iOS 17.4

Well, I’ve just downloaded iOS 17.4 more than 12 hours ago and so far, I like it. I have many things to be happy about along with some new things for my iPhone and the latest generation of iPhones as of September 2023.

The new arrangement for battery health and charging is interesting and now that I think of it, that is the way it should have been done since iOS 11 or 12… when ever battery health was first introduced. I am glad that I knew about this change before the software was released and unfortunately, it is only for my generation of iPhones. Hopefully this can be extended to all older devices using iOS 17, to as recent as the iPhones 12, 13 and 14 at least.

Something else which makes me happy is the return of the tag “Apple Digital Master” for albums in my music library, which have that tag attached to them. This is a guarantee, that the sound quality is as close to CD quality as possible with no degradation with quiet parts or during fadeout. An example of what I am talking about is some of the 1980s albums by Judas Priest having this same thing happen, at the end of songs which do not have the natural end, or end cold. A classic like You’ve Got Another Thing Comin’ has a fade and as it does, the sound quality degrades. Why? Because it was probably mastered before 2014 and it does not have the “Digital Master” tag attached. Another song off of the same album has a similar problem, but as it appears on the compilation Reflections: 50 Heavy Metal Years of Music, Fever sounds much better and much closer to CD quality, if you adjust the EQ to hip-hop. That is the secret that people should know, if you want to hear music much better on your iPhone or through your EarPods or AirPods, make that simple adjustment in the EQ. Otherwise, is going to sound rather flat and I don’t know about you, but I like to hear my music sounding as good as it does on CD.

Something new is transcripts for podcasts and as the following article says, it will be helpful for everyone who uses an iPhone or any device with this feature being added to it. I haven’t explored it as yet, but I like what the article says and it could be a great way, to improve writing and if you are learning a new language, this feature is for you. Anyway, here is the article on this innovative new feature for iOS. https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2024/03/apple-introduces-transcripts-for-apple-podcasts/

So far, nothing to complain about and I hope that the “Apple Digital Master” tag sticks around for everyone and let’s hope, that any future iOS 17 updates are as good as this.

Encounters With Trucks

Hi folks. If you have read more than one post over the last year or so, you know that the bus stop outside of my building at 250 Davenport has been removed, in favour of a bike share and we as pedestrians have to walk to another bus stop, in order to take transit to get around town. Unfortunately, this has resulted in myself encountering the back end of a truck going both ways on my journey, from home and back home.

Just before 8:00 AM I had left the apartment to go to my bank, in order to take out money and of course, I had to walk to the bus stop in order to get a bus, which goes toward my destination and, my bank’s home branch. On the way, I had walked into the back end of a truck which was clearly on the sidewalk and I had to be helped around it, I missed my bus stop and my bus and so, I had to wait extra minutes at the stop, in order for me to do my business. On the way back home minutes after 9:00, much the same thing had happened to me and in both instances, I had fired off emails to my City Councillor and as I had expected, no replies to my emails yet. However, I will be expecting something in my inbox shortly, as I had fired off 3 emails about the lack of a bus stop outside our building and I have contacted someone I can trust in the media, who knows people who are blind and can sympathize with my situation… at least on that level. Again, both times I had to be helped and this was not necessary and uncalled for

With my first meeting with a truck, I walked into it and at a normal walking pace. On the way back, I was fortunately walking slower, but not out of any fear of what happened going the other way. Thankfully, I am unheard and what saved me was waring my hat, which is still intact and has no damage to it. The only damage could be to my emotions, but other than that I was lucky. However, what if someone else like me happens to have the same encounter with a truck bed and hurts themself? I am not the only one who has had accidents going between my building and the bus stop on the west side of the road.

So, what can be done about this? People in my building are trying their damnedest to get our bus stop back and so far, it seems that it is going much slower than it should, with the 2023 by-election and the resignation of John Tory fucking things up. What would it take for something to give and for someone who has a say, to realize that what had happened in September 2022 may have been a mistake? Does it take someone getting hurt badly, or even killed? I have no wish to be a blood sacrifice, in order for change to be brought about and for the right thing to be done, in favour of residence of where I live. there should also be no strings attached, because this is simply a matter of safety and this could be a potential threat to human life. It may not seem that way on the surface, but if you think about it carefully there is something to what I’m saying here. I have done what I can for now and the ball is in the various courts, for those who wish to take this up further. By the way, I refuse to be a poster boy for blind people, but at the same time I wish to draw attention to what has happened to me and I do not wish to be a top news story, of someone getting killed for no reason which could’ve been preventable. I hope I get a reply soon, from either the city, or my friend in the media, whom I follow on X and who follows me too.

80 % Charging Limit Works And Is Beneficial

Since I had upgraded to the iPhone 15 Pro, I have used the 80% Charging Limit feature and it is certainly worth it. I use it and Optimized Battery Charging, together in my own situation. I use a powerbank to charge the phone to 80 if and when my phone needs charging during the day, before I go to bed. It stays around 80 and either tries to charge and can’t, or it drops a percentage or 2.

