The Sodas, Christmas Programs and Year-End Countdown Guide – S07E18

Updated on December 31, 2011

It’s the yearly festive time as I play a lot of Christmas songs on my radio show at CKCU-FM. Aside from the tunes, I decided to get these unique holiday flavoured sodas by Jones Soda. The flavours were Candy Cane, Gingerbread, Pear Tree and Sugar Plum.
One of the CKCU shows I hung out, we tried the Candy Cane Soda. The host’s verdict was that it tasted like something out of the dentist. It’s not in a bad way but he didn’t mind the taste of it.
This will be the 2011 edition holiday guide to the shows I hosted at CKCU-FM.
I was on the air for Christmas Eve and just played a bunch of Christmas songs and then a few past Christmas #1 UK songs. It was great to play the Christmas tunes everytime. There were a few requests through Twitter and hopefully some were pleased.

The full Top 50 of 2011 is over at this link or on the top right of the blog.
The playlist for the December 21st show is at this link.
I want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Finishing Up The Top 50 of 2011 for December 28, 2011
The third part of my Top 50 of 2011 is completed. Instead of playing the top 10, I’ve decided to play the top 11 as it’s fitting that 2011 is ending. This week’s show is slightly different as the first hour would usually be podcasted on this blog. It’s a bit of a flip-flop as the first hour was live and the second hour is for the blog. Both are splitter up for your listening convenience.
The playlist for December 28th’s show is at this link.

A New Year’s Eve Update
I had the opportunity to do a fill in for a Friday night radio show. I wasn’t expecting to have another final show of 2011. Thanks to the guys from Friday Night Derailment for the last minute fill in.
The playlist from the December 30th show is at this link.
Happy New Year!

Audio/Radio Show
The December 14th Radio Show – Press play to listen.

The December 21st Radio Show – Press play to listen.

From Both Kinds of Music’s Both Kind of Xmas Show – press play to listen.

The December 24th (Christmas Eve) Radio Show. The playlist is at this link. Press play to listen.

The December 28th radio show.
Hour 1  – press play to listen.

Hour 2 – press play to listen.

The December 30th radio show.  Press play to listen.

Photo
Here’s a photo of cupcakes I got at The Cupcake Lounge on Christmas Eve.

It Was a Fabulous and Fun Friday – S07E17

I had a great time going to some events on December 16, 2011. To begin, I found out through Twitter that Arcade Fire released a music video to a favourite song that everyone loves from The Suburbs, it was Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains). I couldn’t stop watching and listening to the song.
The next exciting part was attending CBC All In A Day for Share Central at Ben Franklin Place. Performing there were Kool Krys and Natalia & Montuno. It was nice to see Kool Krys as I gave her the wonderful Kanpe Tea for DAVIDsTEA. In return, she gave me her second album, Listen To Your Art. Overall, I had a good time there and had a Beavertail.
Last but not least, I headed over to Raw Sugar Cafe to see Joey Wright and Rolf Klausener (of The Acorn) for a show. It was a good show filled with funny humour and not so keen language.
You can view the photos from below.
Oh yeah, since I didn’t post an entry for Wednesday, the radio show from Wednesday will be posted. I played part 1 of my Top 50 of 2011. The playlist is over at this link via CKCU-FM.

Audio/Radio Show
The December 14th Radio Show – Press play to listen.

Photos
CBC All In A Day – Share Central
    
Raw Sugar Cafe – Joey Wright and Rolf Klausener
 

From a Feast/Feist to a Near Disaster – S07E16

Due to the unfortunate nature of CKCU-FM and two other Ottawa radio stations being off the air. A fire burned down the antenna for CKCU over at Camp Fortune. The positive part has been that CKCU is still broadcasting over the Internet as the repairs to the antenna will take several days. In a way, my own show was normal as usual and I always post the show on this blog for anyone misses it live.
It seems to be a yearly holiday tradition as I happen to get more than two people joining me on the show. As usual, Lauren and Digory joined the show. A newcomer came on the December 7th show and it’s Stephanie. She’s been helping another show on Sunday mornings at CKCU.
What will be memorable for this Internet only show was Stephanie saying “feast” instead of Feist. Hence, the photo of the Feist albums and signed by the lovely singer. Despite the slight disaster, the show was still good with the hilarity and slip-ups.
Overall, it was nice to have the new guest co-host enjoy the radio show.
I forgot to mention on the show that it’s final The Wild 10 Countdown of 2011. Don’t worry, it’s not ending, it will be pre-empted until the new year. Adieu by Coeur de Pirate is number one for the 4th week.
The playlist for the December 7th show is over at this link. The summary for the Wild 10 Countdown for December 7, 2011 is posted at this link.
If you missed out on the live radio (or Internet only) show, you can listen to it again. Last thing to mention that I slightly revived my Flickr account. Even though I am not using a pro account, I will upload photos taken from my iPhone 4S. The photos are posted on the Flickr sidebar to the right.

