RC Stanley: brings a soul searching, solo tour to Ontario - playing Neat Cafe, April 14
RC Stanley talks with Amy Volume on CHEZ 106 in Ottawa.
CLICK HERE to get your tickets to see RC Stanley & Melissa Payne play Neat Cafe in Burnstown on Friday, April 14th.
I Read About Futuri So You Don't Have To
Oooooh, ahhh… the future is now!
From the Boradcast Dialogue article HERE by Connie Thiessen, Feb. 23, 2023:
"human input is required when working to configure shows, but RadioGPT does the rest.”
Some thoughts:
Where I feel this AI tech will be extremely helpful to live, on air human broadcasters: you know how you used to do one show in one timeslot but now you do one show in that same timeslot in your home market (which you totally crush, btw) but now you also host a second show in the same timeslot (or maybe evenings) and it's syndicated into five other markets or clusters and there is an expectation of X local, live content breals per X hour in X market? If you're pickin' up what I'm throwin' down, you know how helpful this new tech could be.
The on air humans who have more than one show, typically have that additional level of reach because they are good at their jobs and are appreciated by listeners, both local and out of market.
Have you ever felt overexposed in your position? I know I have. We are public figures and often a little 'too' accessible; we're the wall for people to throw their sh*t at. It's not all sh*it, okay. I know that. On the days where it is mostly sh*t, I'd give anything to have a tech filter to be the first point of contact for calls, texts, DMs or e-mails that no human should see (shoutout to young women working those overnight shifts).
RadioGPT is said to be capable at handling posts to social media and blogs/other forms of engaging web content. If that means I can worry less about a) what's offensive today and might be considered offensive tomorrow, b) whether or not sharing this will get me or my company into trouble with copyright crawler bots, and c) finding time to post while I'm hosting, prepping, programming, in meetings and engaging with audience/sales/clients, etc.
SIGN. ME. THE. F*CK. UP.
I've been using the same metaphor about working in radio since I started professionally doing so in 2011:
"Hosting a show is like casting a net; what you pull in isn't always going to be what you want to eat. The bigger the net, the more you'll pull in but, again, it's not always edible."
Working with AI is going to increase the size of the net, while helping us source through the catch.
To my very limited knowledge, there were two announcements this week about AI DJ tech:
Spotify's Sonatic which promises to "deliver a curated lineup of music alongside commentary around the tracks and artists we think you'll like in a stunningly realistic voice."
Futuri's RadioGPT which bills itself as "the world's first localized radio content powered entirely by artificial intelligence."
To summarize:
As a disabled woman working in media with two young kids in school, married to a partner who works full time in marketing and quasi-recently launched his own (successful) business, I am very excited about what this tech will mean for the future of the broadcasting industry.
Nothing is more important to me, professionally, than being the friend who plays your favourite tunes. If I get to play exactly what you want, when you want it and give you the information you want to hear in between tunes... I think that's the ultimate goal. Let's go!
Pizza for CHEO: WE DID IT
We made it happen. Thrown together in two hours with many moving pieces, we did it. We brough an obscene amount of single-serve meals to the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario for overworked staff to enjoy (when they can). We love you, CHEO!
Before heading into an important meeting this morning, I checked Twitter and saw a message that totally changed the course of my day!
@AngiePoirier @dylanblackradio @SamLapradeCFRE @PatriciaBoalCTV @StuntmanStu @mattskubeCTV @Denise_Fung I checked in with friends who work @CHEO to offer help. They said staff are not taking time to eat or have breaks. Are there restaurants who can send food? Please RT.
— Dawn Pickering (@CDawnPickering) November 10, 2022
You know my history with CHEO, and since I was looking to record some of my radio show (weekdays, 9A-2P on Chez 106) to accomodate my in-person meeting from 9-10A and I thought, ‘I can definitely amplify this message!’ Very on brand for my radio show… Figured I was good to pitch in at least two pizzas for the ER staff… so I put the call out to my listeners, “anyone want to buy a pizza for the ER staff at CHEO?”
Following my morning meeting, when I logged in to the on-air computer in the control room, I was floored. E-transfers were already waiting for me in my inbox thanks to a brief mention of Dawn’s tweet (shared above). Businesses vouched pizza pies! The ball was rolling and it was rolling fast and hard. Things took a turn when CHEO informed me that they could not accept any ‘sharable’ meal (like a pizza) due to viral contamination risk (of course). I pivoted in the moment and turned my massive cheese/pep/veggie pizza order into individual serve meals. Wow, did the Pizza Pizza on St. Laurant hate me! (Sorry!)
