I've Been Had!

I've always thought I was smart with money. I hang up on guys who want to up my credit card limit, I cover my keypad while typing my password, and I tend to budget quite well. I wouldn't call it cheap ... but maybe thrifty. Twenty five years I've gone without doing anything really stupid with money ... and that all came crashing down yesterday. The culprit ... gift cards.

Over Christmas I got a couple gift cards to various places in town. I now understand why stores love gift cards ... you always end up spending more than you have on the card!!! I spent an extra 170 dollars in one store yesterday and barely even had a bag full of clothes ... do you know how many items of clothes you can get at Salvation Army for 170 dollars!!??? A LOT. That's the answer to that question.

Anyway, my woman said I looked good so I justified spending that much. (She came in under her gift cards!! An art I obviously have yet to master.)

We then went to another pricey place in town to use more of our gift cards ... again, I was tricked into spending more money ... tack on another 68 dollars above the GC's I got for Christmas!! It's like a sickness ... once the flood gates open up, there's no stopping the plastic!! I found myself wanting to go buy more things at places I didn't even have GC's for!! It was all my girlfriend could do to control me!!

The good news is I felt sick to my stomach about spending that much money .. so the shopping spree ended there. By now you can tell the thrifty comment I made earlier, is really just a cover up for me being a cheap skate. I can't help it ... its years of backpacking and being a student that have formed me this way!

After the dust settled .. I had two shirts .... a pair of jeans ... two dress shirts ... a pair of dress pants ... and a belt. Not bad for 250 bucks. Saying that makes me want to yack. I really am cheap.

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I'm 25. My birthday was on boxing day. I don't feel any different. I don't feel older. I don't have aches and pains. I haven't got any white hairs. But I do shake my fist at young kids who walk by my house ... but I've been doing that since the age of 21. Thanks to everyone who gave me a shout out on facebook, it felt nice.

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The Living Sky Casino opened yesterday. I think I'm going to let that sink in for a couple weeks before a blog is in order ... stay tuned.

Radio

I just got back from a short little vacation in Alberta. The Ms. and I drove out to Calgary and then down to Lethbridge for a couple days to visit family and friends. What a time to go on vacation ... we didn't fill up the car for more than 69.9 the whole trip and after driving close to 1500 kilometres ... we spent maybe 70 dollars on gas!!!

Anywho, I digress ... I realized something on our little expedition. You can now drive across the prairies listening only to rock!! Now that Medicine Hat has stepped up their game with Rock 105, you can drive from Winnipeg (power 97) to Regina (The Wolf) to Swift Current (The Eagle) to Med Hat (rock 105) to Calgary (Cjay ... or x92) !!! Its a very cool thing! I think it just shows how far radio has come. Three years ago a guy would lose the Wolf around Chaplin and have to put up with the crap the Eagle used to play ... then when that faded out .. My 96 would be the only FM station you could get ... and don't even get me started on that kind of music. Very cool to hear rock radio right across the board. No offence to what the Eagle used to be or what My 96 is .. its just not my kind of music.

I did notice something a little strange driving from Lethbridge to Med Hat though ... Rock 106 in Lethbridge (a Rodgers radio station) is playing the exact same music as Rock 105 in The Hat (also a Rodgers radio station). I'm not talking about rock n roll .. I'm talking about the exact same song at the exact same time of day. What I'm trying to say is both those Rodgers stations are using the same play list ... just using different DJ's and commercials. I was flipping back and forth as I got close to the Hat and sure enough ... exact same songs ... minutes apart from each other. I thought that was kind of weird for a big company like Rodgers who have radio stations all over the country. I mean ... Lethbridge and the Hat are so close ... why would they do that? It got me thinking ... does every Rodgers rock station use the exact same play list?

Some of the highlights of the trip ... the Lethbridge water tower!! Have you ever heard of it? Its the old town water tower that is now converted into a Restaurant/bar ... very cool!! .. but expensive! The Strathmore Station is also neat ... an old train station converted into a top notch restaurant! You can tell a guy is getting old when all he can talk about after a vacation is the food he ate.

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Check out the new poll ... its to get you in the Christmas spirit.

F this guy

I wanted to punch this piece of garbage right in the face when I read this BS.

"Velvet Revolver are seeking to recruit Irishman Phil Conalane from Million Dollar Reload.
Though a surprising choice, Phil is experienced but relatively unknown on the international stage, which would fit Velvet Revolver’s bill of fresh blood as they try to rebuild their career following the disappointing sales of their last album, Libertad, and the GN’R return that has left them reeling. Phil is also well known as a good songwriter, something that scuppered Velvet Revolver’s plans when they previously tried to bring in the less-than-prolific Josh Todd of Buckcherry. "

Here's the back story. Before VR formed ... Slash, Duff, and Matt Sorum were jamming with Josh Todd and Keith Nelson of Buckcherry ( Buckcherry was on hiatus at that time). Basically they wrote some songs and were all thinking it was going to be something very cool. Then out of nowhere Slash said he didn't want to work with them .. they hired Dave Kushner and Scott Weiland and never looked back. Unfortunately the rumour is they used a few of the songs they did with the boys from Buckcherry which is brutal. Atleast Keith Nelson got a writing credit for Dirty little thing.

The good news is Buckcherry got back together and ended up making their most successful album ever! 15 was unbelievable !! "Crazy Bitch" catapulted them into platinum status selling over a million ring tones and becoming their first top 100 hit settling down at #59. That was followed by 4 other singles, one of which became their first top 10 hit. "Sorry" landed at #9 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart. The album is 2x platinum now ... which means 2 million albums sold ...

Don't even get me started on their debut album which went Gold and included "Lit Up".

Bottom line ... whoever wrote that story needs to watch their mouth. Get your facts straight. No one likes to hear your personal opinion. Josh Todd may not be a lyricist god .... but he seems to do all right .... plus he's still in a band ... that's more than anyone can say about Velvet Revolver ...

Metallica

One word ... incredible.

Let's start with the light show. The first song was such a crazy laser show I almost had a seizure. Which is kind of ironic because I laughed to myself as I stood in line outside the Pengrowth thinking ... " I can't believe they have sings up warning about the lights!" They really did ... it said something along the lines of the light show being so intense it could cause seizures.

The play list was pretty good. The only reason I say pretty good is because they played a lot of new stuff and that's never really that fun at a concert with a band like Metallica. They have way to many good songs in their archives. Plus I heard the first night they played a bunch of stuff off of "and Justice for all" which is my favorite album. They did play "One" but that's about it. They re-visited the oldies with "Master of Puppets," "Ride the Lightning," and "Seek and Destroy," and they hit up the Black Album playing "Sad But True," Enter Sandman," and "Nothing Else Matters!" All in all ... it was a solid set.

How long has Metallica been around for? The answer is a couple years shy of 3 decades ... and the old boys still rock!! They took the stage at around 9:15ish and played almost till midnight! Can't complain about the length of the show!!

The stage set up was cool. Basically ... it was a 360 degree stage which meant it was in the middle of the stadium and every side was used for seating ... very cool ... I have never seen anything like that before. It looked like the score clock got in the way of the stage being right in the middle of the stadium which sucked cause they had to put it on the other side of it which was farther from where we were!!

The best part of the show was "One." All the lights went out ... the guns starting firing ... and as the bombs blew up ... fire came out of the stage ... so awesome!! Then James walks out and starts the song as flames fly from the stage. Kirk joined him and started his soloing magic ... Lars waited till the last possible moment to run on the stage and start drumming ... Rob was on the other side of the stage so I couldn't really see what he was doing. Best part of the night for me.