Audio
The December 7th radio show. Press play to listen.

A TV Ad from Hong Kong I’ve Been Hooked On
Since I found out on the Anita Mui fan page on Facebook, a watch company came out with a TV ad for their Time is Love campaign. What intrigued me was the use of the classic Anita Mui song. It slightly put me in tears because it’s like a love story. Here’s the entire version of the ad campaign.

The Last Day of November 2011 and The Interview with The Darcys – S07E15

I can’t believe that November has gone by quickly and the odd thing has been the early Christmas specials being aired so early on the television. It’s a couple of weeks away until Christmas. My own festive mood will certainly kick.
Today’s radio show was 2 hours live on the airwaves in Ottawa. I was supposed to have guest co-host, Candice So, join me but there was a complication as she couldn’t help me on the show. At least she was able to drop by for a bit and gave her a lovely holiday tea as an early Christmas gift. No one is to be blamed with the miscommunication.
Saving the show was the return of Lauren as we counted down the top 10 Canadian indie songs.
The second hour of the show had the interview with The Darcys. They were in Ottawa recently and I had the chance to chat and talk about their new album.
Without further ado, the playlist is at this link.
The Wild 10 Countdown summary is over at this link.

Lastly, it was a privilege to have Candice So on the show for the previous two weeks. All I can say that you’re wonderful and awesome to be around. Wished you were there for the November 30th radio show. The photo of us is posted below as well as the interview and the radio show. Enjoy!

Audio/Interview
The November 30th radio show – Press play to listen.

The Darcys Interview

Photo
Lenny & Candice

Blame It On The Snow & The Bruce Peninsula Interview – S07E14

Update on Sunday, November 27, 2011 – Added Friday’s radio show.

Today’s entry is brought to you by the object, snow. That’s right! Snow walloped Ottawa causing slowdown on traffic for Wednesday morning. The radio show and podcast was almost fallen into place because of the weather. Candice So made a return to the show and we had an enjoyable and funny time on the show, despite the gloomy weather. For this edition, So was the host and I was the co-host/sidekick. The recording for the top 10 songs got reversed because of the snowy weather.
Also on the show was the interview with Neil Haverty of Bruce Peninsula. The band was in Ottawa last week for a show. It was a nice opportunity to conduct an interview with the band and to my own amazement, I did a good job on the interview itself.
The audio is posted below. Have a good week!

The playlist of the radio show is at this link.
The Wild 10 Countdown summary is at this link.

Audio/Podcast
The November 23rd radio show – Press play to listen.

The Bruce Peninsula Interview

The November 25th Radio Show – Filling in for Friday Night Derailment. The playlist is at this link.
Press play to listen.

Joined By a Guest Co-Host for November – S07E13

It’s been a thrill to get a guest co-host because the regular co-host has been missing for weeks. A miracle happened as I got someone who’s on Carleton’s Journalism radio program airing on CKCU-FM. The spin-off program airs on Friday afternoon and I’ve been told that a lot of students signed up for the program and had to be split up. When I listened to Week’s End, some of the reporters use Twitter and I decided to contact one of them. That person who I contacted happened to be Candice So and to my own surprise, she’s very enthusiastic about indie music and radio. The rest is history as Wednesday’s show has Ms. So joining as a co-host for the next few weeks. The show’s slightly not perfect because the guest co-host told me she didn’t have much sleep and busy with projects.
Overall, the show was not perfect as we messed up on some parts but it was fully enjoyable and witty with two people hosting. It’s great to have Ms. So’s presence on my radio show as she likes the music that I play and just having fun all around. It’s also been awhile that I haven’t played The Naked & Famous in quite awhile. The opening theme doesn’t count. It was great to hear Punching In a Dream as it was played on MuchMusic’s The Wedge a week ago.
Don’t forget to listen to the radio show below.
The playlist for the radio show is at this link.
The Wild 10 Countdown summary for November 16th is at this link.