Before I shuffle off to dreamland, I switch to the 20 W wall charger and another cable I had purchased for when I wish to charge the phone this way, or from a critical point to 80, or 100%. I make the switch quickly, so as to not interrupt the charging cycle too much. Anyway, after I make the switch from a powerbank to electrical mains, I go into Settings, Battery, Battery Health and charging. I then switch the charging option to Optimized Battery Charging and it does one of two things. It either goes right to 100%, or it goes part of the way there and it commences optimized battery charging. In other words, with the second option it does what you would expect it to do at 80% with finishing the charge at a certain time, estimated by the device. It has gone to either 82, 83, or as high as 87% and the result is the same. The phone will eventually get to 100% like normal, but it takes its sweet time to get there, while taking an hours long rest break before reaching the mountaintop. Also, the important thing is that it does not overheat the device and it does give a notification as to when the phone will be estimated to be fully charged as normal with optimized battery charging.

The other thing I do is if I am going from the critical point to fully charging my phone, I plug my phone into the wall charger and the other cable, while switching battery charging to the 80% limit before I go to Snoozeville. When I wake up, I switch battery charging to Optimized Charging and it charges right to 100%. It takes about an hour or so, but it goes right to the top of the mountain, without taking a break. Either way, we have more control over how we charge our iPhones than ever before and we should have had this option available to us since iOS 13 and the introduction of Optimized Battery Charging in the first place.

I hope that Apple will do one more major iOS 17 update, with the addition for older phones to have this feature added to it, as long as they are compatible with iOS 17. I can’t see them doing the same thing with all the devices which are on either iOS 16, or iOS 15, but I wish they could. Anyway, I hope that people reading this will contact Apple asking them to try and do something like what I have just suggested as it will help more people in the long run and hopefully, this same feature will be on future iPhone models going forward. After all, the idea of the 80% limit with optimized battery charging was to slow down the ageing process and if Apple had gone the whole hog, as opposed to what they did in 2013 they could have saved more money and made more money at the same time. They could still produce the same amount of iPhones and batteries, as not everyone may choose to use any charging option, when charging their phone and I was that way, at first. I got in trouble with that and now, I know better.

When Radio Was Newer

This is a kinda continuation of the post I just did, in that rock radio stations didn’t only play 2 songs by an artist back to back in regular rotation, but other interesting things to keep listeners engaged. For example: rock radio stations used to play live music from artists in the playlist . As a Queen fan, I remember that one of the concerts which were used more often than not was the Christmas 1975 concert at Hammersmith Odeon. I had heard Ogre Battle live for the first time in 1991 and that was on 97 Rock in Buffalo New York. I would sometimes get it in quite well from East Toronto and it wouldn’t be the only time I would hear music from the same concert on the radio, before it came out legally in 2015. I had heard some of the same songs from the concert on Q107 in Toronto, when they used to play live music for an hour on Saturday, or Sunday evenings. That would change over the years with different names and incarnations of the program. I remember it being once called The Concert Connection, Live In Concert and at one time, they even played live shows from an American program called Super Groups in Concert, which was really the classic bands we now think of from back in the day. Later on, it would include alternative rock bands like 311 and Rage Against The Machine, Korn and many others. I even heard some tracks from Live Killers played on one of those incarnations of the program of live music for an hour. I forget all of the names Q107 would use, but I know that they would use live albums as a source of the live music. Even playing music from albums put out by King Biscuit Flower Hour was not out of the question and once, I even heard it slip through when some other band was being spotlighted.

Something else radio stations would do is play an album side, or an entire album and the latter is how I had heard A Night At The Opera by Queen for the first time in its entirety. I think that Q107 may have played either the whole thing, or the first side in 1987, but I’m not sure. I remember hearing the first side in 1992 on 97.7 HTZFM during the spring and when going from 39 to Sweet Lady they mixed the songs as if they were spread out, with a break between them.

Q107 used to have a series of overnight long running programs which would consist of either playing music normally, or a whole night of albums from midnight to about 6:00 AM. One such series was called the Album Six Pack and it was simply 6 albums played in their entirety, from start to finish. I’m not sure if they would mix the songs like they would when playing a set of music per side, but I do know that they did play the entire album. I once heard Led Zeppelin I as I had stayed up late to hear it.

When Q107 would play a side of an album by a band in rotation, they had many names for it such as a sideshow, spontaneous sideshow, or alternatively the spontaneous albumside. I had heard the sideshow name the longest out of the two, from the 70s to about 1987. The spontaneous sideshow (album side) came into being around 1985, when Q107 got new station IDs with a deep voice saying “Rock Radio Q107” and it would be messed with and manipulated the majority of the time. Back then, they were branded as “Rock Radio Q107” and a voiceover (usually the afternoon drive guy) would say everything else within the body of the ID. For example: “You’re listening to another spontaneous sideshow on….” and then the sample would kick in for the rest of the ID. This was the case for a couple of years, until August 1987 when new IDs came and changed everything, with Jim Conrad as the voice. Canadian readers may have heard his voice on TSN for many years and elsewhere. Now, the station IDs are different and Alan Cross is the voice you would hear.

