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]
Our station manager for this past school year, Youssef, was honored during an celebratory pizza party at the studio. During this last school year, great progress was made for the station including several new DJs and a fabulous new program called Teen Platform, which Youssef developed and created. With Youssef’s dedication, talent and long hours the station is beginning to show its potential!
We are all looking forward to another exciting year of working with Youssef since funding was found through the Humboldt County Office of Education to have him work with the station this next school year! Additional outreach to students at various Community School sites and Eureka High is enthusiastically being planned.
Be sure to check out Teen Platform if you haven’t yet!
We’ve upgraded our web site so that our news and announcements are posted through wordpress. From now on, you can go to “www.blueoxradio.org/news” to see all of our news postings and sign up to follow our RSS feed.
Schools is out and summer is in. Blue Ox Radio will still be broadcasting 24/7, but we won’t be holding our regular meeting every week and we may be a little more delayed in returning calls and e-mails as our volunteers take some much-needed vacations. Please continue to write or call us though and we’ll get back to you as soon as we can!
Blue Ox Radio’s first locally produced radio drama, “Dora the Beautiful Dishwasher,” will air beginning at 7:00pm on Friday, May 22nd. Don’t miss it!