Hot Dogs, Surfing, Golf, Rock and Other Signs of Summer

Well, you can really feel the summer coming now, he had a little taste of it during Whalefest.  Now we regroup for a little tourism bump for Easter and set everything in motion for the Summer.  This applies to The West Coast in general and to Long Beach Radio. 

You've probably been hearing a new voice this week, mostly during my morning show. That's Carrie-Ann, she'll be your afternoon host starting next week.... keeping you up on the current conditions around the region and playing some tunes.   She went surfing for the first time the other day, She's on Whale watch with Remote Passages Marine Excursions as I type and it looks like it Zipline time on Saturday.... So she's getting a crash course in "Life on the Edge"

As far as ramping up for summer goes for the rest of the coast I have a few great things to report;

- The Back Nine Bar and Grill at the Long Beach Golf Course opens for the season on Friday! Great Burgers to go with a round of golf.  Also, men's and lady's nights return in April.... 13th, 14th I think.

- Matt Epp will be in town on April 15th to rock the Maquinna.  I did a review of his new album "At Dawn" and can't wait for the show

- Mark Crissinger is playing the Weigh West April 7th and 8th.

- Nothing says summer quite like Sugar Shack's Hotdogs stand getting set up though... that happens this weekend

Speaking of food.... "Professional Food Lover" Bobby Lax has been dropping in weekly for the last little while and we have been eating oysters and talking about food.... in particular the Tofino, Ucluelet Culinary Guild and FEAST!!  Looks like Bobby will be coming down tomorrow (Thursday) tune in between 9 and 10 for that.

Justyna is on the air tonight from 7pm 9 with Music Makes Me Happy and we may have the "pilot" of a new show right after....

Thanks for Listening to Long Beach Radio.

Hello Carrie- Ann!!!

We've added a new face/voice to the team. You'll be able to hear Carrie off and on this week as we show her what all the buttons do.  Starting next week she will be out afternoon host on a shedule we're still working out.  In the mean time we're touring her around and showing her what life on the West Coast is like.  Got an adventure idea for Carrie? Send me an email: geoff@longbeachradio.ca 

On another note, we're migrating from a Facebook group to a page... "Like" us here.

Justyna's goning to return after a short hiatus with Mousic Makes Me Happy Wednesday at 7pm, with a local rocker for her guest and the Canucks will be whoopin' the Preds tonight @ 5pm.

Better update soon.  Thanks for Listening to Long Beach Radio.

More Pacific Rim Whale Festival 2011 Action!! Martinis, Music and More!!

Well. It's the morning.... or rather afternoon after Martini Migration. Knowing I host a morning radio show I was smart enough to sneak out a little early so I could be bright eyed and bushy tailed.  I didn't leave so early as to miss a few songs from Quoia though.  Those poor fellas had too party all night and still made it into the studio for a little live Rock and Roll this morning.  I'll post the audio from their visit ASAP.

Meanwhile, we're heading into the weekend knowing the 25th annual Pacific Rim Whale Festival wraps up on Sunday, but don't fear.  Jim Byrnes is playing Barnacle Blues tonight, there are lots of things for the kids to do and the Tofino Harbour has been ROTTEN with Orca lately.

Tomorrow we'll be bringing you live coverage of the Blessing of the Whale Watching Fleet at about 9, 930am.  It take place at the 1st street dock, right out the studio window.  If you come say "Hi" during it you'll have a chance to win a cute kiddie's O'Neill wetsuit and some surf rentals from The Long Beach Surf Shop.  You'll have to listen to the morning show tomorrow to find out how though.

Also, our soon-to-be afternoon host, Carrie get's here this weekend.  Expect a new voice to be joining the team soon, probably co-hosting the morning show for a bit too.

Just a short update.  Visit www.pacificrimwhalefestival.com for more Whalefest info.

Thanks for Listening to Long Beach Radio.

Whalefest 2011 Continues....

