Blue Ox Radio News

We’ve uploaded some photos from our 2010 May Day event, check them out! Thanks again to all who participated.

A lovely day was had by all at our recent May Day celebration. The bands played on our truck stage, visiting craftspeople demonstrated along side our students, and the smells of good food tempted us all!

Puppeteers Mark Dupre and Sean Powers presented “Binkerella” ~ a fractured fairy tale, and Blue Ox Community School students had everyone laughing when they introduced their newly created puppets in an impromptu question and answer session in the theater. Saint Bernard’s High School students entertained the crowds with their production of “Two Lovers Too Many”.

Many people commented how enjoyable the day was for them and their families. One happy visitor told me that Blue Ox is a home to many people.

Many thanks to the local stations that supported us by airing our ads, to NorthCoast Merchantile, and to Times Printing. Many thanks also to all of our dedicated volunteers who put in over 300 hours to host this event.

Check out the current issue of the Steelhead Magazine ~ Blue Ox Radio is featured! A fabulous interview with Youssef, our station manager, and lots of great talks with the students in the Community School program that have been learning so much working with Youssef! And they also used lots ofYoussef’s pictures of the kids! Great work everyone!

Come support Blue Ox Radio at our 9th annual May Day Living History and Artisan Faire, Saturday May 1st at Blue Ox Historic Park.

A “Dream Team” of Oldey Time bands will be performing on two stages, including Huckleberry Flint, Compost Mountain Boys, Striped Pig, and Bucky Walters.

Also performing will be Tumbleweeds, Clean Living, and the Sidekicks along with barbershop quartet Mirth First and the Redwood Coast Women’s Chorus.

There will be demonstrations in blacksmithing, lathe turning, copper-smithing and spinning. You can glaze a ceramic piece, you can enjoy a puppet show in our newly restored theater, and you can delight in the performance of the commedia play Two Lovers Too Many which will be performed by the St. Bernard’s Drama class.

Check out the new wood fire kiln, just recently completed after two years of diligent work by over 100 volunteers.

Enjoy some Blackberry Bramble Tri-tip sandwiches, root beer floats and micro-brews, and check out the student run gift store where items made by the Blue Ox Community School students are for sale.

It’s a fun day for the whole family!

All proceeds go to help support our station.

Saturday May 1st from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. at Blue Ox Historic Park at the corner of 1st and X Streets in Eureka.

$8 per person; $7 with a donation to the food bank; kids 12 and under are free.

For more information, check out the poster and pictures of last years May Day or call the Blue Ox Mill at 707-444-3437.

If you have had difficulty getting good reception, you can blame the earthquake and windstorms. Our antenna was knocked down due to the combination of the 6.5 earthquake and the high winds that occurred soon after. Cai, Eric, and Viviana installed our new antenna, but repairs to the tower have been thwarted by the continuing storms.

Keep posted; we anticipate being back up to full power soon!

It’s time for Blue Ox’s 14th Annual Craftsman’s Days with blacksmithing, spinning and woodworking demonstrations, a puppet show and balloon animals.

There will be music, food and fun for the whole family with live performances by the Tumbleweeds and the Empty Bottle Boys.

Friday and Saturday, Nov 27th & 28th from 10am to 4 pm at the corner of 1st and X streets in Eureka.

$7 adults, $6 with a donation to the food bank, kids twelve and under are free. All proceeds benefit Blue Ox Youth and Community Radio.

For more info check out the poster or call 444-3437.

Saturday, 11 October, Blue Ox Radio General Manager Viviana Hollenbeck and volunteers Cai Maver and Larry Rochester met at the station for what would prove to be an extensive rewiring of the station, an action was made possible by the generous donations of equipment from volunteers.

The station was signed off the air for equipment replacements and upgrades at 12:40 PM.

The following actions were then undertaken:

• Install new stereo encoder
• Install new microphone (more to come)
• Rewire broadcast board
• Install new cables
• Install equipment in a professional equipment rack
• Install new wireless keyboard and optical mouse
• Install new, larger monitor
• Install new broadcast booth speakers
• Test all the above and adjust as necessary
• Give broadcast booth a good general cleaning

The station was signed back onto the airwaves at approximately 6:15 PM, by volunteer producer Larry Rochester, with the following historic (for Blue Ox Radio) statement:

“This is KKDS-LP, 97.7 FM, Blue Ox Radio from Eureka, California, resuming normal broadcasting at this time, in full stereo!”

