A non-music post for today. CFRC online archive has been down for a few weeks. Which is how I would grab the older episodes. Now I have to go to the station computers and get them that way. More out of the way then doing it from home as you can imagine.
Good luck to Matthew Bisson who is now working in Edmonton, Alberta. If you’ve listened to CFRC Sports over the last 4 years you’ll recognize Matt. Play by play for the football team is what most listeners will remember. After doing a Vanier Cup victory that is as high as you can go. He also hosted GlobeTrotting which I worked on for 2 years. Weekly 30 minute soccer show that has now come to an end. Too bad since the World Cup was just around the corner in South Africa.
He was at CHUM in town and lately one of the morning guys at 98.9 FM The Drive. He will be at AM630 CHED in Edmonton. Home of the radio broadcasts of the Eskimos and Oilers. There is also another sister station but can’t remember that off the top of my head. Congratulations to Matt on the move. He just got to Edmonton on the weekend after driving from Kingston. Yes, drove about 4000 km. At least it wasn’t in the middle of winter.
Onto other football talk, since my NFL team is the Redskins. Which is why I follow the NFL in its entirety. Hasn’t been a great decade or so for Washington. This season the word isn’t hopeful as much as ‘interesting’. I have no clue what the 2010/11 season will be like. Could be bad, could be good. No idea.
Donovan McNabb the starting QB. Woke up at 2am early Monday morning and put on the TV. I had NFL Network on before I went to sleep. I see “Redskins acquire McNabb” on screen. What? A rare trade in which there was no speculation about Washington trying to grab him. Talk about Raiders for the most part. This fall a new GM, a new coach, a new QB and two new running backs. Might not have heard about the running backs. Skins grabbed Larry Johnson and Willie Parker in free agency. As of today they still have Clinton Portis too. All this adds up to a fun season. Could go horribly wrong however it will be entertaining.
CFL in Moncton is sold out. A regular season game is being held in that town this September. Eskimos against the Argos called ‘Touchdown Atlantic’. Few tickets are there for kids associations and bus trips. But other than that the tickets sold out in 32 hours. Keep in mind the first 24 hours only tickets were available to people who registered online ahead of time. For all the football fans in Atlantic Canada this isn’t a surprise. Now there is finally some talk about an expansion team out east. Although why they’re obsessed with trying Ottawa yet again I don’t know.
Went to high school in Pembroke near the end of the Ottawa RoughRiders. They were viewed as a joke and fans had jumped on the Senators bandwagon. Heck, I saw more Ottawa Lynx merchandise the first time I went to an Ottawa mall around 1993. AAA Baseball was more popular than the CFL in town. Ended up going to college in Ottawa after the RoughRiders were gone and before the Renegades came to town. 3 years and I don’t remember anyone complain about CFL not being there. I did 2 years of TV Broadcasting and no one did one thing about CFL in Ottawa. Was that far off the radar. You have the Senators, 67’s and even the Gee Gees. Wasn’t around during the Renegades years. A team that lasted only 4 seasons isn’t a good omen. I get to end a post with a quote from Albert Einstein to describe the CFL in Ottawa.
“Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”
Let’s hope the games you watch on Sunday isn’t as bad as the Queen’s game was on Saturday. 8-7 win for the Golden Gaels over McMaster. That’s more like a baseball score than a football one.
Picked Steelers to win on Thursday so got one right. I did the Week 1 picks on the show, going by memory since I just brought up the schedule and picked them on the fly. It’s Week 1 though and it’s a hard week to get right no matter what. Which teams are good, bad or average? Don’t know yet.
Starting off with the 1pm games.
Miami at Atlanta [CBS]: Both teams had easier schedules last year so they’ll have a tougher time in 2009. Plus the Falcons have never had back to back winning seasons. But this week I’ll pick them to beat the Dolphins.
Kansas City at Baltimore [CBS]: Baltimore, this is a big mismatch.
Philadelphia at Carolina [FOX]: Philly. Do you remember how badly Carolina played against Arizona in the playoffs? And they rewarded the QB with a new 5 year contract. Mind boggling.
Denver at Cincinnati [CBS]: Yuck. Have to pick one of them so the Bengals.
Minnesota at Cleveland [FOX]: Vikings. Picked them before I knew who would be starting for the Browns this week. Like that will matter.
NY Jets at Houston [CBS]: Jets. The Texans have a great offense, but can’t stop anyone. That’s a slight problem.
Jacksonville at Indianapolis [CBS]: Colts. Think this is the year where Indy starts to slip a bit. But they’ll beat the Jags. Who have new uniforms…. a new coach would’ve made more sense.
