NASB Elects New Board Member at 20th Annual Meeting

May 14, 2008 (Cary, North Carolina, USA) - Bill Damick of Trans World Radio was elected to the board of directors of the National Association of Shortwave Broadcasters (NASB) at its 2008 annual meeting in Cary, North Carolina on May 9. Damick also gave a presentation about shortwave audience research during the event.

The meeting was hosted by Trans World Radio (TWR) at its world headquarters building in Cary, which is a suburb of Raleigh, the capital of North Carolina. This year’s conference was the 20th annual meeting of the NASB, which is a professional association for the nation’s privately-owned shortwave stations.

Opening the meeting in a large auditorium with a giant glass wall looking out into a tranquil North Carolina forest, Trans World Radio CEO Thomas Lowell expressed his view that shortwave broadcasting remains an important delivery method for TWR’s Christian message in many parts of the world. TWR invited representatives of the NASB to speak to staff members about the viability of shortwave radio in today’s world, in the midst of new technologies like satellites and the Internet. The NASB reps explained that there are many countries where Internet access is non-existent or very limited, and many places that cannot be reached by local FM signals.

Again this year, as it has for the past several years, the NASB annual meeting was combined with the annual meeting of the USA DRM Group. The DRM meeting took place on May 8 at the same TWR venue, and featured speakers such as Adil Mina of Continental Electronics, who is chairman of the USA DRM Group and a director of the DRM Consortium. Mina gave an update on the latest developments at the Consortium, and the prospects for new consumer-friendly, inexpensive DRM receivers in the coming months.

The NASB annual meeting had a very North Carolina flair this year. Besides TWR’s participation, the meeting featured a presentation by NASB member Fundamental Broadcasting Network, which operates shortwave stations WTJC and WBOH on the Atlantic coast of North Carolina. An audiovisual program was also offered by the staff of the IBB Greenville, North Carolina transmitter site, from where the Voice of America and Radio Marti are transmitted. Rachel Baughn, the veteran editor of Monitoring Times magazine, which covers shortwave extensively, spoke about her publication and the need for shortwave stations to provide timely information to magazines such as hers which reach the shortwave listening public. Monitoring Times’ headquarters is located in Brasstown, in western North Carolina. Lunches and dinners at the meeting included typical North Carolina fare such as pork barbecue, grit cakes and sweet tea. They were sponsored by NASB members and associate members Media Broadcast, Comet North America, Thomson Broadcast, WMLK and Continental Electronics.

Another session which drew a great deal of response dealt with shortwave radio’s role in crises and disasters, such as tsunamis, hurricanes, earthquakes, etc. Personnel of various stations talked about how they can be most helpful when a disaster occurs. Mike Adams of Far East Broadcasting Company (FEBC) told delegates that he is developing a disaster plan for his stations that can be implemented in the event of sudden need, which other NASB members may want to adopt as well.

A new member and a new associate member were welcomed at this year’s NASB meeting. Jason Cooper and Brady Murray of WWCR in Tennessee gave a brief introduction to their station, and Allan McGuirl of Galcom International in Canada talked about his company’s newest innovations, including a multi-frequency “fix-tuned” shortwave receiver and a low-power FM transmitter that will eventually be adapted for use on AM and shortwave as well.

At the Cary meeting, the NASB decided that its representatives at the upcoming High Frequency Coordination Committee (HFCC) meetings will be Glen Tapley of WEWN in Alabama, who will attend the B08 HFCC Conference in Moscow in August; and Jeff White of WRMI in Miami, who will go to the A09 conference in Tunis, Tunisia in February of next year.