**Please note: I have been informed that CHEO has changed some protocols to allow their staff to accept pizzas, thought individually portioned meals are highly preferred when possible.
I promised everyone who contributed that I would NOT deposit any funds until the food was delivered! Well…
We delivered!
Oh wow, we delivered:
5 x Veggie Panzerotti
5 x Canadian Panzerotti
10 x Cheese Panzerotti
10 x Pepperoni Panzerotti
5 x Chicken Bite Meal (5)
5 x Classic Chicken Sandwich
5 x Plant Based Chick'n Sandwich
5 x Popcorn Chicken
5 x Chicken Bites (10)
5 x Jalapeno Poppers
5 x Cauliflower Bites
5 x Deep Fried Pickles
5 x Single Order Fries
5 x Sweet Potato Fries
Working with Dawn on this ‘Pizza for CHEO ER staff’ initiative really spiralled and it took over my morning. I was forced to record my whole radio show (which also included an interview which I had to bump to tomorrow) and, between 9A-11A, we raised over 700$.
All of that money went to buying food. I am not involved in the food service industry. I am not an event coordinator. Today I was just a grown up CHEO kid with a truck and a credit card.
Below is the PROOF of PURCHASE and an edited list of donors (I’m not going to give out your personal information). I’m only posting these pics and sharing this information as a Thank You (and receipt) for those who threw money at me all because of Dawn’s idea.
Those who crunched the numbers (above) may have noticed the total donated was $685 - I put in the rest. The total order (which you can see by clicking the black button above this text) was: $712.69.
I hope the food was enjoyed! It’s more of a lack in TIME than it is a lack in food supply, I’m guessing. At the very least, I hope this lets our CHEO urgent care workers know that we are thinking of them.
Dawn’s tweet is also still giving, into the weekend, thanks to Ray and everyone at Gabriel Pizza, I hear! What a wonderful idea and a massive shoutout to all who contributed!
Kristy, Michael, Mike (Connie’s Custom Tailoring), Marc, Mark, Kim, Jean-Pierre, Meghan, Genevieve, Patricia, Dawn, Julien, Daniel, other Dan of Dan’s Mobile Marine - the biggest of thanks to you for making this food drop possible! It was one tweet that turned into a large amount of food. No strings. No stress. All love.
Thank you, too, to the staff at Pizza Pizza - 1910 St. Laurent location. You essentially shut down to create this order. I was very shocked to see that many of your items (which I assumed would be frozen and then fried) were HAND MADE, and served FRESH. I am so sorry this happened very last minute and you rocked it! Additional thanks to Bella Vista Restaurant who were the first to call the radio station to offer support. You are all wonderful and help make this city GREAT!
My heart is VERY full and, with any luck/if they have a second or two, our CHEO ER/PICU workers bellies will be equally full.
An Update on my Troublesome Hip
Today is the six week anniversary of my (cortisone) hip injection. Dr. Jessica Curran at the Carleton Sport Medicine Clinic walked me through the process and was very pleasant, even though I was pretty tense. Dr. Curran went over my X-rays with me and told me what to expect and I told her that I was probably going to exercise my fight or flight response by laughing. Whenever I’m in pain or nervous, I laugh. It’s a good thing to warn your doctor about if you experience this type of response, too, I’ve learned. The needle to numb the area (lidocaine) was a bit of a pinch, then I started to sweat and chose to ignore the ultrasound screen which the doctor used to guide the needle directly into my hip joint (which entered through my thigh). I hate veins. I get nervous with deep, probing needles even though I’ve had a lot of them.
The whole thing was over in a flash and I couldn’t believe it. I was allowed to stay in the room until my wooziness subsided (less than 10 mins.) and when it came time to walk out, I couldn’t believe how my legs felt: no pain. No pain at all and because I wasn’t in any pain, I didn’t have to limp.
The thing about limping, in my case, is that I do it innately to avoid my hip giving out and to accommodate the pain that I have been living with for the last seven or eight years.
I had previously tried to treat this pain with regular chiro/acupuncture appointments during pregnancy. My chiropractor and I were both under the impression that the source of the pain was my SI joint. This pain often flares during pregnancy. Long story short: it was my hip. My SI joint is fine.
Now, the no pain thing in this instance was thanks to the lidocaine, or as I like to call it (because I’m hilarious), “bone cocaine”.
I walked from the clinic to my motorcycle without limping. Well, I probably still walked with a limp but I really focused on my gate and tried to walk in a “normal” fashion, just to see if I could. It was incredible! Of course, an hour later when the numbing agent wore off, I regretted that. I felt pretty awful and went to bed early.