Detroit at New Orleans [FOX]: Saints.
Dallas at Tampa Bay [FOX]: Dallas. Think I picked the Cowboys to win on the radio. Not sold on them but I have no confidence in Tampa. They fired the offensive co-ordinator in the preseason, which make them look they don’t know what they’re doing. Which is the case when you have Leftwich as your starting QB.
Now the 4:15pm kickoffs.
San Francisco at Arizona [FOX]: Cardinals. They’re not getting back to the Superbowl but they can handle the Niners.
Washington at NY Giants [FOX]: Redskins. My team, but picking them because I think the Giants have been overrated this year. Mainly because of the Giant receivers or lack of them. Burress is going to jail and Amani Toomer is with the Chiefs. I would have to search to name the ones they have this season.
St. Louis at Seattle [FOX]: Seahawks. Rams have been bad so an easy pick. Seattle was decimated with injuries last year. Think they can win that division, but that’s not saying much. Arizona needed a 9-7 record to win it in 2008.
Sunday Night, Chicago at Green Bay [NBC]. Packers with a victory since I don’t think the Bears and their new QB have gotten things going yet. Green Bay was scoring left and right in the preseason.
A pair of Monday Night Football games. One time of the year they air a game at a good start time. Other one is for the west coast or night owls like myself.
Buffalo at New England 7pm [TSN]: Patriots. Bills decided to copy Tampa and they also fired the Offensive Co-ordinator in the preseason. Dumb. I’m writing off their season. New England is getting someone named Tom back who might make a difference.
San Diego at Oakland 10:15pm [TSN]: Not many people going to see this one. Chargers with the victory. Raiders have become a joke.
When does the CFL playoffs start? I don’t pay attention till then. Not much point when so many teams make the playoffs. The ads touting it as
“Canada’s Game” are always annoying.
No shots of the East Coast, eh? Oh that’s right you don’t have teams across the country.
Finally there is a story recently that “Moncton finalizing deal for 5 CFL games”. One regular season game a year would be held in town. Small step considering the CFL awarded an expansion team for Halifax in 1984. That’s a story for another time.
They don’t want to expand to a new market but they’re fine with going back to Ottawa again from what it sounds like. Another reason for me to ignore the league till the playoffs.
Another article on the upcoming OUA Football season.
One sentence in particular summed up last season.
“Scored most points and allowed fewest in 2008 OUA league, then lost first playoff game.” Ouch.
Which I predicted by the way. Long time listeners might remember the night before Queen’s hosted Ottawa I picked the Gee Gees to win. 8-0 Gaels hosting a 4-4 team and I picked Ottawa. I was right. Why did I pick them?
One big thing in football I’ve seen over the last few years is momentum going into any playoffs. Ottawa HAD to win near the end of the season to get in. Queen’s had it wrapped up early. Too soon I would say. I saw Ottawa win the week before and thought they looked good.
Other main reason was Mike Giffin’s injury and how it was handled. Last regular season game and Queen’s had the starters in the game. Which is always dangerous especially with your star running back. He hurt his knee early on and doesn’t return. Matt Bisson was calling the game and said he was obviously hurt.
Then the strange thing started to happen. Queen’s denied he was hurt that much. Which they kept saying for 2 weeks up until the playoff game. That doesn’t scream a confident team to me. You don’t go 8-0 on the back of one guy, so just say he’s hurt and might not play. Plenty of players to pick up the slack on both sides of the ball.
But they didn’t think like that. Kept up the charade. Did he end up playing any part of the game against Ottawa? Of course not.
With that out of the way, I’ll throw in my prediction for this season. Stuck between 6-2 and 5-3. Mainly because of the last 2 games and whether or not the teams have clinched a spot by then.
Monday against Guelph
Sept. 12th host McMaster
Sept. 19th at Ottawa
Sept. 26th hosting York
Oct. 3rd at Windsor
Oct. 10th at Waterloo
Oct. 17th host Western
Oct 24th at Laurier
Western/Laurier/Queen’s could all be close to clinching a playoff spot at the end of the year. If you might play that team again in 2 or 3 weeks do you try that hard in one of those games? I’d say rest the starters for the last on. Lesson hopefully learned after last season.
I’ll say 6-2 for Queen’s. Might be better if they have to play a first round game this year.
Later in the week I’ll start my NFL picks. Did it last year on the radio but I should make some blog posts out of them. Already picked the Steelers against the Titans for Thursday’s game.