Besides newly-elected board member Bill Damick of TWR, the other NASB board members are Jeff White of WRMI (president), Mike Adams of FEBC (vice president), Glen Tapley of WEWN, Adrian Peterson of Adventist World Radio and Charles Caudill of World Christian Broadcasting, which operates shortwave station KNLS in Alaska. All were present in Cary except Caudill, who was hosting a visit to his headquarters in Nashville, Tennessee by the president of Madagascar, where World Christian Broadcasting is building a new shortwave station. Mike Adams was re-elected to a second three-year board term. Jeff White and Mike Adams were re-elected as president and vice-president, respectively. Dan Elyea of WYFR in Florida was re-elected NASB Secretary-Treasurer, and Thais White of WRMI was re-elected Assistant Secretary Treasurer.

Bill Damick replaced Elder Jacob O. Meyer on the board. Elder Meyer, of WMLK in Pennsylvania, ended two consecutive three-year terms on the NASB Board this year. According to the Association’s bylaws, after two terms, board members must rotate off for at least a year.

The new board decided to investigate the possibility of the NASB commissioning a survey of shortwave listeners in North America, and it talked about methods of publicity that the group can use to make listeners more aware of its member stations and organizations.

At the NASB business meeting in Cary, the members decided the dates and places for the next two annual meetings, which will again be held jointly with the USA DRM Group meetings. The 2009 meetings will be co-hosted by World Christian Broadcasting and WWCR in the Nashville area on May 7 and 8, 2009. The 2010 meetings will take place May 13 and 14 in Hamilton, Ontario, hosted by associate member Galcom International.

Complete audio files of this year’s meetings, as well as video presentations, will soon be available on the NASB’s website, www.shortwave.org.

So this is my little effort to correct that problem and make these songs more relevant to our modern world.

I’m always standing by to help, so here are some suggestions :

Standing on the corner, watching all the girls go by….I was sued for sexual harassment

Don’t Sleep in the Subway…someone might steal your shoes

The Naughty Lady of Shady Lane….has her own website. You can talk to her for 5.99 a minute.

It’s In The Book - available at amazon.com

Torn Between Two Lovers …and its only Tuesday

Someone to Watch Over Me…with a hidden security camera, broadcast on the internet

Somewhere Over the Rainbow, Bluebirds fly…assuming they avoided the bird flu

This OId House…got an extreme makeover

It Only Takes A Minute…unless you get the little blue pill

There Will Never Be Another Ewe…loving sheep is a lifetyle choice

Everybody Loves a Clown…but enough about politicians

Ragmop…tool of choice for many recent University graduates

If Youve Got the Money Honey…you must have a good divorce lawyer

Three Little Fishies…the 2006 catch off the Grand Banks

A White Sport Coat and a Pink Carnation…gets you a good seat during Pride Week

Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me…and maybe even leave me your name…maybe

A Town Without Pity…is pretty common.

Beep Beep, Beep Beep, The Car Went Beep Beep Beep…so I opened fire.

Smoke Gets in Your Eyes…gotta love Summer in Toronto

I’m Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter…and ask myself why I dont take my meds any more

Auto Pilot of the airwaves
Here is my request
You probably wouldn’t play it
You’re recorded like the rest
I used to listen to your shows
On the radio
When you seemed like a friend to me

Or a record of your choice
I wouldn’ t mind , I’d be happy just to hear a voice
Saying this is for the one
Who didn’t sign their name
Yes, I need a dedication just the same

Late at night I’d be listening
Didn’ t waste my time chasing sleep
People’d say I look weary
But that ’s just the company I kept
Ooooh, you made the nighttime race
Ooooh, I didn’t need to see your face
You sounded good (sounded good)
Sounded good to me

Auto Pilot of the airwaves
Here is my last plea
You don’t have to listen
But I hope you like ideas
I would listen to your shows
On the radio
If you seemed like a friend to me

Late at night I’m still listening
Don’ t waste my time chasing sleep
People say I look weary
But that ’s just the company I keep
Ooooh, its the internet, man
Ooooh, mp3s and a satellite plan
They sound so good (sound so good)
Sound so good to me
They sound so good to me

Oh, I’ll never listen to your show on the radio
I’ts the same bland crap to me

(c) Fred Waterer 2006

CRI Reporter: Well, let’s see, we have on the Presidium, Hu is President, Wat’s Prime Minister, Ai-Dun No is finance minister…

VOA Reporter: That’s what I want to find out.