The funny story of the night came with our winners. We got to the Pengrowth Saddledome in the Cruiser. The place was a zoo!! There were people everywhere!!! I really wanted to get a picture of Daylyn (winner of live like a rock star: Metallica) and her man Kerry in front of the Saddledome sign standing in front of the Cruiser. I basically had to run people over to get that close but we did it. The funny part was all the people yelling at us. If you haven't seen the cruiser ... one side has the Eagle logo on it .. the other ... Magic ... which was the one facing the crowd of METALLICA FANS!! You can imagine the comments and invective being hurled our way. "Get the @*#% out of here with your MAGIC #*%#&%#*%!!!" one guy yelled. I had a good chuckle. We got some good pictures, that's all I cared about.

Metallica was worth the 5 and a half hour drive ... and to be honest ... I fulfilled a dream of mine this weekend .. and that was to see the greatest metal band of the last 30 years. I can now check that off my bucket list.

New Idea

It looks like people thought Jamaica and The Mayan Rivera Cruise were the best Incredible Journeys we've put on. For those of you who are lost ... it was a poll that was on here last week. Unfortunatley San Diego and New Brunswick got zero love. Just think, you can win a trip to Jamaica this year and go to what people have dubbed, THE BEST IJ EVER!!! Just listen for the Jamaican Jet.

WARNING!!!! More talk of Ellen ahead.

I've put up a new poll ... don't judge me. It's got a purpose. The other day we got on one of our birthday tangents where a celebrity was having a birthday ... we didn't know anything about that person, so we talked about people who had something to do with them instead. For example ...

Chance: Julianne Moore is 48.
Jon: Who's that?
Chance: I'm not totally sure. She's got red hair.
Jon: Red hair?
Chance: Yeah, you know... the one with red hair....
Jon: ....
Chance: She looks like that chick from Silence of the lambs ..
Jon: Jodie Foster?
Chance: Yeah she's a great actress isn't she?
Jon: Jodie Foster or Julianne Moore?
Chance: Jodie Foster.
Jon: Yeah she is but man was Anthony Hopkins ever creepy in that movie!
Chance: You know who else is creepy ... Nicole Richie
Jon: Not as creepy as Oprah.
Chance: She doesn't even matter .. Ellen is way better than her anyway ..

You can see how we get going. It happens a lot. Anyway, Lucy Liu was turning 40 and I mentioned something about her doing some investigative reporting for Oprah. Jon then pointed out how terrible Oprah was, and how he would pick Ellen any day of the week rather than Oprah. I mean come on ... that's pretty obvious .. Ellen is unbelievable. Anyway .. that brought to my attention that we have been talking about Ellen a lot as of late. I thought to myself ... you either need to stop letting people know you watch Ellen ... or embrace the fact that you are a morning DJ who has a non sexual crush on Ellen. I've decided ... I am going to embrace her!! Well, I'm not actually going to embrace her ... well maybe someday ... I hope...

Here's my plan. We're going to start doing an Ellen bit everyday of the week. I don't know exactly what its going to be or how it will go yet but I am starting to brain storm. Everyday I'm going to e-mail the audio to Ellen's "people." I will do this for as long as it takes. They can't ignore us forever!!! My hope is to hound them until they give in and get a couple of Rock Morning Show Jocks from Swift Current Saskatchewan onto the Ellen show.

Got any ideas? I mean for helping us on our quest to get on Ellen. If she can reach for the stars and try to get George Clooney on her show .. I can try to get on her show!!

Leave your comments and check out the poll question ..

Christmas

Its December 1st. Anyone who has decorations up right now should be ashamed of themselves. Don't you know the rules? No Christmas decorations till its December. That's the rule. I didn't make up the rule, its just the rule. Abide by it. It's for your own good. It's to protect you from looking ridiculous when there's still 5 days to Halloween and you've already got the blow up Santa on your lawn. You don't really want to be the guy with the blow up Santa on your lawn when its October 19th do you? Do you?! I mean, its safe to put the blow up Santa up now because it's December 1st, but if you have it up already, that means you broke the rule, you put the blow up Santa on your lawn before December, and you oughta be ashamed of yourself!!

Don't get me wrong, I love Christmas decorations. Lights, trees, blow up Santas ... they're all great! Just don't make me look at them for more than the allotted time!!!

This is the first year I own a house for the Christmas season. I thought to myself, "Chance, you should put some Christmas decorations up. " Obviously I would have to wait until the December 1st rule to put them up, but I was thinking about this around November 25th. Unfortunately, my thoughts for Christmas lights went down the drain when I noticed my 80 year old neighbour Grizzwalling her house ! How can I compete with that? She's been buying Christmas lights for a good 60 years longer than I've been alive!!!

What was I going to do? I wasn't going to try and compete against her and her lights! But I did go over there on November 14th to tell her to SMARTEN UP! I yelled ... " MARG! YOU ARE TWO WEEKS TO EARLY TO BE PUTTING UP A BLOW UP SANTA!! DAMN YOU MARG!! DAMN YOU!! She didn't hear me ... she's 80!

We really are in the Christmas season now, and to be totally serious for a moment, its a season where you should be thinking of others. Sure its about the presents, the food, the decorations and the presents .. but its also a time to help others who may not have it as good as you do. There are a ton of ways to do it. The Salvation Army is a good place to start. Volunteer, donate ... do anything you can to make some one's Christmas as good as you know yours will be ... it'll be better than any present you get .... unless you get an I- phone ... THOSE ARE SOOO AWESOME!

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Scientists have found chunks of the meteorite that blew up in the sky a couple weeks ago. People reported seeing it all the way from Yorkton to Fort Mac to Edmonton and here in Swift. In fact, some were convinced it landed behind the Swift Current Mall! The meteorite chunks were found about 40 kms south of Lloydminster in Saskatchewan and could lead to Scientists discovering a lot of things about our solar system. Check out the video of it originally coming down .....

Fa - Boooo - tin

I hate those commercials. Why would you ever purposely advertise the wrong name of your business? People everywhere now refer to Fabutan as Fa- Boo- tin. Drives me crazy. If I were a franchisee .. I would be furious.

Alright ... now that I've made myself out to be a rough and tumble man ... lets talk about something that seems to get guys in a lot of trouble with their buddies .... yes ... tanning.

Everyone has been in that situation where you've done something to get harassed by your circle of pals. You had to much to drink and only made it to 9 o'clock .... You cheer for the Leafs when everyone else cheers for another team .... or the one that happens the most .... You found a girl that would date you and are now spending to much time with this lady. I'm speaking from personal experiences here so if those examples aren't dead on ... I'm sure you can shape them into something that has happened to you that you get harassed about constantly from your close buds.

I've been hassled about all these things before. But I think I got it the worst after a couple of my close friends found out I was tanning. I didn't realize it ... but by tanning ... I have turned into a woman. Who would have thought 8 minutes in a tanning bed would give me lady parts!!

Apparently, in order to be a man, I have to stay on a strict diet of beer and potato chips, watch nothing but football, treat woman like crap, and not even think about tanning! I had no idea this is how I had to live my life.

For one ... I like tanning, its relaxing and feels good when its minus 40 out! Two, its good for you in the winter months when your deprived of Vitamin D, and three, if your going on a trip ... its a lot better to tan gradually, than burn your skin terribly the first day on vacation and spend the rest of your trip applying aloe vera gel!!

