A Visit to The “X”

One of the first buildings I noticed upon arrival at Thompson Rivers University was seeing right across the street from where I am housed is the home of campus radio station CFBX (note the synchrnocity of their cable frequency). I spotted it even more when I got set up in my [barely used] office space next door in House 9.

That photo above was one I took when I was experimenting with Wikishoot, and interesting component to Wikimedia Commons that identifies places nearby that lack photos in the commons. CFBX was the closest one. Boom.

I thought about knocking on the door, but I am a wee bit shy (see Maha… “imposter syndrome”), and also got caught up in stuff.

Step in serendipity. In a meeting with the Open Learning instructional design group, one of them mentioned her husband did a show at the station, and set up an email intro. When I explained my interest, in terms of using radio to teach storytelling, he suggested I contact the station manager for a general tour.

That was a perfect link.

Yesterday, I finally made it over, and got to meet Brant Zwicker, the station manager, who showed me around, and allowed me to record our conversation.

Brant from CFBX
cc licensed ( BY-SA ) flickr photo shared by cogdogblog

He’s a music/radio guy to the core, he runs his own syndicated blues radio show At the Crossroads. I talked some about ds106 radio; I often expect radio people to be like “why would you do that?” but he was intrigued. We have a tentative plan where when I return in January I might go over when he’s doing a live show, so I can do a live web radio broadcast at the same time. I got Brian Lamb and I signed up for their next DJ training series.

Brant also offered to perhaps visit or let a group come over when we are in the audio portion of The You Show.

Good stuff

You can listen to our conversation and walk through with the photos I took yesterday.

Visit to CFBX

CFBX Radio Schedule Board
cc licensed ( BY-SA ) flickr photo shared by cogdogblog

The schedule, analog style, is not all that different from the Airtime interface of ds06radio.

Among the CFBX Stacks
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In the crowded basement “stacks” is the music archive, some 20,000 discs (and some vinyl). Red stickers indicate Canadian music. There is a whole structured scheme of color sticker metadata

Colorful Metadata
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Each disc has an ID number for the database, starting with X1- which Grant showed me was an album called “Beauty” from Ani’s Whisper:

First in the Library
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Also in the basement is the “Server” room, on a table next to a turntable and amplifier setup. The black PC is their Shoutcast streaming server

CFBX Server Room
cc licensed ( BY-SA ) flickr photo shared by cogdogblog

Storage is cramped; Brant pointed out the kitchen is stacked with vinyl:

Vinyl Storage in the Kitchen
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We went to their secondary studio, which is more like a bit of museum of older equipment- boards and giant reel to reel tape decks

Classic Board
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Got Tape?
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We then went into the main studio and chatted a bit with the DJ on deck and I got to see the perfect fade in for his show, and also his prep for doing the public service announcements

CFBX DJ
cc licensed ( BY-SA ) flickr photo shared by cogdogblog
Smooth Fade in...
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Preparing the PSAs
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The whole operation is coordinated and of course, professional. Playlists are all logged in their computer system, broadcast copies are archived for the required period, there is a well defined shuffling for the playlists and the show formats.

I wont be around long enough to do the full DJ training (but Brian should do it!). I was really excited to connect with Brant and get a peek inside the station. On Air?

2014/365/351 On The Air At CFBX
cc licensed ( BY-SA ) flickr photo shared by cogdogblog

Top / Featured image credits: It’s mine! cc licensed (BY-SA) flickr photo by cogdogblog: http://flickr.com/photos/cogdog/15109377554

About cogdog

I bark about and play with technology and web stuff. Harmless. I have my shots.

One thought on “A Visit to The “X”

  1. Very kewl! My cohost on KLCC “NPR for Oregonians” and I just gorged on art and recorded three art reviews back to back to be released over the holidays. I love being in the studio with all the buzz going on.
    Then Rocky Lou interviewed me for Saturday’s Holiday show on DS 106–now more radio from you–hooray!

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