We have Chowed on Chowder, Wondered at Whales, there were sunset Orca sightings in the Tofino Harbour.   So far The Pacifc Rim Whale Festival has been a blast and there's still almost a week of fun stuff to go.  Check out the  official website at http://www.pacificrimwhalefestival.com/ Here's an pic or 2 of some of the festivities so far.

This is Cam and I "emceeing" the Parade...

The Superheroes of Salmon won the "Best in Show" trophy. Well done everyone.



Here's a Youtube video of the parade

Sunday morning was Chowder Chowdown and congrats to the Wildside Grill for sweeping the awards.

For Monday, we took a break from official Whalefest events and went SCUBA diving with Ocean Planet Adventures... If you've ever though of diving give them a call. On this trip we were buzzed by a Sea Lion.... I didn't see it but 2 from our group did. Their "Discover Scuba" events are a great introduction. Here's a lousy picture from the dock as we got ready to head out

The West Coast Wild ZipLine opened over the weekend. I think I'll be heading there later in the week. Check them out here www.wcwild.com or watch this video... They also do Flight Seeing

WestCoast Wild Adventures Zipline from Cyclops on Vimeo.

If all this talk of diving and other fun have you thinking about surfing listen to the morning show on Friday morning for you chance to win the little number.... and I DO mean little along with vouchers for surf rentals for 2 from the Long Beach Surf Shop

Well, that's enough excitement for one day. I'm going to settle in somewhere to watch the sunset and listen to some music.

Thanks for Listening to Long Beach Radio

The Whales Are Here, Rick Mercer Was Here and The Tourists Are Coming

First things first.  The 25th annual Pacific Rim Whale Festival starts on Saturday.  Long Beach Radio will be at the parade. Me and (if we're "lucky") Cam Dennison will be performing the all-time small-town cliche broadcasting gig of play-by-play at the parade.  I'm honored to have been asked and know that's gonna be a lot of fun.  According to the Remote Passages Marine Excursion Marine Wildlife Report whale sightings have been pretty consistant lately.  There's a ton of stuff to do during Whalefest so check out the website http://www.pacificrimwhalefestival.com/ here are some videos of some of the entertainers, presentations that will be taking place during the festival.

Quioa, will be rocking the party for Martini Migration


Jim Byrnes is back for Barnacle Blues


Headwater will be opening for Jim and putting on a show of their own


Bob's and Lolo will be entertaining the kids at a few events


Whaledreamers


Seasonal opening of the Ucluelet Aquarium


Ocean Gybe


At The Edge of The World


Story Telling With Roy Henry Vickers


Finding Nemo for the Kids while to Grown Up are Martini-Migrating


Those are just the ones I could find some sort of video for easy...

As far as the Rick Mercer bit goes, he was out here surfing with Surf Sister and put it on the tele.... here's the result.



Also, for no particular reason here's a few week old interview with The Sumner Brothers and Carolyn Mark that I just got around to posting...


That's it for now... Thanks for listening to Long Beach Radio.

A Great Day, A Sad Day, A Day of Thanks. (The Day After We Dodged The Deluge)

Thank You to everyone who took the time to comment on our Tsunami advisory coverage over the last couple days.  I'm honored to be trusted with a job that is often challenging but even more often immensely rewarding. It means a lot to get emails, phone calls, tweets and whatnot from listeners who were relieved or  comforted by the broadcast.  I can't think of something I would rather have been doing at the time.

The minimal impact of the March 11 Tsunami situation in British Columbia was not the result of good planning.  It was, frighteningly, the result of good luck.  We were fortunate that the larger sea level changes came during a low tide.  We were fortunate that the conditions themselves weren't more dramatic in our region.  And, for now, we are fortunate that the series of recent seismic event has taken place a decent distance away.  Perhaps though, next time, we may not be so fortunate.  The Earthquake that hit near Japan is eerily similar to the projections for the Cascadia Subduction Zone quake that will eventually rock our coast.  If Japan, one of the best earthquake prepared nations in the world was devastated this way do you think Vancouver Island will fair well?