Bottom line ... I like rock n roll, working out and watching sports ... but ... I also like cooking, tanning and watching Ellen Degeneres! She's the best thing on TV right now ... you should have seen what she did to Mariah Carey yesterday ... ha ha ha ... to funny ! Sorry, I get carried away when its a conversation about Ellen ... focus Duperreault ... to sum up ... I'm a man .. and I like tanning!

The Busy Season

Its safe to say November and December are the busiest months in radio. How can I tell? Well let me list off the amount of things we gave away this morning:

6:15 - Row of Rich's for 60 bucks

6:45 - Kevin Thorn Action Figure for Rock N Wrestling

7:15 - Row of Rich's for 80 bucks

7:45 - Birthday cake

7:50 - Tickets to Men Without Shame

8:10 - Qualifying for an All inclusive trip to Jamaica

9:20 - Mandatory Metallica - Qualifying for a trip to Calgary to see Metallica.

I get asked this question quite a bit, "What keeps you in radio?" I never really knew how to answer it fully. I would always say, "well I get up in the morning and don't hate going to work, that's why I do it." But now I know why I love radio so much ... its giving away free stuff !! How much fun is it to see the look on some one's face when they win a trip to Sandals Jamaica !!! A lot of fun .. that's the answer to that question!

The Jamaican Jet will be flying by every now and then over the next few weeks .. its the only way to qualify for the Eagle Incredible Journey: Sandals Jamaica.

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I'm sure people pull pranks on their co-workers all the time. It's no different here. I like to send e-mails from other peoples e-mail accounts when they accidentally leave them open. Usually, its an e-mail to our boss telling him how much they love him and how they want to take the relationship to the next level. Which might not seem all that funny, but when the e-mail is usually from a guy to our boss, who is also a guy, it becomes a lot more funny. Lets just say it's been a really good run of messing with people.

Unfortunately, they've caught on and have discovered my e-mail open on several occasions. To those people, I have two things to say, one: Get your own prank you non witty #@$#@% and two: This is my prank ... I will get the last laugh.

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Check out the poll ... it has to do with the Eagle Incredible Journey ... pretty straight forward and I think I know which one will win, but give it a look anyway.

The Incredible Journey

This is Mary and Al ... our winners from last years Incredible Journey...



A small part of the resort they stayed in ....

One of the many swim up bars they spent a lot of time at ...

"Another day in paradise" Mary would say as the week went on ...

This is also the place ... you could be travelling too come January 2009 ...

The Eagle Incredible Journey is Back ... listen for details

Remembrance Day

Usually I come away from Remembrance Day thinking ... "I don't think people did enough to remember our fallen heroes," or "The Ceremonies could have been better."
That was not the case after yesterdays Bronco game. The Bronco's staff should feel awesome about the job they did before the Broncos lost to the Calgary Hitmen. They had Travis Steinly and the Mudflaps sing a Tim Mcgraw song that was very fitting for Remembrance Day ... and it sounded good! I hate Country music, so that's a stretch for me to say. Then they had a moment of silence, and a couple Veterans on the Red Carpet for the ceremonial puck drop ... and then they stayed on the ice for the National Anthem. All I have to say is ... great job you guys ... great job.

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A call Friday morning got me thinking about radio in general. Basically, a listener was mad that I talked in between songs. Before we started those song I had said something along the lines of ... "40 minutes without a commercial." He was angry because I was talking in between songs, therefore advertising our station. I was kind of surprised by the whole thing. I had never heard anybody angry about the DJ saying the names of the artists before. Here's how it went ...

LISTEN

Does it make you angry when we say what station your listening too?

Music Adds

Here's how a typical Wednesday goes. Start the morning show at 6 ... end at 10 .. and then head upstairs to have a music meeting with Ryan my boss. We basicaly just look over the new music and decide what we're going to play and what we're not going to play. This usually creates an argument about which songs we should or shouldn't add, kind of like a few weeks ago.

I don't know if you've heard, but Nickelback is coming out with a new album November 18th called Dark Horse. When they released their first single I realized it was going to be the candid terrible, slow, love song that would chart on every radio station known to man ... its just how they roll in the Nickelback camp. This started an argument, Ryan thought we should play it and I thought it was a bit sappy for The Eagle. In the end the Boss had the final say and "Gotta Be Somebody" got thrown in the Eagle music library.

Here's where the story gets good ... when I saw I wasn't going to win this musical battle I put a disclaimer on the new Nickelback song. I told Ryan, (the boss), that if we were going to add this sappy Nickelback song to the Eagle, we had to add their next single no matter how it did on the charts. It made logical sense to me because I knew they would have a crazy rock song to release at some point. Well Ryan agreed ..."Chance, you add 'gotta be somebody' and I'll let you add the next Nickelback single as soon as they release it."

Well .. they released their next single earlier this week .. it's called "Something in Your Mouth" ... enjoy, I know I will when it plays four times a day on the Eagle!!

Bond

It could possibly be the best Bond Theme ever written. Jack White ... who is a mastermind when it comes to old school sound, and Alicia Keys ... who is crazy good on the piano and has an unbeleivable voice. Its called "Another Way to Die", and it is solid.

But lets be honest for a minute .. when was there a good Bond Theme? Chris Cornell sucked it up the last go around with "You Know My Name" for Casino Royale, Madonna's "Die Another Day" ... come on, and does anyone even remember the one Garbage did for The World is Not Enough? I think Sheryl Crowe is AWESOME!! But she sucked it up with her attempt at the Bond Song for Tomorrow Never Dies.

The Quantum of Solace is coming out November 14th. Its going to be Daniel Craigs second go at being Bond and I expect big things. Everyone was all over him for being picked to follow up Pierce Brosnan as the most notorious character in movies to date, and when all was said and done, I thought he NAILED it! Did you see Casino Royale? It was unbeleivable!

Take a listen to Jack White and Alicia Keys ... its the best Bond Song in years.

Facebook

This is why I love Facebook ...

I now present "The Best Halloween Costumes 2008" ...



My Boss, Reschy, and I think Monkey



Jr ... or Hulk .. I can't tell



The guy in the middle is Borat! Ha Ha ... priceless



and the winners, Cade, Mark, and Landon ... an unstoppable trio (it was the fake dusters that won it)

Inside Info

Remember these guys? I do. It was Swift Currents first real rock show! Default and Mobile played the Credit Union I-Plex to start the summer off and it was GRAND.


Around that time I got to meet the guy who was responsible for bringing those two bands to Swift Current. He's a concert promoter from Saskatoon who runs the Roxy on Broad which is a rock bar ... they have shows there all the time. One of the conversations we had before the show, had to do with some of the other acts that could possibly come through town over the next year.

Keep in mind all of this was just speculation at the time, but a few bands he threw out there were Seether and Three Days Grace. That conversation lead to one that just recently caught my attention a little more than usual. I remember him mentioning something about Collective Soul maybe playing here shortly after New Years. Well yesterday I found out they're going to be at the Prarieland in Saskatoon for the New Years Eve Party!! Could that possibly mean Collective Soul will be the next big name to come to Swift Current? I guess we'll find out ... until something is officially announced ... its all just speculation!!

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I need to give a shout out to people who work two jobs. I don't know how you do it. Over the last couple weeks I've been helping my brother side the Morse Town Hall. Here's what my schedule has been like ....