CRI Reporter: I say Hu is President, Wat’s Prime Minister, Ai-Dun No is finance minister.

VOA Reporter: Are you the CRI Reporter?

CRI Reporter: Yes.

VOA Reporter: And you don’t know the fellows’ names?

CRI Reporter: Well I should.

VOA Reporter: Well then who’s President?

CRI Reporter: Yes.

VOA Reporter: I mean the fellow’s name.

CRI Reporter: Hu.

VOA Reporter: The Commander-In-Chief.

CRI Reporter: Hu.

VOA Reporter: The head of government.

CRI Reporter: Hu.

VOA Reporter: The guy running…

CRI Reporter: Hu is President!

VOA Reporter: I’m asking YOU who’s President.

CRI Reporter: That’s the man’s name.

VOA Reporter: That’s who’s name?

CRI Reporter: Yes.

VOA Reporter: Well go ahead and tell me.

CRI Reporter: That’s it.

VOA Reporter: That’s who?

CRI Reporter: Yes.

PAUSE

VOA Reporter: Look, you gotta President?

CRI Reporter: Certainly.

VOA Reporter: Who is it?

CRI Reporter: That’s right.

VOA Reporter: When you pay off the President every month, who gets the money?

CRI Reporter: Every Yuan of it.

VOA Reporter: All I’m trying to find out is the fellow’s name who’s President.

CRI Reporter: Hu.

VOA Reporter: The guy that gets…

CRI Reporter: That’s it.

VOA Reporter: Who gets the money…

CRI Reporter: He does, every Yuan. Sometimes his wife comes down and collects it.

VOA Reporter: Whose wife?

CRI Reporter: Yes.

PAUSE

CRI Reporter: What’s wrong with that?

VOA Reporter: Look, all I wanna know is when the President signs a bill, how does he sign his name?

CRI Reporter: Hu.

VOA Reporter: The guy.

CRI Reporter: Hu.

VOA Reporter: How does he sign…

CRI Reporter: That’s how he signs it.

VOA Reporter: Who?

CRI Reporter: Yes.

PAUSE

VOA Reporter: All I’m trying to find out is what’s the President’s name.

CRI Reporter: No. Wat is the Prime Minister.

VOA Reporter: I’m not asking you who’s Prime Minister.

CRI Reporter: Hu’s President..

VOA Reporter: One politician at a time!

CRI Reporter: Well, don’t change the government around (we frown on that here).

VOA Reporter: I’m not changing nobody!

CRI Reporter: Take it easy, buddy.

VOA Reporter: I’m only asking you, who’s the guy President?

CRI Reporter: That’s right.

VOA Reporter: Ok.

CRI Reporter: All right.

PAUSE

VOA Reporter: What’s the President’s name?

CRI Reporter: No. Wat is Prime Minister.

VOA Reporter: I’m not asking you who’s Prime Minister.

CRI Reporter: Hu’s President..

VOA Reporter: I don’t know.

CRI Reporter: He’s finance minister, we’re not talking about him.

VOA Reporter: Now how did I get to the finance minister?

CRI Reporter: Why you mentioned his name.

VOA Reporter: If I mentioned the finance minister’s name, who did I say it was?

CRI Reporter: No. Hu’s President.

VOA Reporter: What’s President?

CRI Reporter: Wat’s Prime Minister.

VOA Reporter: I don’t know.

CRI Reporter: He’s finance minister.

VOA Reporter: There I go, back on finance!

PAUSE

VOA Reporter: Would you just stay on finance and don’t go off it.

CRI Reporter: All right, what do you want to know?

VOA Reporter: Now who’s finance minister?

CRI Reporter: Why do you insist on saying Hu is finance minister?