Tech Talk
For anyone who’s been bugging me for several years since its release, I finally got an iPhone. The iPhone 4S to be specific. I was just frustrated with the BlackBerry as the battery was getting drained quickly. It was time to upgrade a cell phone and a friend tweeted me to go for the iPhone 4S, which I did.
The part I need to get familiar is the high image quality for the camera. I’ve been accustomed to lower image quality the iPad and iPod touch. The 8 megapixel camera on the 4S is a big step for me. I’ve taken some photos and one is posted above and another is posted at The New Midnight Jamz on Facebook. Since it uses 1080p resolution, I have not tried to shoot video yet.
I’m glad with the upgrade on the cell phone.

Audio/Radio Show
The November 16th Radio Show – Press play to listen.

The Post Funding Drive Show Plus The Interview with Gabrielle Papillon & The Tea Giveaway – S07E12

CKCU-FM’s Funding Drive is done and over with. It was a success as the donation pledge exceeded the $111,000 target. For my own show, I had to salvage a plan as the first week was slow but things picked up in the second week. As mentioned previously, I decided to do a giveaway for listeners willing to donate on my radio show. It did work because I held the draw for the two teas. I had help from the CKCU Volunteer Coordinator as I joked that I didn’t want to rig the draw. The teas I gave away were Alpine Punch, a winter themed tea and then my favourite tea, Kanpe Tea. The teas are shown from the photo above. Congratulations to the winners of the tea giveaway.
Also on the radio show was a live interview with Gabrielle Papillon. Due to the fact that I aired my pre-recorded interviews during the Funding Drive, I had someone save me because I didn’t have anything planned for the post funding drive show. It was a privilege to doing a live phone interview with Papillon. A nice indie singer based in Halifax and Montreal. The only thing now is to pay the station manager on the long distance cost because I didn’t get a calling card.
New songs were played on the live part of the show.Since they are also charting on the countdown, Said The Whale (New Brighton EP) and Coeur De Pirate (Blonde) released new materials over on iTunes this week. Both are excellent and are worth getting.
Lastly, it’s great to get a few new listeners as the person I’ve been contacting through Twitter is also on CKCU-FM but is part of the Carleton School of Journalism’s radio news show. There’s the shoutout to you as I didn’t want to publicly name you.
Don’t forget to check the November 9th playlist at this link.
The Wild 10 Countdown Summary is at this link.

Audio/Interview
The November 9th Radio Show – Press play to listen.

The Gabrielle Papillon Interview

The Second Funding Drive Show of 2011 and the Interviews with Rebekah Higgs and The Wooden Sky – S07E11

Update for Sunday, November 6: The contest for the tea giveaway draw is closed for the phonelines but is continued on the online secure post-pledge at http://www.ckcufm.com/donate (until Tuesday, November 8). Any amount big or small will do. Expect a draw to held on the Wednesday, November 9 edition of WildWorks on CKCU-FM. Thanks to everyone who donated to CKCU-FM

The second and final funding drive for my radio show went well as the previous show was totally jam packed, got criticized from a host that I shouldn’t sing on-air and I was upset about something else. I’m pleased with the pledges I got for the radio show and I don’t need to worry about being cancelled or other silly things. Don’t forget that there are repairs, rents and other things needing to be paid at the station.
This week’s show had two interviews with Rebekah Higgs and The Wooden Sky. The audio for both are posted below. I had a chance to play the new Said The Whale song, Lines on the show during the Funding Drive craziness. Another awesome thing I did, I decided to play a song by local singer, Andrea Simms-Karp. She’s very supportive of campus-community radio. I think she’s been a host on occasion at CKCU-FM. It’s a November to remember so far. Next up is the…

Giveaway from my Funding Drive Show – There’s Still Time
In case you’re reading before Sunday, November 6, 2011 (by 5:30pm Eastern time), what I did for my radio show’s second funding drive show, I decided to do a giveaway draw for a lovely tea in the form of, Kanpe Tea for DAVIDsTEA. If anyone wants to make a donation pledge at whatever amount (big or small) for WildWorks, just go to http://www.ckcufm.com/donate for an online secure pledge. Trust me, you will enjoy this tea while supporting the importance of campus-community radio. If you like a different kind of music compared to commercial radio, then enjoy the variety of programs being aired on CKCU-FM.
I will announce the winner of the nice, lovely tea for the November 9th show.