With that thought there are a lot of other people to thank for their hard work to maintain the safety of our region.  From emergency preparedness coordinators (past and present) to local RCMP and Fire-fighters. Also, a shout out to activists who have attempted to build awareness of the risks in our region despite a lot of indifference from much of the population.  Thank you to Alan Beasley who called me with the initial reports of the Japanese quake, listeners who kept me informed throughout the day (and night) and of course those who listened and encouraged others to listen.  Trusting Long Beach Radio to deliver an accurate account of the advisory and inform you of any developments means a lot to me personally.

I have mixed feelings as a result of this experience though... There were some disappointments.  Many large media outlets reported with headlines referring to "Tsunami Warnings" for British Columbia.  The term "Tsunami Warning" in emergency preparedness terms carries with it a message of evacuation and imminent large scale inundation. There was never a true warning for British Columbia and that was a difficult message to share with concerned locals when some national media was reporting them.  There were also flaws in the social media coverage with stories being misquoted, and premature messages of the advisory being canceled.  It seems, while a variety of news sources are an essential component of free speech and help us to maintain  our "freedom" and "democracy" a chorus of shouts, eager to get the story FIRST instead of RIGHT could have to capacity to cause great harm in a lot of situations.  And please, don't report the body count every ten minutes for a disaster that has obviously killed tens of thousands.  Seeing images like we have of Japan and reporting "at least 39 dead" is just stupid.

Thank you to the media who contacted me for interviews across the nation.  Having looked over the stories I am largely happy with the way I, The Radio Station and The West Coast in general were portrayed.  I'll compile the stories and link to them at the bottom of this post soon.

Lastly, with our potential emergency behind us our thoughts turn to those that are still very much suffering. Japan, of course has a long way to go before they can issue any sort of all clear. Others on the West Coast just south of us, in Hawaii and around the Pacific Rim were impacted in ways that will reverberate for a long time.. 

Please comment if you have some input or email me geoff@longbeachradio.ca

Thank You for Listening to Long Beach Radio.

Here are some of the news stories we contributed to.  Some maybe the the same story republished... I haven't weeded through them yet.

Global Story that they used nationally  http://www.globalregina.com/Tofino+tsunami+advisory+alert+Long+Beach+Radio+evacuates+from+Tofino+Pier/4424023/story.html 

Yahoo http://ca.news.yahoo.com/tsunami-west-coast-barely-makes-waves-20110311-142900-586.html 

Newstalk 980 Radio interview http://www.newstalk980.com/audio/brent-loucks-audio/20110311-geoff-johnson-long-beach-radio-tofino-bc

The Record.com  http://www.therecord.com/news/canada/article/499556--canada-coastal-residents-await-waves

13010 News Radio http://www.1310news.com/news/national/article/195960--tsunami-watch-raises-tensions-on-b-c-coast-but-creates-barely-a-ripple

I think there's more audio out there somewhere... if you find anything pass me the link please

Tsunami Advisory CANCELED for British Columbia

The BC Tsunami Advisory was canceled as of 6:49pm PT by NOAA.

http://wcatwc.arh.noaa.gov/2011/03/11/lhvpd9/22/messagelhvpd9-22.htm
Now let's party.  I'll have some sort of more insightful information after some sleep.




Thanks for Listening.

Geoff

Tsunami ADVISORY Based on Earthquake in Japan

This Is an old post, if you are looking for info on the more recent earthquake on Vancouver Island go HERE

That's the all-clear from NOAA http://wcatwc.arh.noaa.gov/2011/03/11/lhvpd9/22/messagelhvpd9-22.htm Tsunami Advisory Canceled

twitter updates @longbeachradio

I'll be in studio broadcasting updates.  Listen here or 90.1FM around Tofino and 99.5FM in Ucluelet.