Another thing we would take pleasure in as listeners is hearing 2 songs by bands in rotation. Radio stations had their own names such as: double shot, or double play. Either way, you got two songs. That was what I liked, as you would hear a regularly played song and a weird one which fits the format, but isn’t heard all that often anymore. As far as I know, WRIF plays nothing but double shots on Tuesdays and so did 97.7 HTZFM and I quite enjoyed it. Even Q107 used to do double shot weekends and hearing two songs on Saturday and Sunday from my favourite bands, was fine with me.

Something else which Q107 used to do is a feature called “The Perfect Albumside”. It isn’t an actual side of an album, rather 20 minutes worth of music chosen by listeners. I forget if they would allow 20 minutes of music by an artist. The cool thing is we got to choose the songs we wanted

Back in the day, radio stations which played music would devote time to other lesser-known or lesser-heard genres outside what was regularly played. This was called foreground programming and it consisted of 30 minutes to about 3 hours of long form programming and it could include a jazz show, a metal show, an hour of radio from the past, talk or trivia, or even comedy. Believe it or not, I had heard Queen on a metal show and if you know their music like the back of your hand, you can probably guess which songs fit the program. There are metal shows, but they do not play Queen as they aren’t a metal band. Altho, I think of them as a hard rock band, that isn’t the same thing as metal, but that is not for this post.

Nearly all of what I had talked about is gone and because of this, I believe that is why streaming has taken hold, besides the convenience of grabbing music and listening to it for free. Yes, Lars Ulrich of Metallica was right and radio is just another victim of the Internet and specifically, streaming. For one thing, it does not offer context like Radio does and should unfortunately, it’s all about entertainment and playing music is secondary, unless there is no personality on Air. All of what I had mentioned could have been continued past the 90s, but the waggons were circled, playlists have tightened and Radio has basically shot itself in the foot. The great personalities are retiring, or dying and the old guard are being let go because they’re not profitable anymore, because Radio is a business and not just freeform like FM rock radio used to be. Gone are the days of hearing an entire album on radio, rather on our phones or computers. Radio has done away with giving context to the music we hear, except for the occasional interviews with bands who call in on the phone or Zoom, or happen to stop by the studio to hang out for a while. Sometimes when they do, they like to screw around and the funniest example of this is Corey Taylor of Slipknot, stopping by some rock radio station somewhere in the US and playing Never Gonna Give You Up by Rick Astley, because he can. Frankly, I found it hilarious, but I could’ve easily taken it as an insult. However, I do find it funny and I had found the interview on Youtube years ago.

Anyway, there is more and I had done posts on this in the past, about things from radios recent past which I believe everyone should know about and be reminded of, from back in the before days of radio. At least, we get to hear a bunch of great bands on all incarnations of the rock radio format, so I am happy about that. However, I do miss how radio used to sound.

Two For The Price Of One

Hi folks. This post is on something I have been thinking about for quite a while. This concerns some of my favourite rock bands which I have heard on the radio as well as buying their albums on CD, cassette and through iTunes. This is when radio stations were programmed to play two songs in a row and the same two songs back to back, by certain bands. Any of the bands I am mentioning here just so happen to have an album out with two songs in the running order, which are so closely linked together that it is hard to stop the song on time, to move onto the next one. I have actually heard mistakes where the next song would start, while another song by a different band was playing. An example of this is The Police and the album Zenyatta Mondatta and I remember hearing Driven To Tears and if you have the album, you know that next in the running order is When The World Is Running Down, You Make The Best Of What’s Still Around. The two songs have no break and this made it hard for radio programmers back in the day, when the music was on vinyl.

I am talking about FM rock radio and it didn’t play music on cart machines like AM radio stations did. Of course, these days it is all on computer, but back then we had situations like that happening sometimes and in case you’re wondering, I had never heard that happen again, unless the entire side of Zenyatta Mondatta was being played, as a set of music, or any other album for that matter.

Unfortunately, I can’t find out how this had originated, but my guess is that it probably happened during the time of album oriented radio in the 70s, when playing a Beatles or Led Zeppelin song, which I will get to in a bit. Then other bands decided to sequence their albums with two or more songs which go together and it could be tailor-made for rock radio, or pure coincidence. Either way, Queen aren’t the only band besides Led Zeppelin and The Beatles to have two songs in a row played together, every time they are heard on the radio.

So, why do radio stations do this with certain songs? Back then there were the long songs which allowed the disc jockey to go to the bathroom and do whatever for those few minutes before returning to the control room and either doing a minute or so of talk, or playing the next song with or without the station ID sandwiched between songs. Back then, radio stations had 3 turntables and two CD players, with probably six cart machines, which had station IDs, commercials and other bits and bites for fun. There is a playlist that each station goes by, in order to meat certain criteria such as, in Canada making sure that 30% of the music in rotation is Canadian. Then there is the amount of talk required and the commercials, along with playing the station ID and contests. I am going from my own memory so, I may not have all of the answers. Anyway, here are some examples of bands having 2 songs in a row and there are some, which I had included because they wouldn’t be complete without each other.