Sunday’s action was the culmination of Part One of our long-term plans to upgrade the station. Part Two will be the installation of yet more new microphones, running cables and installing a new cable patch board in our equipment room, which will have to be reconfigured to accept the new cabling and possibly new furniture. These new cables will enable the quick set-up and breakdown of remote recording in either the equipment room or the classroom of the Blue Ox Community School.

Making the switch from broadcasting in mono (which we have been doing for the last three years) to stereo will no doubt result in a degradation of our signal. This signal degradation – especially in Eureka’s out-lying areas – is due to a change in the signal to noise ratio that is inherent with FM stereo. However, we will continue to fine-tune our equipment to provide the best possible signal for our listeners.

Please bear with us as we bring the station up to speed!

All told, though, it was a good – no a GREAT – day for the “new” Blue Ox Radio.

The volunteers at Blue Ox Radio have been pretty busy over the last few weeks: starting the school year, gearing up for a station upgrade and recovering from a few illnesses. We did make some time to upload a few of the photos from our 3rd birthday party though; take a look over at our flickr page!

Notes from Viviana:
Our 3rd Anniversary Birthday Party was a huge success ~ great music, great food and great friends!

Old friends and new friends met in support of our community radio station and to share in the power of community.

Blue Ox staunch supporters the Tumbleweeds, who have played at our Craftsman’s Days and May Day Celebrations for years, opened the day of music with their great humor and old traditional favorites.

Then we shifted from their male harmonies to the sweet female harmonies of the Sidekicks, who offered some old traditional songs and some originals as well. They also appeared at last year’s party and at our May Day Celebration.

Next we shifted to more of a rock sound with Woven Tones, first timer’s at our events and the band of our deejay Xavier whose show airs on Wednesday afternoons.

In the afternoon the incredible voices and talents of internationally known singer Spanky ~ from the 60s group Spanky and Our Gang ~ and Karen Dumont, the founder of the Arcata Interfaith Gospel Choir, backed by with the musicians from Boomsauii, rocked the house down. Besides the amazing singing, Spanky shared some stories from their appearance in Texas when they were asked to sing with Willie Nelson, and also spoke very passionately about the annual Stand Down that is held in Ferndale each year in support of our veterans.

The last performers of the day were Boomsauii, a band of “young” men who played some old favorites from the sixties before heading off to another performance. Amazing how those songs have such a continued powerful appeal!

During the course of the day we had music from the early 1900s, the 40s, 60s, and the 80s represented, along with some original music as well.

The complicated technical aspects of the production were handled by volunteer Cai Maver ~ who at one point drove home to McKinleyville to soldered together some more cables for us!

Youssef, our hard-working station manager, set up the recording system and kept track of sound levels with the help of new volunteer Tim. You may have seen Tim’s picture in the Times Standard! He is a Community School student who has always wanted to be on the radio. He was a huge help all day long!

Larry Rochester, diehard radio man, did interviews with each of the bands after their sets, and generally kept the flow going. He also invited Tim to help deejay his show after the party.

The food was a big hit too, with all kinds of munchies including my “famous” smoked albacore spread and a fabulous birthday cake from Vellutini’s Bakery.

The constant refilling of the food plates was handled by Angie, Suzanne, Judith, Lori and Blue Ox Community School teacher Jenifer and her son Mica. Big thanks to them for their attentive dedication!

New friends that came by included people who read about us in the Times Standard and Marianne Knorzer, the Program Director from KMUD. “Old” friends included Katie, a current student of the Blue Ox Community School and her family; Aaron and his new bride; and Michael Fields from Del Arte (and Blue Ox Village Board Member), among others.

It was a wonderful time for everyone! We will be having the songs that were recorded playing on the station soon! Thanks to everyone who helped make the party such an incredible success ~ we appreciate your support!

Viviana Hollenbeck, Station Manager

Come on down to the Blue Ox Radio studio in the Blue Ox Community School at 2nd and Y Streets in Eureka on Saturday, September 12 from 11am to 6pm for food and music to celebrate our third year on the air! Admission is free and bands will include The Tumbleweeds, The Sidekicks, Woven Tones, Spanky McFarlane & Karen Dumont and Boomsauii. We’ll be broadcasting this event all day long at 97.7 on your FM dial. [Download a flyer]