VOA Reporter: What am I putting in finance?

CRI Reporter: No. Wat is Prime Minister.

VOA Reporter: You don’t want who as Prime Minister?

CRI Reporter: Hu is President.

VOA Reporter: I don’t know.

CRI Reporter & VOA Reporter: Finance!

PAUSE

VOA Reporter: Look, you gotta parliament?

CRI Reporter: Sure.

VOA Reporter: The Speakers name?

CRI Reporter: Wai.

VOA Reporter: I just thought I’d ask you.

CRI Reporter: Well, I just thought I’d tell ya.

VOA Reporter: Then tell me, who’s the Speaker?

CRI Reporter: Hu’s President.

VOA Reporter: I’m not… stay out of the cabinet! I want to know what’s the Speaker’s name?

CRI Reporter: No, Wat is Prime Minister.

VOA Reporter: I’m not asking you who’s Prime Minister.

CRI Reporter: Hu’s President!

VOA Reporter: I don’t know.

CRI Reporter & VOA Reporter Together: Finance!

PAUSE

VOA Reporter: The Speaker’s name?

CRI Reporter: Wai.

VOA Reporter: Because!

CRI Reporter: Oh, he’s oil minister

PAUSE

VOA Reporter: Look, You gotta trade minister?

CRI Reporter: Sure.

VOA Reporter: His name?

CRI Reporter: Tuh-Mah Roh.

VOA Reporter: You don’t want to tell me today?

CRI Reporter: I’m telling you now.

VOA Reporter: Then go ahead.

CRI Reporter: Tuh-Mah Roh!

VOA Reporter: What time?

CRI Reporter: What time what?

VOA Reporter: What time tomorrow are you gonna tell me who’s trade minister?

CRI Reporter: Now listen. Hu is not trade minister.

VOA Reporter: I’ll break your arm, you say Hu’s President! I want to know what’s the trade minister’s name?

CRI Reporter: Wat’s Prime Minister.

VOA Reporter: I don’t know.

CRI Reporter & VOA Reporter Together: Finance!

PAUSE

VOA Reporter: Gotta a Defense Minister?

CRI Reporter: Certainly.

VOA Reporter: The Defense Minister’s name?

CRI Reporter: Tu-Deh.

VOA Reporter: Tu-Deh, and Tu-Mah Roh’s trade minister.

CRI Reporter: Now you’ve got it.

VOA Reporter: All we got is a couple of days.

PAUSE

VOA Reporter: You know I’m a veteran journalist too.

CRI Reporter: So they tell me.

VOA Reporter: So I’m interviewing the trade minister. Tu-Mah Roh is fielding the questions but I really want to talk to the President so I talk to who?

CRI Reporter: Now that’s the first thing you’ve said right.

VOA Reporter: I don’t even know what I’m talking about!

PAUSE

CRI Reporter: That’s all you have to do.

VOA Reporter: I talk to who?

CRI Reporter: Yes!

VOA Reporter: Now who’s talking?

CRI Reporter: Naturally.

PAUSE

VOA Reporter: Look, if I interview the President, somebody’s gotta answer. Now who answers?

CRI Reporter: Naturally.

VOA Reporter: Who?

CRI Reporter: Naturally.

VOA Reporter: Naturally?

CRI Reporter: Naturally.

VOA Reporter: So I am interviewing Naturally.

CRI Reporter: No you don’t, you interview Hu.

VOA Reporter: Naturally.

CRI Reporter: That’s different.

VOA Reporter: That’s what I said.

CRI Reporter: You’re not saying it…

VOA Reporter: I talk to Naturally.

CRI Reporter: You talk to Hu.

VOA Reporter: Naturally.

CRI Reporter: That’s it.

VOA Reporter: That’s what I said!

CRI Reporter: You ask me.

VOA Reporter: I talk to who?

CRI Reporter: Naturally.

VOA Reporter: Now you ask me.

