salvation Army (Donna and Charles) made it happen for us. It was primitive at best but we made it work. John from I-Rock also was a class act. We're proud to be a part of the radio community with them.

My buddy Scott has a blog http://www.vastmoderateconspiracy.com/ and he captured a moment when we were out front entertaining motorists driving down Ridgecrest Blvd.

One other note....please tell your school kids, armed with cell phones, when they get sprung from school on a day like that...try to stay off the phone. I don't think it was a coincidence that when ALL of the schools got out the cell system locked up.

I had my Monday on Tuesday...

A few programming issues, a couple of technical bugs, and our former boss reared his head. I guess it galls him that we're even still in business. I'm certain that this feeling is closely tied to the fact that he would always talk to me like I didn't know what I was doing. Sour grapes from me? Yeah, but the blog is also here for some occasional venting. After hearing their AM station I am pretty sure they are using parts of this blog as a programming reference. It's not rocket science guys. But shhh....don't tell anyone our main trade secret. It's blood, sweat and tears. Elbow grease. TLC and a strong spirit of community and co-operation. No one with an individual agenda. Selflessness. It's not all about the money. Certainly not the quick buck. Commitment. Courage. Perseverance.

Rambling Thoughts and a To Do List...It Must Be Monday

So we're now beginning week two removed from the madness of the Fair, the NAB and the big car sale. My mind is full of thousands of little things to do to get both stations totally up to snuff. I guess the biggest thing si to whip both web sites into shape. Yup, there is an AM web site at http://www.foxtalk1360.com . Right now it's just our weekday lineup. I'm still a firm believer that if you have fresh content on your site every day people will come. I know, practice what I preach and post more on the blog.

I am working on getting more RSS feeds on our site. Not sure what everyone wants though. I had a service, but if you went to the site about a week ago, you know it went kaput because it hung up the page. It's a work in progress and as I get it to work on the FM site, I will be expanding the AM site.

I'm still in search of a routine. This has been one big roller coaster ride since we came ove rin December. Now a lot of the madness has stopped so I need some routine. Now this job is hardly routine, and there is a fine line between routine and a "rut".

-Eric

The AM is on (and other matters)

We finally did it! It's on the air. There were a few programming issues, what with Mr. Snow taking the White House gig, but it's going very well. So well, in fact, that when the Angels pre-empted Rush yesterday, we received a lot of phone calls. That's a good news, bad news deal. I don't like anyone to be unhappy, but it was nice to know we had that many listeners. This has not been easy. Here's a short list of some of the stuff we have endured to get this baby up and running:

New Transmitter
New STL (that's the thing that sends the signal from here to there)
Had to remove AM and FM STL antennas from the tower.
New electrical work at the site
Wiring of all of the closures (this tells my computer what to do)
Install computer for automation of channel changes.

In the process of all of that, on one windy day, our big door to the transmitter building blew off.

So it was the usual suspects helping out (thanks Steve and Keith!) but the amount of help and hours worked from other folks really helped. Starting with John at Security Engineering and his staff. They made a doorway and put in a very nice foor. Al Huey, and his crew for teh electrical work, and then a special one to Al for his complete overhaul of the building. It's a Taj Mahal now. Steve again for the rush on the STL and Nick (my son) and his friend James for getting the antenna pointed in the right direction and a very windy and cold day. And last but NOT least, or engineer (who's shall remain nameless for his own preotction, since our compeition are jerks and can't mind their own business) who put in our transmitter and processor and made the station sound "Major Market".

We're off and running and we have listeners already. How do I know this? An Angel game pre-empted Rush yesterday and boy did we get some angry calls. We're talking about recording Rush on those days and playing him back after the game. We'll see.