4:15 AM - alarm

6:00 AM - start morning show

12:30 PM - Done @ work

1:00 PM - Drive to Morse, Side all day long

9:00 PM - Drive home, Go to bed

(Repeat)


Being from Riverhurst, a small farming community, where I used to work 17 hour days at the Potato Barns ... you would think this would be no problem. But apparently I just can't hack it ... I have been dragging a** lately and I've come to the conclusion that in my old age I've turned into a softy! I guess 3 years of radio has beaten the farm kid out of me!

Anyway ... I just wanted to say this to those people who work two jobs or just work extremely long hours ... your amazing ... you are twice the man I am ... and if your a woman ... your still twice the man I am.

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The last poll ended with 80% saying Chinese Democracy will come out November 23rd. 10% said maybe ... 10% said HA HA HA.

I changed the question .. its about the Broncos ... hope you check it out.

Metallica

Look at that man. One of the greatest lead guys in the history of Metal. He looks ... evil ... but so Awesome. To be honest, I'm a lil scared of him. He's like 6'4 and makes Lars look like a midget when he stands beside him. He's wearing a frickin jean jacket with the sleeves cut off! His go tee is white ... I mean ... he's so old ... yet so menacing! He ends off every word by throwing an AH on the end. " St Anger-AH in my head, he never gets respect-Ah " ... you know what I'm talking about. His name is James Hetfield, and you could see him in person!!

This morning we released the details on our next Live Like A Rock star Series ... we'll be sending two people to Metallica in Calgary December 5th!! (its a Friday!) The Pengrowth Saddledome is sold out for two nights, both December 4th and the 5th ... I'm trying to tell you these tickets are RARE! Not only will you be there to see James, Lars, Kirk and Rob .. but you'll also be staying in the KING Room at the Travelodge Hotel Calgary Airport ... plus we'll drive you from your hotel room to the show and back again in the Eagle Cruiser ... which means there will be fun to be had at the show!!

Here's how you win ... starting Thursday, listen for "Mandatory Metallica" and be the first caller as soon as you hear a Metallica song, we'll put your name in for a shot at winning Live Like a Rock star with Metallica!!

Again .. it starts this Thursday.

A Killer Blog Combo

It looks like every man, woman, and child in North America will be getting a free Dr. Pepper! I say that because Dr. Pepper promised to do so, if Chinese Democracy came out before the end of this year and with a release date of November 23rd ... it looks like they'll be out a couple mill!!

This release date is different from the others for a couple reasons ... one ... they linked themselves with a huge business associate, Best Buy. Two, they released the first single to radio this morning, interestingly enough, titled Chinese Democracy.

We played it for the first time and let me be the first to say ... it is good!! I mean, I really expected it to suck .. after all the money spent, the 20 different band members Axl went through over the last decade and all the hype this album has gotten ... how could it be good? Well .. I don't know how they did it .. but what I hear so far .. makes me warm and fuzzy on the inside!!

I'll be the first to say ... I can't wait until November 23rd to drive to a different city, walk into a Best Buy, and buy the new GNR album !

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I took this off of CNN ....

Perhaps it's fitting that AC/DC's 15th studio album will be sold exclusively through one retailer (Wal-Mart) — because this collection consists of little more than a single song.

The Aussie outfit's first album in eight years kicks off with the single ''Rock N Roll Train,'' a meaty, medium-paced riff assault with a terrific, growling performance from singer Brian Johnson and a lead-guitar solo courtesy of Angus Young that erupts out of the song like the baby monster pummeling its way through John Hurt's chest in Alien. And, with the exception of some slower, more atmospheric moments during ''Rock N Roll Dream,'' all 15 tracks on Black Ice could be described in almost exactly the same way.

Of course, the appeal of AC/DC lies with their more-than-30-year-old commitment to the same no-frills metal groove. But that groove now seems in danger of becoming a rut. True, ''Stormy May Day'' has some nice slide guitar, ''She Likes Rock N Roll'' boasts a smidgen more funk in the playing of bassist Cliff Williams, and ''Anything Goes'' is both the disc's most hummable moment and its most wistful. But all these midtempo songs are still incredibly similar to one another, as they are to the almost identically paced ''Big Jack,'' ''War Machine,'' and ''Decibel'' (though the latter does contain an all-time-great dumb lyric: “Decibel!/That’s the history of Rock N Roll!”). Even 2000’s fairly monochromatic Stiff Upper Lip had more varied material — as well as 75 percent fewer songs with the word rock in the title. B–

Who is this idiot? SHUT UP! .... ya ... ya stupid idiot!!! In all honesty ... the album is good ... it sounds like AC/DC ... what else do you expect when you go and buy an AC/DC album ... do you expect a techno album? .... idiot.

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Money Well Spent

Today is a celebration. A celebration for the ages. A celebration that shall extend into the late night and well into the new year. A celebration of the greatest rock n' roll band in the world putting out their first album since Stiff Upper Lip ! I call this celebration ....

THE BLACK ICE CELEBRATION !!!!

Give me a break ... I'm not about to sit here for half an hour thinking of something witty to call it ... way to much work.

ACDC's new album comes 8 years after their last one in 2000. I can remember exactly what I was doing when Stiff Upper lip hit shelves ... I was in grade 10, we just got out of school ... I was riding in Chris Durell's truck down main street in Central Butte Saskatchewan and "stiff upper lip" was pumping through his massive stereo ... people walking on the street could probably only here the bass ... it was way to loud ... and I loved it!!!

Usually new albums will drop on a Tuesday, but it seems lately that bands are opting out of releasing their new collection on the same ol day. Metallica, for example, just released "Death Magnetic" on a Friday. The other weird thing about Black Ice is it will only be sold by Wal Mart ... which is kind of a lie. That's just happening in the US ... Wal Mart has promised ACDC that they will sell at least 2.5 million copies of Black Ice, which is why it's being sold exclusively through the store. Up here, you'll be able to buy it anywhere and everywhere. I wouldn't be surprised to see it in Safeway ... or Humpty's (apparently they sell shirts now, so anything is possible)

I've had the opportunity to listen to the whole album and lets just say, you will not be disappointed ... it sounds exactly the way it should ... like an ACDC album!!!

Randoms ...

This has absolutely nothing to do with how I voted last night nor am I trying to pretend like I know anything about politics ... but wasn't last nights election useless? There's not a new Gov't ... there's not a majority Gov't ... and David L. Anderson is still our guy. What has changed? Nothing, that's the answer. I can think of one word to sum it up ... Useless.

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The CFL just announced that Theory of a Deadman is going to play the half time show for the Grey Cup in Montreal. I think my response was the same as everyone else in this country ... yes they're good ... but are they Grey Cup half time show good? The answer to that question is no .. they're not. Don't get me wrong .. they're a rock solid band ... "She likes to shake her A**, she grinds it to the beat!" Whoever comes up with lyrics like that knows how to rock ... but in the past the CFL has booked larger acts. Bryan Adams, The Tragically Hip, Lenny Kravitz! Theory of a Deadman still plays clubs for crying out loud ... at least get someone who can sell out arena's!!

Actually I had a funny conversation about Theory of a Deadman the other day ... it was with one of my buddies. It went kinda like this ...

Buddy: "what do you think of that new Nickelback song?"
Chance: "You mean that crappy one off of Dark Horse that sounds like a boy band? I think it's terrible!"
Buddy: "No the one where he's talking about his girlfriend shaking her ....."
Chance: " ..... ohhhhh ... you mean Theory of a Deadman, Bad Girlfriend!"

It was confusing ... but then again .. so is trying to figure out the difference between Nickelback and Theory of a Deadman at times!