The Beatles is the first band to seemingly do this, with the opening 2 tracks from the 1967 landmark album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, with the title track and With a Little Help From My Friends always being played together in a set of music. It’s rather obvious because they go naturally together like twins and unlike how they have been programmed on radio, they are not as one track on CD, or digital downloads and if you create a playlist, or put your music on shuffle, you will hear one or the other and I will get into how I feel about that later on down. I could have included the Abbey Road Medley, but I wanted to choose the first example because those two songs have always been played as one. Also, parts of the Abbey Road Medley have been split up for various time reasons and I had heard this, on a program called Breakfast With The Beatles on Saturday and Sunday mornings on ChumFM in Toronto.

Queen actually have more than 1 example of twin tracks and you could probably choose the entire black side of Queen II, without Seven Seas of Rhye, but I have never heard any other song on the radio, besides the one I had just mentioned. With Sheer Heart Attack, we have: Tenement Funster, Flick of the Wrist and Lily of the Valley, which is obviously a nod to an album I had previously mentioned. However, the twin tracks which have been programmed to be played together on radio are We Will Rock You and We Are the Champions. I believe the they should be played together on not just radio, but on CD and digital downloads. Unfortunately, with shuffling we get one, but not the other coming next an that is sacrilege. With all the examples and others coming, you have to have the songs on at least one compilation, with all of these twin tracks as one individual track, as apposed to two. When I was living somewhere, they had programming and something called Music Appreciation was one of the classes, the person who ran it played WWRY, but that was it. What? No Champions after it? I didn’t confront the person in charge, because they were only doing this voluntarily and I liked them. However, I could have gone after them if I was not a nice person and given them hell, for not playing the songs together and just playing the one song. I could’ve also given Queen hell, for doing the same thing on the Queen Rocks compilation, but why bother?

Next is The Hellion and Electric Eye from Judas Priest’s 1982 album Screaming for Vengeance. The two tracks have been left as is on all, but one compilation and live album each. The 1997 compilation Living After Midnight has the two tracks as one and the same with Priest…Live! and so far, this is the only example of bands doing the right thing for radio. Yes, I’m looking at you Queen, The Beatles and others! As I am editing this post, this song happens to be playing during a 2 hour block of music, which is all metal after midnight.

Here is an odd one, which doesn’t make sense to me. Led Zeppelin II has Heartbreaker and Living Loving Maid (She’s Just a Woman) played together on FM rock radio, even today. Why? The two songs aren’t exactly related and they are in the same key, but in different pitches and the sound of the two tracks is also quite different, with the drums being higher in the latter and having a dryer mix. Another reason that they do not go together is that only Heartbreaker has been played as a standalone… … live. So, what’s the reason for this, besides one DJ having to go really bad one day?

For the next one, the two songs relate to each other and being in similar tempos, but different keys. In 1978, Journey released their fourth album Infinity. It was produced by a queen producer, but it was the first album to feature Steve Perry on lead vocals. By the way, Brian has nothing but nice things to say about Steve. Anyway,Feeling That Way and Anytime were played together for years on rock and classic rock radio. I wonder what the reason for this is. Was it an accident much like the other examples on this list, except for at least one? Both of these songs feature keyboardist Gregg Rolie, who came from Santana, along with guitarist Neal Schon. Unlike the Led Zeppelin example, this actually works and appearing as the second and third track on the album respectively, it’s a transition between Greg and Steve, even though Lights open side 1. By the way, it was Greg who sang the vocals on some of Santana’s best known songs and among them was Black Magic Woman.

Staying in the 70s, Yes also has a couple of songs played back to back on rock radio back in the day. Their 1972 album Fragile has at least one song, composed by each member of the band at the time. In this case, Long Distance Runaround (written by singer Jon Anderson and “The Fish (Schindleria Praematurus)” composed by basis Chris squire, whom Deacy is certainly a fan of. I have heard both songs played back to back and for the longest time, I thought they were one until I boughtFragile in January 1994, in order to learn one of the songs on guitar at school. In case you’re wondering, I have forgotten how to play Mood for a Day, as I am not a classical player. I only learned it because somebody else did and I bought the album because I like the band and their sound at the time.

Even a 90s punk band was affected by this, in that on Green Day’s 1995 album Insomniac, there is a pair of tracks side-by-side and one of them happens to be the single Brain Stew and the second track in this companion piece is Jaded. I actually heard both songs in 1996 on the radio together at least once and once is enough for me, to remember this pairing of songs, even if it was a mistake. It’s funny, the two also appear with each other on the 2001 album International Superhits! and on Greatest Hits: God’s Favorite Band, Brain Stew appears alone.

The Jimi Hendrix Experience has a pair of songs which ran together and are so closely linked that you have to hear them back to back, or else it’s not complete. On the 1968 album Electric Ladyland we have 1983…(A Merman I Should Turn to Be) which was separated on the 1993 remaster of the album, but put together on more recent remasters the short sound collage Moon, Turn the Tides…Gently Gently Away at the end of A Merman I Should Turn to Be. I did hear all three tracks on the radio during the long running program Psychedelic Sunday on Q107 and I never forgot that. I forget exactly where the two tracks were separated on the 1993 remaster but it came to mind before I discovered the newly remastered version with the different track assignments on Youtube Music.