I didn’t sleep a lot that night. I was very worried that maybe the cortisone wouldn’t work. This hip injection is a precursor to my total hip replacement surgery which I am now in the cue for, for sure this time! The surgeon and I filled the paperwork out together on September 7th. Before my surgeon sent me on my way, he said he’d arrange for this hip injection and cautioned: “If the injection relieves your pain, the hip surgery will be a success. If it doesn’t, we need to find the source of the pain.”
All signs pointed to the hip… so why did I feel like garbage once the lidocaine wore off? I couldn’t fall asleep because I was scared that the cortisone wasn’t going to work. It can take a couple days to kick in, but I have been in such intense pain, constantly, without relief, for nearly 10 years (in my right hip. My RA is also terrible but it comes and goes in terms of how debilitating it can be).
More and more, I read stories about disabled people who choose assisted death because they aren’t really living. They are worn out from the pain. While I don’t see that as an option for me at this time, the prospect of not getting relief from this pain or losing my ability to walk and having hope of meaningful medical intervention and recovery slip away really spooked me. I’m only 36 and I’m more able bodied now than I’ve ever been thanks to my medical team and drug therapies. I have a full time job that I enjoy doing, own a house and a cottage with my husband and we’ve got two awesome, healthy children. I can’t give up hope, you know?
Somehow amidst all of those worrisome thoughts, I was able to fall asleep*, and when I woke up, my pain was gone.
The thing about me is that my lived medical experiences have taught me to never be anything more than “cautiously optimistic”. Surely it’s too soon for the cortisone to be working? Now, I’ve had many cortisone shots back in my CHEO days. They used to put me to sleep to do them because they would inject all of my problem joints in one go. I figured my folks might remember if cortisone was always this immediately effective (providing relief within 24 hours) and, sure enough, my mom tells me, “Amy, you were always like that.”
Be optimistic. Be scared. Be willing to go the distance and be ready to accept limitations. When the time comes to embrace relief, in its many forms: be whatever that is, too.
*The pain I experience is so bad that I do not sleep very well at the best of times. Laying down hurts. I’ve been living like this for at least seven years. The pain creates its own form of fatigue due to my body constantly fighting to “keep going”. Then I have the regular fatigue of someone who can’t get any quality sleep.
Happy Halloween: Yer 2022 Ghost Stories
Amy Volume gets a FrightFest makeover to share your spooky stories for Halloween 2022.
I’ve been coming to Saunders Farm since I was a little kid. Flash forward to now: while I trying to come up with an exciting way to combine my Halloween Radio Special with the Farm’s FrightFest, a very unique opportunity arose for me to truly go Behind the Scenes (Screams?) as a motorcycle ghoul. Click through the photo gallery below to see how their talented, professional makeup artists transformed me and Morgan (horror obsessed music director at CHEZ).
Old haunts and new are waiting for you at the Farm. Walk through the Barn of Terror, Shambles, Coven and the Cemetery Crypt. Hop aboard the Haunted Hayride, if you dare…
Follow Saunders Farm on instagram & Saunders Cider on instagram.
Make sure to visit the CiderHouse to try Saunders’ Hard & Soft Cider offerings. Their line-up includes Candy Apple, Flying Canoe, Saw Tooth, Pie Faced, Ginger Snap, Rosy Cheeks, Sixth Line and Nana’s Hug (0% alcohol) pours. Try them all by ordering a flight!
And now to share some of your Ghost Stories... Read at your own risk!
All stories included in this post were submitted to me via text while hosting my on-air show, weekdays from 9AM to 2PM on CHEZ 106 (106.1 FM in Ottawa, Canada). Listen to the live broadcast on Monday, October 31st (2022) to hear more stories shared by listeners.
I worked in a jail in Toronto. The third floor was said to be haunted. You would walk through freezing cold spots when the rest was humid and hot from the summer. It would send chills right up your spine.
- Anonymous (text)
I was stargazing one evening in my backyard. Thought I saw a shooting star, until it stopped dead in its tracks, was going west, then pulled a 90° turn and went south. Never could explain it.
- Gabe
Our old farmhouse had, I will say, a spirit living in it.
My kids had, unbeknownst to me, named him Wilburt. One evening, during dinner, there was a noise coming from the living room and our farmhand (the former owner of the farm) said, "What was that?" and the kids replied in stereo, "That's just Wilburt".