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We added two songs to the Eagle play list last week that I think was ... daring. The only reason I say that is because they aren't big name bands ... and they both sound a little different from the music you'll normally hear on the station. The one is Kings of Leon - "Sex on Fire" ... which I would call a lack luster song ... and the other is Rise Against - Re- Education (through labor) ... an unbelievably great song ... but it's pretty heavy compared to the norm.

What does this mean? Not much really ... I just like talking about music.

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This is a great time of year to be in radio. There are times where I get to work and think ... "What am I going to talk about today?" I'll be the first to admit .. sometimes it gets kinda slow in the biz!! But right now ... I can't find enough time in a day to talk about what needs to be talked about. The Bronco's are awesome ... The Riders are being controversial as usual ... Christmas is coming quick ... we've got all sorts of contests going on ... there was a federal election last night.... its crazy, in a good way!

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Vote on the poll I got going. It's about the Grey Cup half time show.

Election Day

Its been so long since I blogged that I literally forgot my password for this site! Took me 10 minutes to go through all the passwords I could have possibly used till I guessed the right one!

This is just a short entry. Not because I don't have anything to write about .. mainly cause my keyboard is busted and it's making me furious.

It's election day ... I know most people are already certain who they are going to vote for. But I am on the fence. It's going to be a game time decision ...

Here's the info you need for voting in Swift:

Voting locations ... Oman, Fairview, Irwin, and Central schools .... Trailview alliance church ... the I-plex social hall ... and the Rec Centre.

Phone this number to find out which one for sure - 778-3030 or go to this website elections.ca/home.

Good Luck.

To Prove a Point

I'll be the first to tell you I don't know anything about politics. I'm an un-educated man when it comes to political views, and to be honest, I could really care less. Before you start stereotyping me into a young rambunctious kid who doesn't care, let me tell you why I feel this way ...

I enjoy life. I'm not going to be that guy who gets up in the morning and thinks, "I hate my job, my family, or my life in general." I wake up thinking, " I can't wait for today to begin so I can go to work, hang out with my friends, and make out with my smoking hot girlfriend!! This is my life ... looking forward to spending time with the people I care about, doing things that are fun and worth while.

To me, news is everything that is bad in the world. If you don't believe me, let me ask you a question. Has there ever been a time you felt good about life after watching a news cast? If you answered yes ... you are one of those people who wake up in the morning thinking ... "I hate this world." There is never anything uplifting in the news ... hurricanes killing people and wrecking hundreds of thousands of lives, murderer's being set free, and politicians causing pandemonium in their countries. All of it so depressing. Unfortunatley, there aren't always water skiing squirrels to end news casts. That's why I don't watch the news or care about politics ... it makes me think ... "Is this world going to make it 10 more years?" That, my friend, is depressing. Which is why I just don't give it the time of day, there are better things to be doing.

With that said, I do believe the election process is important. I've never missed a vote since I've been old enough to do so and I've always been educated enough to make the proper choice. I do believe politics and politicians are important to our country. It creates order, which we need. No I don't block out the worlds problems ... I know all about the US and their horrific economy ... I've heard about George Bush and how terrible he is ... Yes, Barack Obama is awesome and John McCain is Old. I've seen Stephen Harper's creepy commercials, and shortly after, Jack Layton's anti-Harper ads. I know about all the natural disasters and the creeps in the world , and I read enough on the Internet to be educated on the whole oil situation. But that doesn't mean I need to know everything about politics. I think a lot of people are the same way I am.

This brings me to my point. This morning we had Shauna Feaguson in from the Chamber of Commerce. (sorry Shauna, I butchered your name .... bad!) She was talking to us about the People Awards Gala that the Chamber is putting on in October. I think its an awesome event. They'll be giving away an award for Citizen of the year and sharing some great feel good stories about certain people in the Southwest. I can think of a handful of nominees just off the top of my head for Citizen of the year and I know whoever wins it will be honored ... there are a lot of good people in Swift Current and the SW, and to win that prestigious award, would be a great achievement.

We were talking about the dignitaries that will be there ... Premier Brad Wall, local MP David L. Anderson, and Mayor Sandy Larson. The Honorable Dr. Gordon L. Barnhart, Lieutenant Governor of Saskatchewan will also be attending. Here's where the argument began.

I wasn't quite sure what the Lieutenant Governor of Saskatchewan did, nor did I really care. Jon ended up getting on my back about that fact and said something along the lines of ... I was in the minority of people who didn't know who the Lieutenant Governor was or knew what he did.

I think that's a false statement. I really do believe there are more people who don't know about the Honorable Gordon L. Barnhart than do. Am I out of line saying that? I mean ... the guy is the Queens representative for Saskatchewan. What does the Queen have to convey to our province that is so important. From what I understand ... she stopped making the calls a long time ago!

Don't get me wrong, I respect the Queen and I beleive Mr. Barnhart deserves the title he has ... the man has done his fair share of work ... he has a PHD in History from the U of S, he's written many books on prairie history, and has 20 years experience as clerk of the Saskatchewan Legislature and 5 years as Clerk of the Canadian Senate. The Honorable Gordon L. Barnhart is a fitting title, and it's a big deal that he'll be at the Peoples Awards Gala.

The point I'm trying to make ... it's alright not to know who these people are. They aren't that influential in the lives of the working class family, and I believe if you asked 100 people on the street who the Lieutenant Governor is ... half might answer correctly... but I bet only a handful know what he does for our province.

I haven't run this by Keener yet ... but it could be interesting to see who actually knows about the Honorable Dr. Gordon L. Barnhart, Lieutenant Governor of Saskatchewan ... listen for it this week. I have a feeling I'm not alone in saying ... who?

Canada's Band

With a title like that, most would think, "oh, he's going to have a nice little article on The Guess Who," or "I bet this will be about The Tragically Hip." Unfortunately, I'm not going to blog about The Guess Who or the Tragically Hip ... I'm going to do this post ... on Nickelback. Don't kid yourself, they're more popular than any other Canadian band to date ... for sure in the last 20 years.

Before I even begin ... I have to confess something ... I am a closet Nickelback fan. No, I don't like "Photograph" ... and no I don't care for "How You Remind Me." Actually, to be 100% honest, there are a TON of Nickelback songs that make me wanna throw up ... just a lil. In fact, there are a few written by Nickelback that if heard while driving ... make me want to veer into oncoming traffic. But ... I 'm still a Nickelback closet fan.

I'm a huge fan of songs like "Side of a Bullet,""Because of You,""Worthy to Say,""Animals,""Leader of Men," and "Old Enough." All that is great ... I just hate how they feel like they have to write ballads and love songs when they can write such good metal licks.

It has been an exciting couple of weeks leading up to the release of their first single. First we found out that they were working with Mutt Lange, a guy that has produced some of the best albums of all time including ACDC's Back in Black and Def Leppards Hysteria and Pyromania. Plus the guy married Shania Twain ... and then divorced her. I don't know why for sure, but I think its because she liked country music!!

Shortly after that we found out that they were going to release the album November 18th. Then we found out what they were going to call it... Dark Horse. It all lead up to this morning, their first single was going to be released to radio. I was super pumped. Why not, its Nickelback! The question that was in my head ... "what are they going to go with? Is it going to be something that will be commercially succesful or will they finally realize that its ok to put out some heavy stuff and make the closet fans appreciate you more!!"

Then it happened. I found out what the name of the single was and realized I had made a huge mistake. You know when a song is named "Gotta be Somebody" that its not going be the metal Nickelback that I love ... it's going to be the commercial Nickelback that 13 year old girls love.