Here we go with another band you would not expect to have two songs played in sequence regularly. AC/DC are another band which have two songs on an album, which are right after each other and no break between them. Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap has its own song pairing, with Big Balls and Rocker. No, this was not a mistake as at least one radio station I have listened to over the years was programmed to play the two songs back to back whenever Big Balls was played. I’m not sure how they did that with CDs, but with records it was easy to just let the songs run together and don’t do anything. My guess is that neither song was released as a single, but listeners like them so much that it was decided that they should be played back to back and so, that came to pass for a few years anyway. I haven’t heard those songs on the radio in a long time.

I can’t forget about The Dark Side of the Moon and the last two songs off of the album, which have always been played together. How could you not play Brain Damage and Eclipse together? They are in the same key and I wouldn’t be surprised if they were recorded together at the same time.

Finally, here’s another odd one from a band you would not expect and I certainly had no idea that they could do that. The album Stampede by The Doobie Brothers went off in other directions and the singleI Cheat the Hangman was sometimes played back to back with the next track entitled Precis. I get it, because I’m guessing that a previous remaster to the one in 2016, had the two songs as one track. Then in 2016, they were separated and to be honest, I like it the other way even though it’s wrong. I wonder, if I can find a compilation with the two songs on it as they are, without being separated as two tracks. Anyway, that’s a weird one which I heard on the radio in 1991, with Andy Frost and his show called Overnight, which was broadcast across Canada starting in June of that year with Q107 as the flagship station.

There may be more from the classic FM rock era, but I can’t think of them offhand. However, there is one I could consider from more recent years and by a more recent band I had done in The Show Must Go On, back in December. Tool actually have two sets of songs like that which (if they were to be played on Radio) could be played back to back and it wouldn’t raise a fuss. On the 2006 album 10,000 Days we have: Wings for Marie, Pt. 1 and 10,000 Days (Wings, Pt. 2) as they are in the same key and have a very similar ending. Together, if it was one track it would be 17 minutes long. The second example is also from 10,000 Days and in this case, the first track leads into the second track in this two track series. If you have the album, listen to the whole thing and especially check out the tracksLost Keys (Blame Hofmann) and Rosetta Stoned. In the case of Tool, neither example was played on the radio in full, but in the case of Wings for Marie, Pt. 1 and 10,000 Days (Wings, Pt. 2) I found a video on YouTube with both songs together. I haven’t found the other pair of songs as yet.

With pairs of songs like these listed here and others, it’s a pain when listening to music on shuffle, as it’s random and you hear either one, or the other and the chances of hearing the two songs together, is probably quite rare. That’s where creating a playlist comes in handy, as you have control over what music goes into the body of the list. Also, these are only songs which have been played on the radio together and not linked songs, just because they happen to be linked. That’s where Queen II comes in and I will do a post on the album on March 8th.

Trout Mask Replica

Hi folks. It is February 15 and 70 years ago today, Matt Groening was born and of course, he is best known as the creator of The Simpsons, Futurama and Disenchantment. So, in honour of this day, let’s do a post about one of Matt Groening’s favourite albums of all time. I am of course talking about Trout Mask Replica by Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band. I actually don’t have the album as it isn’t available on iTunes and it should be, because Matt Groening likes it and because, I say it should be. I’m kidding about the last part, but Matt has said in interviews that he loves this album and if you listen to the Simpsons theme and how it is rather dissonant, using the tritone it shouldn’t be a surprise that Matt likes this particular album. No, it’s not using Diabolus in Música, but the album does not follow the regular songwriting structure or straightforward song arrangement style. In fact, it’s quite messy and it is intentionally that way. People have taken it apart in order to find order out of its chaos. I haven’t heard the whole thing, but I have heard some of it and it is noisey. Would you like to hear a song? Yes you should to get an idea of what I’m talking about. There is nothing wrong with your phone, computer or what ever you may be watching this Youtube video or others from this album. https://youtu.be/r9lpLm7jwQY?si=RcY0wkPj8zvTRqxK

Here is one more song and then I will talk about it as much as I can, given that I am grasping at straws for this one. https://youtu.be/jI6zsx42D20?si=H8v0zg019T5zblN5

Okay, not only does Matt Groening love this album, but many others who are quite creative also enjoy it too. For example: John Lydon of Sex Pistols and PIL loves it because it is so weird and unsettling. John Frusciante of Red Hot Chilli Peppers, filmmaker David Lynch and guitar virtuoso Steve Vai also loves it. It’s out of tune and a cacophony, but John Lydon once said that because of the bum notes there’s room for everything. Not everything has to be in tune or in rhythm with each other all the time and that is liberating for all musicians. After all, music is not just about playing but also being creative at the same time and jazz isn’t always straightforward either so, what’s wrong with this? After all, Captain Beefheart (born Don Van Vliet) should have had all his albums released on not just CD, but on iTunes so the world can open its mind to what he is doing here. I have only heard some songs and I hope that some day, the whole thing will be available on all digital and streaming platforms, so everyone can listen to it and realize that you don’t have to be perfect all of the time.