The playlist for the November 2nd show is at this link.
The Wild 10 Countdown summary is at this link.
Note on the audio from the first hour podcast: I must of followed The Strombo Show this past Sunday as I erroneously mixed up the countdown jingles for Dan Mangan and Ohbijou. Played in the right order but mixed up the jingles. Apologies for it.

Audio/Interviews
The November 2nd radio show – press play to listen.
[audio http://www.archive.org/download/WildworksOnCkcu-fmForNovember22011/WildworksNovember2.mp3]
Interviews
Rebekah Higgs

The Wooden Sky

The 2011 Funding Drive Show #1 and the Interviews with Louise Burns & Data Romance – S07E10

It’s been a hectic few days (hence the delay in posting up the radio show and the blog). The CKCU Funding Drive has started and there’s been some growing pains as a couple of shows are not on target compared to last year. It’s only the first week and it will be slow. The second week should start to pick up.
This week’s radio show was slightly a mess but I was able to air the interviews from Louise Burns and Data Romance. In a way, it’s a Vancouver flavour of Indie Pop and Electronic music. It was nice to do interviews as they were pretty light-hearted and funny. Unfortunately, my co-host was not able to help out for those.
I was helping out with various volunteers and hosts for their phone shifts. It’s great to meet song long time hosts again and new hosts. It’s like one big family. Thursday was by far the best because I had a blast co-host for the Thursday Special Blend with a high school co-op, then helping out for the second half of Special Blend with David Yazbeck, Whatever’s Cool With Me with Ryan and then co-host for Fundamentally Sound with loads of guests hanging out.
What also made my Thursday morning was seeing The Balconies on Yazbeck’s show. They were kind to perform 2 new songs for their upcoming album in the new year. I got the audio but I won’t upload it as it’s Yazbeck’s show and I wouldn’t do anything without his permission. Overall, a fun time on Thursday made up a bad day on Wednesday.
The playlist for the podcast and live airing of my radio show is over at this link.
The Wild 10 Countdown Summary (for October 26) is over at this link.
Before you listen to the podcast/radio show or the interviews, please donate at whatever amount on the CKCU Secure Pledge webpage. The goal for the station is $111,000 until November 6. We need listeners supporting campus community radio as hosts and volunteers bring a different flavour than commercial and private radio stations.

Audio/Interviews
The October 26th Radio Show – Press play to listen.

Fundamentally Sound on October 27 – Press play to listen.

The Louise Burns Interview

The Data Romance Interview

The Dan Mangan and Braids Interviews – S07E09

It was quite a weekend as Lauren and myself got to interview Dan Mangan on Friday. It was great to see Mangan again and it was thrilling for my co-host to interview him. Mangan is very popular in the Canadian music realm and the release of Oh Fortune, his third album, has cemented it. Overall, it was a nice time to chat with Mangan. I wasn’t alone to interviewing Mangan, the crew from Apartment613 were there to interview him with video equipment in tow. I’m waiting to see their article on him. Lastly, it’s cool to take a Polaroid photo with Mangan as it’s posted above.
The next day, I had the opportunity to interview Braids but without my co-host. It was a fun interview as well. On Sunday, there was another interview I did, which will air in the future, that was Data Romance. They’re an electronic duo from Vancouver, British Columbia. It was quite jam packed for the weekend and there was The Sheepdogs in-store performance on Saturday. My co-host did go to the concert at Scotiabank Place as the Saskatoon band opened up for The Kings of Leon.
Aside from the excitement, Wednesday morning was not as exciting as the computers at CKCU-FM weren’t functioning. The Wednesday morning host (Special Blend) was in a bad mood when the equipments malfunctioned.
For the time being, the live airing of the radio show was not combined with the podcast version. What you will be hearing will be a full podcast edition of WildWorks. The live airing did not have Lauren joining me due to the fact that she couldn’t make it for the morning for the prerecording of the podcast.
You can listen to audio and interviews at the bottom. The Dan Mangan interview is not posted onto Soundcloud due to copyright issues.

This week’s playlist is posted at this link over at the CKCU-FM website.
The Wild 10 Countdown Summary for October 19th is at this link.

Audio/Interviews
The October 19th Podcast Show joined with Lauren B. – Press play to listen. Check Playlist.

The Dan Mangan Interview – Press play to listen or the interview without the songs being used.

The Braids Interview