I would compare it to "Photograph," "If Everyone Cared," or any other Nickelback song of that nature. Needless to say it was disappointing. I'm not even sure if we'll be able to play the song on the Eagle. It'll probably get spun heavily on our sister station Magic 97.

When the album drops November 18th, I know there will be some heavy stuff on it ... we'll just have to wait for a couple months to hear it because this new song is probably going to get played till 2010 before they release another single.

By the way, you can download "Gotta Be Somebody" for the next 24 hrs on their website. It's free ... which is a good thing ... because its not worth much more.

The Gym

I make it to the gym 5 or 6 times a week. It takes all the energy I have just to drag my ass off the couch to go, but I usually get there. Yeah sure, I do the whole gym thing to stay in shape, but lately, I think I go to the gym just to get feed back on The Eagle! Being an employee of the radio station, sometimes its hard to tell if you're creating a good product ... some would say you get numb to what you're putting out there, which is why I love hearing any type of feedback. Whether its really good, or a " Your radio station sucks!" All of it is welcome ... the one ups your self esteem and gives you an ego, while the other makes you angry and chops you down a couple pegs.

Lately, Rob has been giving me a lot of feedback on the radio station. Most will know Rob to see him ... he's pretty hard to miss. He's probably the strongest man I've ever met! The other day he was lifting so much weight, the machine couldn't hold any more plates! He's a large man ... which is funny, his nickname is Tiny. Anyway, from what he tells me ... he just started driving a truck that can get the radio station and he really enjoys it. One day he commented on a bit we did where I told Jon I was going to knock him out ... then proceeded to tell one of our callers I was going to knock him out for not voting. Rob told me the reason I wanted to knock everyone out, was because of all the weights I've been lifting at the gym ... its not true, but it was a funny comment.

Last night, he had a question for me. "Chance, what's the deal with that new sexy voice you have on the radio station introducing the newer music?" After explaining to him what that was all about he finally got it ... " Ohhh, you want more single guys to listen don't you!!? "

Those kind of talks are great ... I love that about the gym. Something else I really like ... when people think you have a crappy morning show ... and then they meet you. It seems the more people I can meet in the community, the more they seem to enjoy the show. It has to do with putting a face to the voice I think. It's kind of cool to say, "hear that guy on the radio, I know him." I'm not trying to say I'm a celebrity or anything because I know that's not true, but it's just because you hear that voice on the radio station that it seems kinda cool.

Its great when the good comments come more frequently than the bad, but we definitely get the bad. We have a guy that always calls in when he knows no one will answer the phone .. then he proceeds to tear a strip off of Jon. We call him "The Hater". The last message he left, he even beaked me, which is weird because he usually just rips on Jon. I don't mind criticism, but grow a set buddy .... if you want to talk trash like that .... call when you know we'll answer.

Fall

Its the first day of fall. You know how I can tell? My gargantuan Elm Tree BARFED all over my front lawn!! Is there a rule somewhere saying that I have to rake those leaves, because I really don't want to. Stupid leaves.

****

I know I've been talking about Metallica a lot lately but there is good news about their shows in Calgary. We got tickets to it. Listen for another Live Like a Rockstar Series coming in November.

Just a side note on the shows in Calgary. I am super angry at how they went about selling tickets. In fact, I'm just angry in general at how tickets are sold now a days. Back in the day, people use to line up for them and the ones who were there first got the best seats. Now, they have so many pre sale opportunities by the time the tickets go on sale to the general public, all that's left is the crap seats. I guess I'm just old school about how tickets should be sold. Stupid ticketmaster.ca.

****

I am addicted to Wii. I'm not afraid to admit it anymore. Before, I was always the guy who thought video games were a waste of time and hardly gave them the time of day. In fact, I went as far as to torment people who thought video games were cool! In the last two weeks my house hold has gone from having zero video game consoles ... to having a Wii and a Playstation 3!

My name is Chance, and I have a gaming problem ... stupid video games.

****

I almost peed my pants laughing at one of the news stories that ran this morning. There was a big drug bust just outside of the city. Apparently the cops pulled over a semi truck full of Marijuana. Rather than saying there was this many kilos or whatever of Mary Jane .... the press release the police sent us decided to put it into terms the public would understand ... they measured it by how many joints the confiscated marijuana would make. How does 700, 000 sound? It's almost like the cops saying, "We know a lot of people do drugs, lets put it in a term the hippies will understand."

I don't know, it made me giggle ... stupid .... drugs.

Death Magnetic

Its not so much a talk about the album ... its Metallica ... you know what your getting yourself in to when you buy the album. They are going to be the number one album on the billboard 200 with projected sales of half a million .. which by today's standards .... is a lot of albums to sell.

Here's the news though. They'll come as close as Calgary at the start of December. Tickets for the show went on sale last Saturday and sold out in less than an hour. Sucks hey? I really wanted to go to .... oh wait, did you hear they added another show? Yeah, its cause they did. After the first show sold out so fast ... they thought they would treat us to another one the next night .. which is way better for many reasons. December 4th is a Thursday ... which would than warrant using a holiday day to go to the concert, no problem, I was willing to do that. But now ... the second show falls on December 5th which is a Friday ... which means in Calgary Friday afternoon .... Metallica Friday night ... and party for the weekend. No Holiday days, just Metallica at the Pengrowth Saddledome!!