CRI Reporter: You talk to Hu?

VOA Reporter: Naturally.

CRI Reporter: That’s it.

VOA Reporter: Same as you! Same as YOU! I talk to who. Whoever it is sends me to talk to the Prime Minister. Who sends me to What. What defers to I Don’t Know. I Don’t Know sends me back to Tomorrow, Another guy sends me to Because. Why? I don’t know! He’s finance minister and I don’t give a darn!

CRI Reporter: What?

VOA Reporter: I said I don’t give a darn!

CRI Reporter: Oh, that’s our labor minister.

]]> http://www.doghousecharlie.com/hus-on-first-heard-at-the-beijing-party-congress/feed/ http://www.doghousecharlie.com/499/ http://www.doghousecharlie.com/499/#comments Wed, 17 Oct 2007 05:58:11 +0000 programming_matters Uncategorized http://www.doghousecharlie.com/499/ http://www.doghousecharlie.com/499/feed/ http://www.doghousecharlie.com/three-stooges-radio-mayhem/ http://www.doghousecharlie.com/three-stooges-radio-mayhem/#comments Fri, 28 Sep 2007 10:39:23 +0000 programming_matters Uncategorized http://www.doghousecharlie.com/three-stooges-radio-mayhem/ The Three Stooges meet Radio in Micro-Phonies (1945)

“Quiet, numbskulls, I’m broadcasting” - Moe Howard

Check out his comments about radio, they were years ahead of their time.

Hat tip to Russ Horton for putting me on to this one.

How does someone, an anglophone from central Canada become a Russophile?

Why am I so fascinated with all things Russian?

Perhaps its genetic.

All my life I’ve been interested in Russia, its culture, politics, language…everything. It kept intruding into my consciousness…the Cold War (one of my earliest memories is trying to understand why my baby sitter seemed upset during, what I now realize was, the Cuban Missile Crisis). As I got older I was captivated by things like the space race, mutually assured destruction, Soviet hockey, the Iron Curtain.

I was a vorascious reader. History books, politics, current affairs, the sixties and seventies were dominated by “us” vs “them”. I read about the Prague Spring, Detente, Summitry. There was curiosity. Why do they hate us? Will things ever change? I read accounts of the gulags, dissidents, and other commentaries.

When I was 9 or 10, my dad gave me some coins and banknotes he had had for years. (More on those later). I was fascinated by the strange, indecipherable writing on them. This I learned was Cyrillic…Russian. I was impressed my dad knew what it meant. I longed to be able to decipher them myself.

Why do I think this interest is genetic? So many times since the 1850s, my family has encountered Russia on many levels. Russia and Russians keep intruding on me and my family, for the most part not in a bad way. Here are a few little stories about Waterers, Scotts, and Russia, and how they all became intertwined.

Aunt Helen

My great grandfather’s sister Helen is my first connection to Russia, at least she was.

A few years ago I discovered an earlier connection, a Charles Waterer, killed in action in the Crimean War (against Russia), during the Charge of the Light Brigade. I have no idea if this fellow was a direct ancestor or someone clinging onto a distant branch of the family tree.

Depending on one’s view of such things, he died a martyr’s death in a heroic cavalry charge. Or his life was wasted by blindly following an idiot commander. Take your pick. I’m surprisingly indifferent.

However, it does make me read about, or watch films about The Charge of the Light Brigade, or re-read Tolstoy, with a whole new level of interest. Perhaps…a (possible) ancestor, faced Leo Tolstoy, on the opposite side of a Crimean battlefield.

Or not. Anyway, back to Aunt Helen.

What I know is this. The Waterers, before we began slumming it over here in the colonies, were quite well connected. The home where my great grandfather and grandfather were born, backs onto property owned by the son of Queen Victoria, the Duke of Connaught (later Governor-General of Canada). Family legend states that my great grandfathers wife was a scullery maid, or at least a servant of some description, who he married for love rather than station. The family took a dim view and sent old Alphie over to Canada. I am here as a result. (Now you know who to praise/blame).