Well our farmhand's face went white and he told us that his uncle's name was Wilburt and that he had passed over in that very house. Well, all I can say is that Wilburt was a nice spirit. He used to open doors for me when my hands were full ... laundry basket, etc. When we built the new house and were planning to tear down the old one, I invited Wilburt to move in with us but he did not.
I never felt his presence again.
- Sue
As a kid I could never leave my bedroom door open because every night there would be this figure at my door outlined by a bright light.
- Pierre
Not one to believe in paranormal, occult, supernatural or anything like that, the world lost a good one this past May. She was a special kind of special. After the celebration of life, I was laying in bed trying to wrap my head around the fact that she was gone when, out of the darkness I saw and felt her hand in mine; the frilly white cuff under the sleeve of her powder blue cashmere sweater. I tried to hold on but her hand slipped from my grasp and was gone. It wasn't sad or scary. She told me everything was okay. Still missing her.
- Jimbo
My aunt was a nurse at St. Vincent's and one night she was called into a patient’s room. The lady in the bed told her to go check on one of the other patients down the hall, said she “just saw her spirit float past the end of her bed and out the window.” My aunt went to check on the lady and she had passed away. That story has always stuck with me.
- Shannon
When I was a teenager, my sister and I were driving back home at night.
We lived in the country. There were no streetlights or other houses near us. About 500 meters from our house, a white figure suddenly appeared in the road in front of us. We both screamed as I slammed on the breaks. I drove right through it like it was a patch of fog or something.
We both saw it. We both screamed. Nothing was there.
- Coral
When I was about twenty-five years old, I woke up in the middle of the night and realized I was levitating. My face was about four or five inches away from the ceiling. I looked down at the door and I was definitely up at the ceiling. Closed my eyes because I was scared and woke up. It was morning. Weirdest dream, (I think), EVER!
- Rob
After my grandma died, I was looking for the necklace that I had picked out from her jewelry to have as a keepsake. I couldn't find it in my jewelry box. My mom called me to dinner, so I closed the jewelry box and went to eat. When I came back to my room, the jewelry box was open and the necklace was draped over the open lid. I asked my family if someone had gone in the room and found it for me, because I had told them I could not find it. But everyone said, “no”, they had not been in my room. I'm guessing it was Grandma.
- Judy
I moved in with my boyfriend (now my husband) and, almost immediately, started having night terrors.
One evening we went to sleep I woke up and saw something standing beside my bed. I immediately fell back asleep. When I awoke the next morning, both my elbows were burnt! Its like someone took a cigarette and burnt a complete circle on both elbows.
My husband was freaked out, as was I. He went and bought me a rosary to keep beside the bed.
We have since moved.
- Janet
My fiance and I were planning our wedding, and her grandmother had given her a wedding dress. My wife didn’t know what to do with it or if there were any special instructions. As luck would have it, her grandma had recorded a message before passing away (cancer). Before the wedding, my best friend, fiance and her best friend decided to watch the video. As soon as we put the VHS tape into the VCR we heard the light switch click on. The lights then turned off about fifteen seconds later. We all just looked at eachother and turned off the TV. No one else was there. The lights were not on a timer switch. We still talk about it to this day.
- Mike
Shortly after my Dad passed away in '81, my aunt was at home sitting on her couch. She called down to my uncle to bring her cigarettes up to her as she'd left them downstairs. Well they came flying up the stairs as if my uncle had just thrown them. She said, "Geez, thanks!" and got up to grab them from the floor. Just then, a really big and heavy oak framed painting above the couch fell off the wall and would have definitely did her in. She said to my uncle who had rushed upstairs, "Holy !@#% hon, you throwin’ my smokes just saved my life, I think!” My Uncle said, " What are you talking about? I didn't throw them. I didn't even hear you ask me for them.”
- Ron B.
This ghoulish night would not have happened without the help of many, many fun loving people. A great many thanks to:
Jeff O’Reilly (Director of Experience and Engagement at Saunders Farm, Director of Business Dev. & GM of Saunders Cider Co.)
Bianca Carmen (Photography, Saunders PR)
Amy’s Make-Up done by Dalene Gallo
Caleigh Murison (Marketing at Saunders Farm)
and my friends, Kaitlyn (content creation) and Morgan (Music Director at CHEZ 106) for convincing me to get bloodsoaked.
More goulish content from me:
CityNews ‘Local Legends’ interview with Mark Saunders
A Midsummer Night’s Scream: interview with Ayden Harvey, Production Director at Saunders
Here is a collection of previously shared ghost stories. Some audio, video or social media content may have expired because, like us mortals, it won’t last forever. Enjoy these spooky stories while you still can!
Ghost Stories 2020 (YouTube video)