Tickets go on sale for the second show Tuesday morning at 10. Lamb of God and The Sword will open.

~~~~~~

It sucked reading about Pink Floyd's Richard Wright passing away from Cancer the other day. He was basically the only normal one in the band. He was a very low key guy, stayed out of the controversies, and was a fan favorite. He was 65, and will be missed in the world of music.

Gas

146.9. Are you kidding me?

Friday, I literally had to cop out of work early, just so I could get to the Canadian Tire to fill up at 135.9. It's always the last place in the city to move their prices up. Then, I went around bragging about how I just filled up my car in time for 135.9! About half way through the day I caught myself talking about how awesome I was because I filled up for 135.9, and realized how big of a loser I was. 135.9 is not a good price for gas. Its still about .50 cents a litre more than what I really want to be paying. It's the little game that gas companies like to play with us ... they put the prices up ridiculously high, than drop them just a little bit to make us think gas is at a good price again. You hear people saying ... "well its a lot better than what it was at a week ago!" WAKE UP!! Gas is way to expensive!! If I hear someone say that line next week when they drop gas prices closer to 135.9, I'm probably going to knock them out.

I did figure out how much money I saved by getting gas before they hiked up the price ... again. It came out to about $5.20. Can you imagine how much money that makes oil companies ... imagine the average vehicle each paying five dollars more to fill up ... 5 dollars times millions of vehicles .... I'm not good at math but that's a ton of money.

Now that I'm done complaining about gas ... I'll say this. It doesn't matter how high gas prices go, I will always buy it. There will be other things in my life I will cut out to afford gas. Everyone needs it, and we would be screwed if we didn't have it. So stop complaining.

*******

On a totally different note ... Metallica came out with their new album Friday. It's good.

Thoughts ...

Man, blogging is a lot harder than everyone thinks! I've only been updating this blog for about 2 months and it is tough!! Kudos goes to people who can somehow maintain theirs with a new post everyday!

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The Bronco home opener is coming up September 20th which means a very busy time for everyone. Sales people are trying to sell stuff, Jon Keen (the voice of the Broncos) is flying around ... and I have to do a ton of new imaging! For the most part its pretty much done, which is relieving.

While all this is going on ... Jon decided to start producing a weekly show for the WHL called WHL this week ... it'll play in all the Dub markets and it is sounding great! This is no bush league show to kill time in someones hockey broadcast ... this is a feature that people will look forward to hearing. (DISCLAIMER: I'm about to get very geeky with radio lingo) I'm particularly interested in it because Jon got one of the best voices in the business to do the voicing for the imaging parts. His name is David Lee ... he's the voice of CBS radio sports and Westwood one ... he's the voice of over 30 stations worldwide ... and a bunch of other stuff I won't get into right now. My point is .. this guy is good!! In my mind there are two things that make a great imaging voice ... depending on what your going for, a naturally deep voice sounds unbelievable in radio!! The other thing is the types of reads they will give you ... some guys get it .. others don't ... and from what David Lee sent us ... he obviously knows what he's doing!! It really was fun to produce that "monstrous voice" !! You'll be able to hear it during Jon's broadcast.

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You know what I hate ... when huge bands only play Toronto and Vancouver!! HELLO ... you skipped over three provinces!!!! Jerks.

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Winter is almost here ... and I don't know how to clear my underground sprinklers ... things are looking pretty bleak at this point.

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The poll that's been on the side of the blog ends today ... the question was: Which new song on the eagle is your favorite? the choices were Metallica - the day that never comes, Disturbed - Inside the Fire, ACDC - Rock N' Roll Train, or Hinder - Use Me?

Looks like Metallica won ... its kinda tough to tell though ... there were only like 3 people who voted.

Weekend stuff

It's funny how as the seasons change, your outlook on life changes. I know, a pretty deep sentence to start off a blog post right. Don't worry, that's as intense as I'll get. The way my brain works is, as soon as snow starts to melt I'm super happy thinking about the fun times summer will bring. Then when summer is coming to a close, and it's getting to zero at night .. I'm thinking about how snow could fall at anytime, which makes me a little depressed!!! That's the weird thing too, because I like winter!!

Anyway, the reason I wanted to talk about that was Great Plains College had their Outdoor Movie Friday night that ended up being moved inside due to it being frickin freezing!!! On the way in to the college gym all I could think was "it's nice enough to have this outside!" But on the way out 3 hours later, all I could think was " I am glad that was indoors!" Maybe I'm just a sissy.

All in all the movie night was a great time!! A huge screen, a big sound system, the Incredible Hulk playing, cheap food stand, and your own chairs to sit on!! It was great!! I didn't high five the team at the Great Plains College but I should of because they organized a great event that was a lot of fun for a Friday night!! I can only imagine what all the little kids there were thinking! I mean, I thought it was super fun, and I'm 24!!

After the first Incredible Hulk they put out, I was a little skeptic for the second. I mean come on!!! It was terrible ... brutal acting, pretty bad special effects for a major movie release, and the acting was horrific!! Did I mention that the acting was terrible? Horrendous acting.

The deciding factor on whether or not this movie was going to be worth watching ... was Edward Norton signing on to be the Hulk. He's a great actor ... I mean look at the movies he's been in ... Fight Club, Rounders, The Illusionist, the Italian job, American History X ... I'm glad there will be another one ... not to ruin the movie for you but we could see the Avengers movie real quick!

To wrap up this never ending geeky blog post, it was a great night, and thanks to the Great Plains College for putting it on!! Can't wait for the next one!!

Bronco Music

The first game of the year at the i-Plex is set for September 19th. I'm really looking forward to the 08-09 Bronco Season, we've got a good group of guys coming back, some momentum still from last years playoff performance, and an even better rink to play in. No more construction!!!

Another reason I look forward to Bronco games is the music. Whenever you hear songs you don't like, or the music is too loud in the i-plex ... the F bombs you throw out there are directed at me. It's something I really enjoy doing but it's always a lot of work at the start of the year. This time around I'm looking for some help with new music adds. Is there anything you hear in other rinks around the league, in senior hockey rinks, or any music in general that you would like to hear at a bronco game? If so, I would really love to hear from you! Just leave a comment with your recommendations and your favorite hockey songs will most likely get blasted through the i-Plex's sound sytem sometime this winter.

The best part of the whole night comes during the warm up, thats when the heavy stuff gets brought out and we're allowed to play it a little louder than usual. Here's what I was thinking for this years warm up music:

Disturbed - Inside the Fire
Hinder - Use Me
The Offspring - Hammerhead
Slipknot - Psychosocial
Airbourne - Running Wild

Help me out with some of the stuff you want to hear. cduperreault@goldenwestradio.com, or you can just leave a comment.

Same Ol'

It never ceases to amaze me how predictable rock stars are. This morning I was trying to find some information on the new U2 album and stumbled upon a recent interview with The Edge ... Here's a bit of it ...





Opinion is currently divided as to whether the album will make a pre- or post-Christmas release. Anticipation couldn’t be higher, however, with mixer Steve Lillywhite having already proclaimed the record "their best yet."
"Trying to weave it all together into a coherent collection is the challenge," Edge admits. "But, yeah, it has the potential to be our best."



How incredibly predictable. I understand you have to sell your product to your fans by saying things like ... "Oh yeah its our best album yet!" or "it's some of the strongest songs we've ever written!" You might as well tell your fans what to do with their lives because by saying things like that ... your telling them what they should like.

One of these times it would be refreshing to read an article with a larger than life rocker talking about how the new album is what it is ... " It's no Joshua tree, but it's new, and we like it, so you might."

I remember when Lars Ulrich of Metallica was pumping up St. Anger before it came out ... now years later, he's admitted publicly that it wasn't really their best work! That is what I call refreshing ... don't lie to us ... we know when things suck!!

I have never been to an Elton John concert nor would I go even if I was given tickets ... which by the way are super expensive for playing three shows in our province in about two weeks!! But a friend of mine went to see him when he was in Edmonton and always tells a pretty good story about Sir Elton. Apparently half way through his show ... he flat out told the audience that they needed to play their new crappy music to promote the new album and if you needed to go to the bathroom or get a drink, now would be a good time!!! ... That actually made me like Elton John ... and I hate Elton John!

Anyway, U2's new album is supposedly called " New Line on the Horizon " and I've heard it may be out before Christmas ... or maybe not.

The Sound ...