Somehow while circulating in these upper class circles, Aunt Helen met, was courted by, and married a “Russian Count”. Who was he? Who knows. The story is known to a number of branches of the family, but details are scant. As far as anyone knows, they married and moved to Russia.

Helen would have been 47 in 1917. I often wonder what became of her. Did she escape the revolution and its reprisals against the aristocracy? Did she die of acute lead poisoning before a firing squad? Was she even in Russia at the time? Are her descendants still in Russia? I may never know. Perhaps no one does.

Neighbours in Saskatchewan

Alphonso Waterer (yes, Alphonso) and 3 of his sons (and later a 4th son and daughter) ended up in Saskatchewan, homesteading. They are in the 1906 census…so obviously they settled sometime before that. From what I’ve heard and read, of the entire family, only one was homesteading material, Alphonso’s son Fred, who I am named after. He bought out the others, and owned the land until 1944.

My grandfather Bert, became a railroad engineer, working his way up from oiler to driving the big transcontinental steam trains. He and his wife Tillie, had 6 children, 4 of whom survived childbirth, including my father, Charles (Charlie) Waterer.

Although they lived in the city (Saskatoon) these were still the days before indoor plumbing and 3-ply bathroom tissue. They had a “one-holer” out in the backyard, and a nail on the wall held pieces of newspaper for cleaning up afterwards.

One day perhaps in the late 20s or early 30s, my father was, umm, using the privy. As he sat he looked at one of the scraps of newspaper, and was startled by an image on it. The photograph was of a Tsarist general during the Russian Revolution. Military bearing. Rows of medals.

But.

The man looked remarkably like his neighbour!

My dad, showed the photograph to his father. The two of them went next door, their neighbours were working in the backyard garden. My grandfather showed them the photograph. The gentleman turned white as a ghost. The wife threw her apron over her head and went in the house wailing.

It turned out that the neighbour was in fact the gentleman in the photograph. Having been on the wrong side of the Revolution, he had fled Russia, where he would have been executed by the communists. he had started a new life under an assumed name in Canada. Obviously to be identified like that was traumatic.

Hearing the story, my grandfather took the newspaper, lit a match and burned it. He then turned to my father and said “Charlie, you must never ever speak of this again, or tell anyone who Mr._____ is.”

And my dad, and his family kept that story within the family for seven decades.

These neighbours, and my dad’s family, became close. They taught my dad some Russian. The finer points of Russian cuisine. Songs of Russia. And some Russian history.

And they gave my dad some of the Russian coins and banknotes I referenced above. Not to mention a fascinating story.

Making His Way Thru the Thirties

Dad, almost from infancy, had a talent for music. My cousins still have an old coffee can, which my dad banged on with a wooden spoon almost before he could walk. His first musical instrument.

He learned a number of instruments, playing them all by ear. He could play guitar, mandolin, harmonica, some drums and the bass. For all I know there were others too. He played every opportunity that came his way. I have a scrapbook full of clippings, of appearances on the radio, talent contests (at which he often won some sort of prize), and he would pretty much play for anyone that offered him money to play for them (and often those who didn’t).

He played for the conservative Premier of Saskatchewan. He played for bootleggers. He played for church groups. And he played for “Ukrainian Cultural groups” and other clubs, affiliated with the Communist Party. In the 1930s there was not quite the stigma associated with communism that would later develop. And his participation was far from ideological, in fact it was downright capitalist.

About the same time my dad was eking out a living in the Depression with his talent, here in Ontario, my mother’s uncle was manning the barricades of anti-communism.

Uncle Larry, had been an ambulance driver in World War One, a brave man adored by his comrades, and a man who was scarred for life during a gas attack. In the 1930s, he had a cottage on Lake Erie. My mother and her brothers would spend summers there, by all accounts they were quite idyllic.