There is hope because as of 2023 the entire album is available for listeners of high resolution audio, but I want it for everybody including those of us who use smart phones to listen to music on regularly. I guess, it’s baby steps toward that goal and hopefully we get to that mountaintop soon. Anyway, happy 70th birthday to Matt and hopefully many more.

This Is Major

Hi folks. This post is about something which happens from time to time in both radio and TV. However, this has an impact on us listeners and especially, if you get to know and love the talented people, who are delivering the news in a newscast, telling us what we just heard on the radio, getting us to call in and talk about a specific subject, or interviewing people in our lives such as: politicians, musicians, other celebrities and even the average person on occasion.

Every radio and TV station is owned by a corporation and it is natural, that there is to be some turnover once in a while, when it comes to people on the air and behind-the-scenes, but there is a human aspect to this which a friend of mine posted on Facebook and I will give it to you below. This is important to be aware of, if you have friends or have friends who have friends who may work in either media outlet and this affects everyone, no matter how long you have been in the business or at your job. Just ask someone like Lisa LaFlamme, who was let go by the same company involved in 2022, just because. Anyway, here is what my friend (who shall remain anonymous) had posted on February 8 2024.

Three stations in St Catharines, along with 42 others owned by Bell Media have been sold to Whiteoaks Communication Group out of Oakville. Hopefully they retain all the talented local staff. It’s unclear if the sale coincides with immediate layoffs and if it is, that is obviously bad.

So here’s how Bell Media operates. They keep staff on air through ‘Bell Let’s Talk Day’ to ensure they promote all the good Bell is doing for mental health….then fire them all together in a large cluster. The most recent example of mass layoffs by the Company was when this had happened in Feb 2021, with an entire newsroom being let go and people who were heard during either the morning, or afternoon drive shift, all flushed away like turds. What’s appalling is HOW they do it.

Mirco Bibic, CEO of BCE, said in his open letter on February 8 2024, “Over the coming weeks, we will implement significant reductions on our team at all levels of the company, reducing our workforce by approximately 4,800 positions, representing 9% of our workforce.”
So how’s your mental health as a Bell Media employee? Maybe we’ll fire you, maybe we won’t – keep your head up though – it’s coming. Key doesn’t work – uh oh. Meeting with the boss – uh oh. No meeting with the boss – uh oh. It’s a stressful industry already….but how Bell handles their own staff v how they pretend to care about mental health are diametrically opposed. To clarify – I have no issue with Bell media laying off employees – as a former radio broadcaster, it’s not ‘if’ it’s ‘when’ – we all know how it ends. It’s HOW they do it. I want you to understand the human element to this – how it affects people.

This is major. Jeez, is an obvious reaction to it and others have commented on both either side. Maybe there will be jobs for local talent and hopefully, all of the radio stations involved (besides the 3 which were mentioned) can get back to more local broadcasting. In the case of talk radio stations owned by Bell Media, after the morning show from 9:00 AM to 2:00 PM, there is no local programming and it is out of either Toronto, or Ottawa. I live in Toronto, so I know this as the flagship station for the 9:00 to noon portion is from Newstalk 1010 and from 12:00 PM to 2:00 PM the flagship of this portion is from CFRA in Ottawa.

Before Bell took over, CKTB had its own shows from the middle of the morning to mid afternoon and including the morning and afternoon drive programs and even some going on in the evening. As for overnight, there was Coast To Coast AM, which is not for everyone and sometimes talks about conspiracies as well as other things which are abnormal so to speak.

As for Whiteoaks Communication Group, I had never heard of them before and from what I had been told, they own at least one religious station in Toronto, namely Joy Radio CJYE as well as CJMR, licensed to Oakville and Mississauga respectively. That is what is scary about this change, as they are about to own a bunch of different stations with many different music formats and this includes rock and metal, otherwise known as the devils music. They may either force all stations to go in the same or a similar direction as the Stations I had mentioned, or water the stations down to the point where they are sounding as small as the markets they are in. For example: all three stations which were mentioned are in Niagara and the talk station may have more local programming, but what about the rock and pop station? What will happen to 97.7 HTZFM? They currently have a metal show called Metal After Midnight as foreground programming and remember, that the potential new owners, own and operate religious stations and this could potentially alienate those who are into rock and metal, such as myself. The station could be toned down to a classic rock format, or something else less threatening musically so, this may not be good news for listeners, besides the talent alone who are currently on the air during the day and on weekends. As for the pop station, I don’t see that being affected as much because they could possibly add more Christian artists to the playlist and whether people notice it or not, won’t matter all that much.

Back to Bell Media for a moment, as there are two things to mention here. Bell Let’s Talk Day isn’t the only sign that one could possibly be let go in a significant dump of people, whom they believe are no longer profitable. The company also does an annual dump in or around November. This was certainly the case before the COVID-19 pandemic and I know this because friends of mine were axed in 2017, who all worked at HTZFM. One of them was the Music Director and had been there since day one, minus nearly 5 years at another radio station and I had no idea, until I had found out on Facebook, that my friend and others were canned. Another friend who had been fired from the same group in November 2017 has declared that radio is dead to them so, Bell Media and how it does business has turned some into cynics and fucked with other’s mental health at the same time. Remember, you are told that you could be let go, or maybe not and when it happens, it is a surprise, or a last minute warning that one has to rearrange their lives.

