I read either an online paper or conventional paper, watch a television newscast or four and try to hear at least one or two radio newscasts a day. Some friends feel that this is an obsession bordering on mania, while others look upon it as just being plugged into planetary events. The roots are from radio days.
I worked for five years in small-market radio in the Ottawa Valley (Hillbilly country to the American friends). As an announcer there, you did everything, including reporting news. The station that I spent the most time at, CHOV (defunct now) in Pembroke, was a private radio station that was a CBC affiliate. CBC, to translate, is like NPR and BBC, but has commercials and is first rate radio.
Part of the agreement of being a CBC affiliate was that we broadcast X-number of hours of live CBC Radio Network programming per week. My first shifts were evenings, when AM radio used to do balls-out rock and roll radio: 1050 CHUM, The Great 8 CKLW, CFTR, WABC, CFRA, the rock and roll monsters before FM took over, blasted into our market, eating up our audience.
We were broadcasting “The World At Six” and “As It Happens” from the CBC. In that all-important, at the time, teen demographic, we might as well have been broadcasting Muslim prayers from Mecca.
The shift I did was a 120 minute blob between the 8 pm and 10 pm hours, of, naturally, balls-out rock and roll AM radio. I started work at 6 pm and finished at midnight, spending the two hours before my real work and after my real work, listening to CBC. As the programs from CBC required nothing more from you than to do a 30-second station ID, every hour at 30 seconds to the exact hour, I had plenty of time to listen. As I also did a 30 second newsbreak at 10:19:30 PM I had to stay on top of the news wire, Canadian Press, that chattered over in the corner of the newsroom.
Consequently, being plugged in to world events via CBC and Canadian Press, I developed a manageable News Addiction. In Television, I was near the newsroom feeds for eight years and saw the Challenger blow up live, a bus hijacking on Parliament Hill, the Papal Visit and hundreds of other events without a filter of time or analysis that only served to feed the news jones.
My point, and I do have one, is that I also look for the occasional offbeat news story. I don’t really feel satisfied with my morning news-graze until I find that one very odd, strange, or head-shaking story. And there is one every day.
Today, (link no longer working) a town in the US is the proud owner of a giant Cheeto. The person who found it in a bag of Cheeto’s put it up on eBay and got bids on it. Then, in a moment of clarity, donated the Cheeto to his town, where they plan to put the lump on display. The funds that were bid to buy it, were turned over to the town Food Bank. Frito-Lay was the big bidder, putting up a cool $1000 to get the orange lump.
The town plans to preserve the Giant Cheeto in a Plexiglas box, on a velvet pillow at City Hall, probably charging visitors a buck or five to see the Giant Cheeto. My concern is not the town putting the Giant Cheeto on display, or charging for admission to see the Giant Cheeto, as that is The American Way.
I am most concerned about the poor child who wanted a mitt full of cheesy-annatto-coloured-deep-fried-corn-meal-sodium-bomb who got ripped off his preservative fix for the afternoon. The Bastards! Is there nothing that can be done?!?!?
RoadDave 