One summer a Communist Youth camp of some sort sprang up on the adjoining property. They started the day by running a Red Flag up the flagpole, and singing the Internationale and other communist songs. Uncle Larry put up with this for a day or two.

Being a true son of the Empire, having fought for King and Country, he erected his own flagpole. When the communist youth would start their morning ritual, Uncle Larry would trot out his neices and nephews and whatever other kids were around, raise the Union Jack, and try to outdo his “rivals” with a loud, rousing version of God Save the King.

Summer 1939

My dad visited St Catharines for a holiday, and never went back. He got a job in a factory, paying the astoundingly huge sum of 29 cents an hour. This was good money and he didn’t dare go home and face his parents after turning such an opportunity down.

That fall, of course, the war broke out. Dad was turned down for service for health reasons, however he was kept busy, becoming a St John’s Ambulance trainee and instructor. And during the war, the factory wher he worked was converted to war work. They made gun carriages, most of which went to…yes you guessed it…Russia.

Uncle Jock

We now move into the 1950s and 1960s. Dad was at the plant for 25 years. Then one day, a big shot from head office in Britain came into the plant to tell the workers there was no truth to the rumours the plant would close. This was 6 weeks before the plant did close. Dad would be out of regular work for almost 3 years, fortunately, I was young enough that I was blissfully ignorant that we were “poor”. In some ways, I think I was the richest kid on the block. But that’s another story.

From an early age I was taught the value of saving. And one of my favourite things to do was go see “Uncle Jock” at the credit union. He was Jock Gray, a scotsman, at that time approaching retirement. Fascinating man. He was a good friend of Dad’s, and took an interest in me.

Jock Gray in an earlier age had been a Navy man…serving in the King’s Navy in World War One and after. Following the war, his ship was sent to Murmansk, Russia, to support the anti-Bolshevik forces in the Russian Civil War. I was too young to appreciate any stories he may have shared, but he did give me some more of those neat Russian coins, which continued to intrigue me.

The 1970s

High School beckoned. I was still reading…or trying to read…books about history, politics…my status as a history geek was already becoming established (trying to read, often these books were above my learning level). I became good friends with my classmate Mark, who had a Mennonite background, partially in Russia. In Grade 10, we found out that a conversational course was being offered at the Collegiate in Russian. We were both intrigued, and decided to take the class.

That first year, there were about 12-15 students, I believe it was a 10 week course (maybe it was 20). I learned the Cyrillic alphabet, and some very basic vocabulary.

The teacher was a lovely woman, Mrs Goncharow. She had recieved a degree fairly late in life from Brock University, and loved teaching both Russian and Spanish. Her classes were special, and over the next few years increased in membership. The same core group stuck with it for four years, and expanded in numbers. The last two years it became a credit course, so my high school transcript lists Grade 12 and 13 credits in Russian. It was a wonderful experience. While I wasn’t fluent I had a basic working knowledge of Russian.
(more to follow)

`If it’s lively music they want, I’m the guy,’ says world-renowned Grammy winner Walter Ostanek

Aug 09, 2007 04:30 AM
Greg Quill
ENTERTAINMENT COLUMNIST

NIAGARA-ON-THE-LAKE–Walter Ostanek is never late.

In 24 years, the 72-year-old triple Grammy winner, Canada’s beloved Polka King and the pride of St. Catharines, has only missed two shows at his perennial summer gig at Marineland in nearby Niagara Falls. Both times he was too sick to play, he says.

He has a thing about punctuality.

As if to prove it, Ostanek beat me to our appointed meeting place, a local Tim Hortons, by at least 15 minutes – time enough to be recognized by local fans and to be well engaged in animated conversation about his not insubstantial musical legacy.

“I’ve known this guy for 20 years,” says the affable, silver-haired champion accordionist, master of the Cleveland-Slovenian style of polka music, inductee in both Chicago and Cleveland Polka Halls Of Fame, 20-time Grammy nominee, and member of the Order of Canada. He waves a beefy hand at the man sitting opposite him, a local cop.