This affects everyone on a human aspect because as listeners, we get to know the voices and personalities of the people on air. Sometimes, some of us are lucky enough to meet them and become friends! In other cases, we just hear them and learn about them and as much as they are willing to reveal on air. Unfortunately, the people being fired are let go because they’re not profitable to the company. They may have to deal with financial repercussions that they could not prepare for in advance. For example: what about a mortgage on a home, or things breaking down and having to replace items or furniture, that suddenly falls apart without warning. If Bell actually cared as much about their employees as they care about mental health of all of us in general, we wouldn’t have anything to talk about here. Frankly, they don’t seem to and I’m glad that I’m not a customer anymore, after what has happened to my friends and could potentially happen to radio stations I listen to with being possibly watered down, or wrecked completely by Whiteoaks. There may be jobs, but the sound of the radio station could be potentially reduced to something similar to radio in a small town. It is great for talk radio, but for a rock or adult contemporary station, this could alienate listeners who may not be up on these matters and probably don’t even care, until they find out what has happened. Not everybody knows or cares who owns the radio station they listen to, as radio is just a soundtrack to their (our) lives and background noise.

I wish that all of the radio stations being sold off were bought by Rogers Communications, because they are a much better company at managing music and talk radio stations. Unfortunately, Bell and Rogers hate each other and to be totally honest with you, I hope that my stations are flipped by Whiteoaks and sold off to Rogers, or Chorus Entertainment. I have my reasons for this, as I am a Rogers customer when it comes to my phone and internet and I have been treated well by customer service and I don’t mind their plans either. Bell did nnot have the kind of plans I wanted until recently, so I had stayed with Rogers from 2002 to the present day. As for Chorus, that could work for me because of a show like The Ongoing History Of New Music and I could finally hear it on HTZFM, after 29 years of having to tune somewhere else in order to hear it.

My wish won’t be granted and the sail may go through unless Whiteoaks decides to flip stations to other companies like The Fan 590 in 2002, which was supposed to be sold off to Standard Broadcasting and is now owned by Rogers. I can’t see that happening as there doesn’t seem to be any conflict with too many radio stations owned by one company in the same market. Besides, we had The Team 1050 back then too, so that would be rather redundant, unless 1050 was planned to go back to the oldies format while it was still owned by Chum.

As for the sackings, I had found out on X that they may have already begun, with someone from CTV, being let go. I don’t know if any of the Toronto stations are affected, but if they are I hope that things will not change that much. I like Newstalk 1010 as it is and I also like 97.7 HTZFM as it is too, but I feel that the other two Niagara stations have been ruined, by Bell. So, I will try and keep an ear on how things are going with the sail and it could be months, before everything is finalized and so, we will just have to wait and see what happens if formats change, or not.

This has reverberated throughout Canada and the US, as stated by this particular post I am putting here, because it’s true. https://jacobsmedia.com/one-mans-trash-is-another-mans-radio-stations/

Limits Exceeded Without Knowing It

Hi folks. I hope that the following never happens to you, if you have Youtube Premium and Youtube Music Premium, all in one payed package. In the past I was able to download videos to watch later, or in a specific order and since Monday February 5th 2024, I had received the following alert when trying to do this. “Alert Device limit exceeded” and “Sorry, this device can’t be authorized to use with YouTube Premium.” I had no idea about this! I had also not been told in advance, that if I sign in more than 4 times a year, the limit has been reached and I can no longer download videos to watch offline, until the limit is reset.

First of all, how long will it take for the “limit” to be reset? There is no information from Google about this and we as users should know all of the ins and outs of how this works, outside of the terms and conditions. Most people don’t read them and I am included in this, because it’s long and drawn out and it is probably in legal speak. I’m not a lawyer, therefore it is not my department. I am a creator and I also like to watch and listen to videos offline while doing something as monotonous as: laundry, travelling by Transit or catching up on new videos by my subscriptions.

Second, why did this take affect on such a random day? Why February 5, 2024? I was able to download without any problems on February 4 and so, this was a complete shock and an unwelcome surprise, just as bad as being disrupted by knock on the door by a contractor, doing a job I had no prior warning about. google needs to answer to this and unfortunately, they won’t because they’re a big corporation throughout the world, unless they are taken to court for this and the other.

Third, there may be reasons for having to do what I had done since last year and they be software related to my device. In this case, the software giving me problems is exactly why I had signed in 4 times this year, in the past 12 months to now. I had to find this out by doing a Google search and this is a pain in the ass and I had mistakingly told Youtube to bring downloading back to devices, not knowing that mine had been unauthorized, seemingly at random.