There was one week in 2008 I only got one game wrong. Lot of luck but it was fun to see them all those games line up. If you’re wondering, yes I picked Detroit to win once during the season. Had to try it one week for an upset.
Kickoff of Queen’s vs Guelph is a special start time of 2pm on Monday.
http://www.cfrc.ca or 101.9 FM in Kingston
Followup to the last post. Pleasant surprise as Ottawa viewers won. Today Rogers said they’re keeping WPBS Watertown in Ottawa.
Even the website of the ABC affiliate in Watertown had a story on it. Not very often do you have TV stations with news on other ones in town. Although PBS is a public broadcaster so they’re not viewed as competitors as much.
You knew there would be a funny line from Rogers somewhere in these stories. From Metro Ottawa.
“Rogers’ vice-president of video services, David Purdy, said that they did receive complaints, but downplayed their influence on the decision.”
Sure. And the coverage in the following places had nothing to do with the changes either:
Ottawa Citizen, The Kingston Whig Standard, CBC.ca, WPBS Website, Facebook Groups, CNY TV News, North Country Public Radio, Watertown Daily Times, Newswatch 50, Barrhaven This Week, Digital Home, SOWNY.ca.
I bet that coverage made a lot of people take notice and complain.
The Canadian channels getting kicked off systems in Ontario probably won’t be as lucky with a reprieve. The viewers are spread out across the province as opposed to this issue in Ottawa. But you never know.
Technically it is Friday. Tonight on the show there isn’t any set plan. Back on LIVE though. Did get one of Sharona Clarke’s CD in the mail so I’ll be playing that among others.
Saw my blog got linked to from the website of The Telegram. Hello to the new readers, how and why I got the link? That’s a post for another day.
Today some news about Rogers Digital Cable in Ontario dropping a lot of stations from their lineup. Including NTV. Supposedly they’re being eliminated for more premium channels and ethnic stations. You know anyone who wants more premium ones? I know friends who would like ESPN or HBO [not the Canadian one] but that won’t be happening.
They’re also dropping Global Saint John, Winnipeg and PBS Watertown among others. Quote from the letter customers got in the mail is they did it to “provide more choice and variety in the future”. Couldn’t make that up if I tried.
The direct line to Rogers for customer complaints is 1-800-379-7597.
A lot of east coasters like to watch NTV so I’m sure they’ll be getting complaints once all of a sudden it’s gone.
In Ottawa there are a lot of complaints about the PBS channel getting switched from Watertown to Detroit. Kingston people aren’t happy either since but we live close enough to pick it up over the air.
Notice they decided to pull this stunt in August? When a lot of people aren’t in front of their sets. No accident there.
This is where I’ll give links to where you can switch providers. If you can switch to satellite. Both satellite ones changed their name in the last year or so. If you might be wondering.
Bell TV formerly Express Vu
ShawDirect formerly StarChoice
Kingston’s cable provider isn’t Rogers. But I’ll try and avoid them if I ever end up somewhere where they are. It’s not just the dumping of the stations, but the cowardly way it’s been done.
Notice went out in July about them getting dropped August 17th. Especially in the case of WPBS in Ottawa, they’ve served them for 40 years and to get a timeframe like that is insulting. Clearly that’s the Rogers way trying to get out as quickly as possible without protests. Which hasn’t been the case. They have Facebook groups trying to get this changed and more. Right now without any luck.
The most unbelievable part is that WPBS and another station in Erie, PA first heard about this news from their viewers. That’s right no phone call telling them ahead of time. Guess their Rogers cell phones weren’t working.
Will complaining change this? Who knows, it did work with the “negative billing” in the 90’s. At least they figured out it was a mistake. Don’t know about the people who run it now.
CRTC put up the transcripts for the few days of the Ottawa radio hearings. Fair warning, they are LONG. I took a glance at them, would take me a while to read all of the info. But I thought I would send the links along for those interested in what goes on at these things.
Never heard of “contour maps” before when it comes to radio frequency. I just play the music on the radio. 🙂
Some parts are in French and not translated into English yet. Audio feed had translations of both, but it’s impressive the transcripts are up this fast in the first place.
I heard some people in Kingston saw snow last night, but I didn’t. Forecast of flurries on Wednesday? Hope not.
Happy New Year to everyone, still tired from the holidays. Even though I stayed in for New Year’s.
Tonight’s show has a lot of Blues music. Going to do an all-blues first hour in support of DawgFM in Ottawa. Thinking ahead since then I can re-use that hour in a podcast episode too.
Might go grab one of those Ryan’s Fancy records to play a bit of in Hour 2.