Here are some links that may help you.  I will update this when there is more.
 Forecast info
http://www.weatheroffice.gc.ca/warnings/tsunami_e.html
 More Forecast info
http://wcatwc.arh.noaa.gov/
 Tsunami preparedness info
http://www.pep.bc.ca/hazard_preparedness/Tsunami_Preparedness_Information.html

Some lousy iPhone videos



Here's an old interview with a local geologist regarding the risk of earthquake and tsunami in our region
Jacqueline Windh on The Cascadia Earthquake, 3 parts

We're Back!!!!!! (and the 100th post-aversary) .....also Vampires and Unions

Well the Internet has been glued back together and our broadcast is back through the website and in Ucluelet.  Tofino's broadcast was largely un-effected.  Thanks for you patience.

That said there are a few things to talk about;

-Justyna's show last night was great, as always. Don't miss "Music Makes Me Happy" most Wednesday nights at 7pm.  If you want to get in touch with Justyna email musichigh5@gmail.com

-Cam's back from whatever Central American boonies he was visiting and would normally have his show tonight at 7 but the Canucks are playing the Sharks at 7:30 so we'll be bringing you that in stead. GO CANUCKS!!

Other things going on in the Long Beach Region;  Rumor has it that the crew for the new "Twilight" movie, "Breaking Dawn" are in town for a few days filming. Here's a link to a news story about it.  Looks like the actual filming is more at Ucluelet end of the beach.   Also with a strike at Vancouver Island University we may get an influx of Teen Vampire Geeks and University Students with a long weekend.... Could be fun.

Lastly, with the recent announcement that www.westcoaster.ca will not be operating any more we're going to try to up our opinions, current events and other related coverage.  Consider this an open invitation to get in touch regarding nearly anything.  email is usually best geoff@longbeachradio.ca but phone numbers and other info are on the "contact" page.

Happy 100th post-aversary.  Thanks for Listening.

Service Interruption

Sorry to listeners in Ukee and abroad. We are currently experiencing Internet issues and will hopefully be back up to full power shortly. Thanks for your patience.

Programming Additions, St Patty's Day, Whalefest, and More

There have been a lot of ideas thrown about for Long Beach Radio programming lately.  We get a seasonal bombardment of broadcasting students this time of year, looking to put their educations to work, gain experience or whatever. Combined with the creative stirrings of locals through the winter and the announcement of new events, businesses and whatnot and it's an exciting time here at Long Beach Radio and on the West Coast in general. 

If you missed the news a couple weeks back we're streaming online now too. See where is says "LISTEN LIVE" above this post? Click there.

Let's start our discussion with the things we know for sure.  Carrie Ann will be hitting the airwaves starting April 1st(ish) bringing some more life to the afternoons, making more remote event coverage possible, harassing me from time to time on the morning show, adding a fresh voices to our ads and generally improving things.

This afternoon I'm sitting down with Rachel Sutton, author, broadcaster and naturapath about a regular segment called "Health Minutes" regarding wellness which includes an email question aspect, if you have a question for Rachel email her healthminutes@gmail.com.   At the bottom of this post is an interview with Rachel regarding a novel she wrote recently.

We're also working out the details on a "local's rant" segment.  I'd like to call it 'Torpedoes of Truth' but Charlie Sheen might sue once the drugs kick in, or wear off or whatever.  Call the studio and leave a message on the answering machine outlining a beef you have.  Don't use specific names, racism, threats or foul language and we'll put it on the air. should be good to get a little discussion going.  The number is 250 725 4411, if someone answers let us know you're calling with a rant and we'll let it ring through to the machine.  You could also record your rant and email it to me geoff@longbeachradio.ca.

I've been approached by local food lovers about a food/ cooking segment, we've had building interest in locally produced radio plays and a lot more I will fill you in on when it's more solid.