So, Google should be more transparent about downloads, download limits and what to do if a person exceeds the limit in order to reset it. Otherwise, the user is left in the lurch without any options and stealing from Youtube is not one of them through a website in order to hear videos in a specific order, to keep me sane while doing something is boring is watching paint dry. Will they? Maybe if enough people complain, or they are taken to court for being secretive about certain things, which are a part of YouTube and YouTube Music premium and without which, I could refuse to pay for YouTube premium anymore until I get my authorization to download back. Apple is taken to court, so why not Google? surely there are others like me who had the time and the patience to do this. Am I right? I am bringing this up because it had happened to me and I hope that there are other people, who had experienced something similar and had watched when Apple had to answer for the fact that they slow down iPhones, as they get older, as the battery ages. This isn’t the exact same thing, but this could dissuade people from paying for YouTube premium, besides the higher price since September 2023.

iOS 17.3 Is Still Buggy

It seems that iOS 17 still has some odd bugs in it and this brief post is all about iOS 17.3 and a feature which has been with us, since iOS 17.21 or 2. On Thursday, I had to purchase all 3 volumes of a Queen compilation called Deep Cuts again, because of something which had happened while I was using my iPhone and iOS 17.3.

There is an option where you can favourite a song, or an album and I had been making songs favourites and then unfavouriting them soon after. I had no problem with it until I had come across Dead On Time by Queen from the second volume of Deep Cuts. If you haven’t heard the song, it is a great banger and it has some of the fastest guitar and most ferocious drumming on it, along with Rapid Fire vocals from Freddie Mercury. Why this version? I don’t know, but it wouldn’t let me favourite it at first. However, after I had favourited the same song from Jazz, I unfavourited it as usual after not needing it anymore in my favourites, while going down to check my mail. The Jazz version went, but the Deep Cuts version came and it decided to stay and it wouldn’t leave, even by unfavouriting it a number of times.

So, I had to make the hard decision, to delete the song from my library and I did that and it was a success. Dead On Time was no longer a favourite, but now I had a song which I had deleted from my library, which I could get back quite easily. However, do I want to have it as it was, especially if I had to redo my entire phone for software bug reasons? The obvious answer, no. So, I made an even tougher decision to delete all three volumes of Deep Cuts from the music library and purchase them again, on iTunes. No problem, except for having to purchase Machines (Or Back to Humans) again and everything was all right again. So, the lesson is not to play with favourites anymore and I will no longer touch that option to favourite any song, after what I went through. I might report it to Apple, but I’m not sure and I might talk about this on a YouTube community pole for a channel I subscribe to, but I’m not sure. I might, but I don’t know yet how I’m going to approach it. I’m not going to tell the whole story chapter and verse like I am here, but I might say something about that somewhere.

Tay-Tay & Travis

Hi folks. First of all, I am not a fan of Taylor Swift and frankly, I can’t stand her. However, I will give her that she did play with one of my favourite rock bands, namely Def Leppard and that was cool. Otherwise, I could care less what she does or Travis Kelce for that matter as I’m not a football fan.

If you live in the US and you follow right wing radio, apparently there’s a conspiracy out there that Joe Biden is going to win the election because of Taylor Swift. Really? Do you actually believe that bullshit? Either Joe Biden or Donald Trump is going to win the American election this year and it won’t be because of Tay-Tay or Ted Nugent, or Kid Rock. It woill be because people voted for whom ever becomes victorious and not because of some powerful or noisy or annoying people on either side.

If you really want to get into this even deeper, there may be something else that conservatives are afraid of. A friend of mine who went to school with me recently posted this on Facebook and I’m going to share it, whether he likes it or not and if he doesn’t, tough shit. If he does, great. Either way, my friend Chris is Facebook Poast is going to be as part of a blog post all around the world. This is not posted by my friend, but by someone named ⁨Terri Lynn Coop and that’s all I know. Anyway, enjoy.

The part of the Taylor Swift kerfuffle that’s being overlooked isn’t just that they hate her for being powerful.

They are also utterly bewildered by Travis Kelce. Travis is the epitome of what the red-hat crowd considers a “real man.” He is a big brawny bearded dude who looks like he could rip an F-150 in half with one hand while guzzling beer with the other. He loves his mama (and murika too.) He is the poster boy for their fantasies of “don’t try this in a small town.”

“Men” like that aren’t supposed to want, or even like, or even acknowledge the presence of, powerful women. Remember, that the men who are with powerful women, are in their minds, weak little pasty beta cucks who simper and carry their purses in malls. “Real men,” like Travis, according to them, want women who are fluffy little mousy things who want to stay home barefoot, and maybe take a “little job” for some “play money” and only have the opinions that their man allows them in between tending jesus and babies.
So, seeing Travis Kelce bumping shoulders with his drunk ass brother after the game saying “fuckin-A bro,” and then gathering the arguably most powerful young woman in the world in a bear hug and kissing her gently on the forehead while a tear glistens on his cheek, is causing them to go into meltdown mode.

Could they be . . . . wrong?

Nah . . . .

It all must be Taylor Swift’s fault. She is challenging their paradigm of masculinity.

And the red hat women? Anything that challenges their path, their holy certitude that the only way to get a “real man” to notice you is to be a fluffy doormat, must be destroyed.