Working

Closeup of a microphone suspended over an on-air computer in a radio broadcast studio

Media Carnage

I’m not here to vilify one corporation because, frankly, they have all treated some employees badly at one time or another. Format changes and lockouts. Vacation firings. Whatever suited the suits and the shareholders at the time made it justifiable to them.

Derek and I holding cardboard cartoon smiles up to our mouths in a McDonald's

Come On Get Happy

I used to want to be famous. When I was a lot younger, I thought fame was a sure path to acceptance, adoration and financial freedom. I believed that fame washed away insecurities and flaws, leaving behind a shiny, beloved creature without a care in the world. I assumed it was how you got happy.

doodle of musical notes and a set of headphones plugged into a heart

Ears to You

Just before everything shut down for the pandemic, one of my hearing aids went on the fritz. It still worked, but it started emitting a loud, high-pitched whine whenever it felt like it. Imagine someone screaming in your left ear at random intervals. So, I stopped wearing it, obviously.

A blue background with a white line drawing of an ear and sound going into and out of it.

Sounds Like

Voice work ebbs and flows. All freelancers and self-employed people go through this with their work. There are times when you feel like you’re standing in front of a tidal wave. Other times, you crank the tap and only a trickle comes out!

Nevin Grant and Kenny Rogers in a black and white photo, both wearing suits and holding a gold record

They Called Him Hitmaker

Canadian radio lost one of its last legends this week. Nevin Grant died during surgery. Had it not been for COVID-19, he would have been preparing for a big moment. He was going to receive the Allan Waters Lifetime Achievement Award and induction into the Canadian Broadcasters Hall of Fame. This is the Hall which will also induct Erin Davis when the delayed event finally happens next year.

woman on a windowsill of a large room in a highrise, looking out the window

Finding Our Calm

More than a dozen years ago, when I was at 680 News in Toronto, we had several meetings about what the company – Rogers – would do in the case of a pandemic. SARS came, sickened thousands and killed nearly 800 before it was stopped. Our plans to work from home, and perhaps put 680’s Vancouver counterpart on air, were never put to use.

Card given out at Jodi's visitation has a photo of her, a microphone and small photos of her favourite things along the bottom - The Queen, Keith Urban, Rod Stewart and one of her dogs, a husky.

Flashback Tuesday

Today, and for the rest of this week, I’m going into reruns, in order to free my mind and soul (and fingers and knees!) for the task ahead of settling into our new/old home. If all goes as planned, as you read this we are watching the unloading of our first shipping container of possessions. So, please indulge me as I share my most-read posts from the last few years.

black outlines of people with various disabilities: walking with a cane, ina wheelchair, etc. Above them it reads: some disabilities look like this. Below them it reads, some look like this and the drawing is of a man just standing there.

Diss Ability

When you see me, you’d never guess that I’m disabled. But, with hearing loss and by wearing hearing aids, I have a disability. It doesn’t require anything from anyone else except perhaps a little extra patience when I’m having trouble hearing them.