“He used to work security at Marineland when he was just a kid,” says Ostanek, who’s wearing a muted green-patterned Hawaiian silk shirt and sporting a tan that attests to his six-shows a day outdoors at the aquatic theme park 20 kilometres up the Niagara River.

There are few places Walter Ostanek can go in this neck of the woods without attracting attention. A local hero since the early 1950s, when he emerged as a virtuoso piano accordionist at the tender age of 13. Performing at local fairs and dances, on local radio as the leader of his own country-polka ensemble and, later, as a featured member of Abbie Andrews’ Canadian Ranch Boys, Ostanek and his music are deeply entrenched in this community’s cultural life.

Over the past 35 years, particularly with all those Grammy nods, Ostanek has become a national musical icon, as well, starring in his own shows on radio in Welland, St. Catharines, Hamilton and Kitchener-Waterloo for a couple of decades, recording more than 20 albums and performing across Canada, the U.S. and in Europe.

His musical skills have made him a star among his mentors and peers in the polka universe, as well as among rock, pop and country music artists, including American legends Roy Clark, Ronnie Milsap, Ray Price, Tom T. Hall, The Oakridge Boys and Toronto rockers Sloan, with whom he’ll be sharing the stage at the Rocktoberfest rock-and-polka Haus Party in Kitchener this fall – Ostanek’s 29th annual star turn at the city’s venerable Oktoberfest celebrations.

Ostanek is one of the featured musical guests at the CNE this month, performing in the Toronto Star Bandshell Aug. 23 as part of a 1970s flashback series. How St. Catharines became Canada’s polka hot spot was a matter of coincidence, Ostanek says.

“We moved here when I was 5, from Duparquet, Que. We were poor. My father worked in the gold mines and, when they shut down, he brought me and my mother to St. Catharines looking for work. He became a cabinetmaker and we settled on a farm in Thorold. And this is where I stayed.”

Except perhaps for the yearnings of a few immigrant German vineyard owners, the Niagara region wasn’t exactly pining for traditional Yugoslavian polka music back then. The fact that it is now so familiar to local ears is entirely due to Ostanek, who became fascinated with its good-time rhythms and feisty melodies when, as a 3-year-old, he saw his first diatonic button accordion – the concertina-like pre-descendant of the more elegant and complex keyed instrument that has made him an international star.

“My mother and father didn’t play, but music was in my mother’s side of the family,” he explains. “In Quebec, we had one big party every year. It lasted all weekend. No one slept. And always, day and night, someone was playing a button accordion. I was hooked.”

A few years later, his entreaties were rewarded when his father brought home a $75 instrument and arranged for a friend to give Walter some rudimentary lessons.

In the post-World War II years, “polka music was dynamite,” Ostanek says.

Smitten, the young Ostanek travelled with his father to Cleveland, “the immigrant home base in America, and the heart of polka country,” to see his hero, Frankie Yankovic, the American polka master and chief protagonist of the Cleveland style.

Unlike the Polish Chicago style, which features sax, trumpet and clarinet as lead instruments and accordion in the back, the Slovenian Cleveland polka bands are smaller, with banjo, bass and drums, maybe sax, and the accordion right up front, Ostanek says.

“That was my kind of music, with a few wrinkles of my own – some country inflections, and old-time dance beats.”

By the late 1960s, Ostanek was a genuine polka phenomenon in Canada.

These days, after four heart bypass operations, he is taking things a little easier.

“After 35 years on the road, I’m happy with what I’ve done. I’ve done all the TV and radio I could do, they gave me three Grammys, I’ve played the Grand Ole Opry – the real one at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville – and I’ve seen some wonderful parts of the world. I want to smell the roses.”

But when the CNE called, Ostanek jumped.

“If it’s lively music they want, I’m the guy.”

http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/article/244075