On the second point in this post's title, St Paddy's Day, they've got a party going at the Weigh West for sure with Nye Sullivan and the Hosers.  They rocked it for St. Paddy's last year and there wasn't even standing room so get there early. He may not be Irish but he's an East Coaster so at least you know he can drink like he's Irish.

Before that there are a couple local bands hitting The Maquinna this weekend. "Tough Guys and Girl's Cry" Friday night before they take off for a bnit of a tour.  Saturday it's Smalltown Empire, they're getting married and holding a "honeymoon fund" gig, so go help some kids romantic dreams come true. Again, I suspect we'll hear from these 2 bands on LBR in the next few days.

Whalefest is just around the corner and you can listen to the radio for some coverage and an idea of some of the events that are going down.  For the full list of Pacific Rim Whale Festival events and more info go to http://www.pacificrimwhalefestival.com/. Tofino Time Magazine has a good guide to the events that you can take with you as well.  Pick one up Free around town.

A new culinary festival was just announced today.  Here's the link to the press release. Simply Called "Feast!!! Tofino, Ucluelet" it's billed as "a month-long series of culinary events to be held in the West Coast Vancouver Island communities of Tofino and Ucluelet in partnership with EAT magazine and Global BC beginning on May 8, 2011".  I LOVE the sound of that!!!  I'm gonna start dieting NOW!! I'm sure we'll have interviews with organizers and such soon.

Thanks for listening to Long Beach Radio.


Rachel Sutton a while back

Cool Things

Like some sort of cool infection we are seeping into all sorts of neat stuff. We're gonna be on an upcoming Stowaways album it looks like.  They had so much fun playing in studio a while back they want to use the recording one of the tracks on their upcoming release.  They are also planning a music tour by sail boat. Could something be cooler? Here's the original interview.




I think I might have found the only thing cooler than a wind powered music tour... The epic struggle of Dragons and Dinosaurs.  Graphic Novel Madness!!!

The only thing cooler than that is if you had a sub-plot of Ninjas fighting Pirates.

Another cool thing is the upcoming arrival of Carrie-Ann, our lovely summer intern. She's gonna really freshen the joint up.  Before she can leave her current situation though she has to battle a horde of zombies... She's a musical theatre dork (the hot kind) and they're doing the Evil Dead musical in Alberta this month.  If you stuck in the flatlands this month check it out.  Here's the promo.

If the music sounds familiar that's Ross Neilsen and the Sufferin' Bastards, long time friends of Long Beach Radio... small world huh?

Anyway, There's a short distraction from our usual bloggery here.  I'll be back to sensible relevant West Coast content soon.

Thanks for listening to Long Beach Radio.

After The Storm

Power came and went, waves crashed, trees danced, schools were closed and re-openned but I think we got through the "Hurricane Force Winds" pretty well.  Kudos to the BC Hydro crews that got us back up twice today and are now running around the island.  As I type this BC Hydro says there are about 20,000 customers without power in BC, including our friends in Ahousaht and Bamfield. A BIG THANKS also has to go to the good foolks at The Maquinna who furnished us with the generator that made it possible to broadcast during this morning's outage. Here's some iPhone footage.



I haven't heard any tragic stories yet and hope everyone is alright. 

Thanks for Listening.

Massive Storm Forecast For Tonight and Tomorrow

Batten down friends. Gusts of 140 kph in the forecast for the next 24 hours or so. Big seas as well, so beaches could well be dangerous.  Here are a few links that will give you some insight.

http://www.theweathernetwork.com/alerts/wwcabc0046a/cabc0295/weather?ref=warnings_citypage

http://www.weatheroffice.gc.ca/warnings/report_e.html?bc44

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2011/03/01/bc-wind-warning.html

If my feeble grasp of broadcasting equipment is correct we should be able go run if/when we lose power. so tune in on your battery operated radio for updates in that event.... We will send what updates we can through Twitter ( @longbeachradio ) and Facebook even if we can't broadcast.

Be safe and thanks for listening.