It's a very fun time to be in radio on a rock station. The biggest bands in the world are putting out new albums and I'm an extremely happy little guy!! Metallica is getting ready to put out their new album "Death Magnetic" September 12th, AC/DC will put out their new album "Black Ice" October 20th and both of their singles are being played on the radio ... well thats a lie. Metallica's single is now on the radio, AC/DC will release theirs later on, but I had a a listen to it this morning and it is good!!


All of this brings me to a rant about two guys I know ... those two guys?















Ryan Switzer (the boss) ... and Jon Keen, the other half of the Breakfast Boys!!

Every time a new album comes out ... I get very excited, ask these two guys to come share my excitement, and what do they do? They stomp on it!!!!

"How do they do that Chance?" you might ask. Well, I load up the new song, crank it in eagle control, ask them to listen and eagerly wait their opinion of what I obviously already think is an awesome piece of work. They usually have this line for me after the song ends ... "It sounds like every other (insert band name here) song." It's at that moment that I just want to punch them in the face! I KNOW IT SOUNDS LIKE EVERY OTHER SONG!! THAT'S WHY ITS AWESOME!!

I don't want my favorite bands to sound different! I want them to sound the way they did when I fell in love with their music!! The point is, when the Foo Fighters put out a new album, I expect it to sound like the Foo Fighters. When Metallica puts out a new album, I expect them to sound like Metallica!! When AC/DC puts out a new album, I expect it to sound like AC/DC, and they never dissapoint!! There is a reason kids, teenagers, adults, grandpas, grandmas, and moms and dads all like the same band ... their sound is timeless! Its not about sounding different, its about staying true to your sound, and that's why those bands are larger than life!!

Next time I hear that line .... "It sounds like every other (insert band name here) song," ...

straight shot ... right to the baby maker.

Economy

The other day, me and the boss (Ryan Switzer) were writing some Eagle splitters. Those are the things you hear between songs, ex: "Classic hits the eagle 94 one!!" Anyway, it got me thinking. Whenever we write these new splitters we always try to make them relevant to whats happening in Swift Current and the South West ... and right now its the housing market. I've heard a lot of things about Swift Currents housing market, and I've come to a decision ... no one knows what they're talking about.

One of the things I keep hearing is the market has peaked and the crazy prices on houses have already begun to drop. Then why do I see a house that's worth $400,000 at best, being put on the market for $600,000 and selling!! There's not a house for sale right now in Swift Current for under $100,000 dollars ... unless you want to live in a shanty!

I sometimes hear people say, "well Regina and Saskatoon's markets have slowed right down." WHO CARES! We live in Swift Current, things around here are just getting started! Have you looked around the city!? There's major construction going on everywhere! A new Casino that will bring in 355 employees is about to open in December ... across from that is a brand new hotel ... just down the street is another hotel thats planning on going up ... there's condos being built as fast as possible to meet the demand and all we can say is "If Saskatoon and Regina are slowing down, we must be!" As far as I've seen, we're just getting started.

Lastly, one of the popular lines I've heard from young people in Swift Current ... "I'm going to wait till housing prices come down to buy a house." Housing prices are not coming down ... not in the next 10 years anyway. Yeah sure, they may not go much higher, but they're never going down as low as they were 5 years ago .... ever.

A Realtor friend of mine was telling me last night there are 107 houses for sale in Swift Current right now. 107. Think about it, the casino alone needs to house 355. I realize not everyone can afford a house or want to take that route, but what else are they going to do ... there sure aren't enough rental properties in town to keep up.

Anyway, our end product of the splitters was kind of funny ... you have to read this in a deep voice if you want to get the true effect .... "2005 ... The Eagle starts playing rock ... the economy booms ... your welcome Saskatchewan ...The Eagle 94 one!! "

Ha Ha Ha ... ohhhhhh .... I thought it was funny.

Just to wrap up these thoughts on the housing market ... how good is HGTV? If you owned a house you would know!!

HNIC Anthems

This whole Hockey Night In Canada Anthem Challenge was a good idea for CBC ... kind of. It could have gone a couple ways ... they could have started this contest and got 5 entries or they could have got thousands which is the way it seems to be going. The downside of this contest ... What if the thousands of entries really suck!!? What are they going to do ... not give away 100,000 dollars? I don't think that's possible, they've promoted it to much not to give the money away ... which makes me think the next Hockey Night In Canada Theme song is going to blow!

Still, even if it does, it's been great publicity for CBC. It's showing that their trying to be hip and cool, moving away from tradition so to speak. So does that mean Bob Cole will retire ... I doubt it, he'll probably die while mis pronouncing some Czech players name.

I've been trying to link some of the worst entries but it doesn't want to work for me .... just go to the CBC website and check out the Acapella area of the Anthem Challenge!! All I can say is ... horrific.

We've been trying to get our Facebook Group "The Breakfast Boys" to 1000 before the end of summer ... and after 2 months ... we're at 507! Unfortunately, it looks like we're going to come up a little short, which is bad news for us because the deal was, we had to get 1000 friends by the end of summer to keep our jobs! No, we weren't telling the truth. I think the only way we could get fired is by dropping an F bomb on the radio ... which seems to happen every now and then ... not so much on our show ... but on random occasions.

Its suppose to be 35 degrees today ... which means the air conditioner will be running at full capacity ... 21 degrees ... that's what makes my heart sing. I know, David Suzuki will be hurling invective at me from his green household ... all I have to say to him ... Shut up Dave ... its plus 35!!

The Next Show

The last year has been great for shows in Saskatchewan. The Foo Fighters, Ozzy, The Red Hot Chili Peppers, Kid Rock, Crewfest, Rush, Judas Priest and of course Swift Currents first real rock show in some time ... Default.

Now that Crewfest is done with .. I can't help but get the feeling that summer is coming to a close and there aren't really that many concerts to be excited for.

Alice Cooper will play in Saskatoon and Regina ... but is that really a concert that a lot of people will be excited about? Lenny Kravitz will be in Regina come October ... but are a lot of people going to rush to buy tickets? Airbourne will be in Saskatoon at the end of this month but have they really become big enough for anyone to care?

With that said ... I think its safe to say the concert that people are going to get the most excited for over the next couple months is METALLICA!! Yes I know ... the April Wine fans are booing right now but come on ... you have to agree they're probably one of the largest bands in the world right now ... they've sold over 100 million albums worldwide which is unbeatable as far as heavy metal acts go! The only bad part about it is they are not making a stop in Saskatchewan. They will be in Calgary December 4th playing the Pengrowth Saddledome. Its a Thursday which means you should save a holiday day to make the trek west!!

As of right now they haven't set a date for when tickets go on sale, but you can be guaranteed they will sell out the Pengrowth in a matter of minutes. That can really suck when a band knows they will sell out Venues all over the world, cause then they really don't care how expensive tickets are ... they just know someone will stop eating for a week so they can afford a ticket to their show!!!

Anyway ... the new album Death Magnetic will be out September 12th .. its a Friday instead of a typical Tuesday ... it just shows you how big they are ... they can release an album whenever they want!! I've heard a few songs from the album and it sounds good ... unlike St Anger ... which wasn't really that awesome despite landing at the number one spot on the billboard 200 in its first week!!

At Crewfest!!

So, Friday night was the big concert ... CREWFEST in Saskatoon. You've seen pictures of our winners over the last while ... you've heard them on the radio over the last week ... now listen to this story!!! This is the same e-mail Vanessa (one of the winners) sent us:



Hello! this is Vanessa Gauvin, one of the winners from the Motley Crue concert. I'm sending this e-mail on behalf of everyone who won the tickets to say thanks. We had an unbelievable time! Not only was the concert insanely awesome, but we happenend to be at the right place at the right time and met Nikki Sixx from the Crue and his other band Sixx Am. They were staying at the same hotel as us and they're tour buses were right out front. We ran into them and got some pictures taken, and we thought we wound send them to the eagle, the people who made this dream come true! Thank you so much!!!

PS: the one photo with the goofy looking guy is their bus driver, his name is Darrel, and the band was eating some hot dogs at the time and had an extra one that they gave to us that showed up in the pictures a lot. It looked pretty good, it had like Cheddar cheese on it and everything. Really should have kept it and sold it on eBay.

The Hot Dog

Nikki Sixx, DJ Ashba, Lara, Vanessa, Kayla

Bus Driver ... the ladies

Lara, James Micheal, Kayla

Kayla, Lara, DJ Ashba, Vanessa

WINNERS!

After a couple weeks of getting pictures for Show Us Your Motley Crue ... we've found the winners!! Congratulations to the "Girls, Girls, Girls" group, Vanessa Gauvin, Lara Heard, Keegan Story, Kalon Sommerfeld, Kody Rayner and Kayla Weston .... they'll be going to Crewfest Friday night in Saskatoon.

Thanks to everyone who sent their pictures in!!