With my experience in technical side the radio industry, there’s a subtle excitement that you get from setting up, rewiring, or moving studios around. And quite honestly, there are a lot of details to have in place before going live in a new control room for the first time.

This video was that moment for The Beat 94.5 when the mic went hot from its new studio and over the air.

Project’s not done yet, but getting to this point is certainly a relief.

As hoped, I got to head to Punta Cana with the radio day job as a sequel to the very short trip that Rebecca and I had there in July of this year. This one was for a week, and it wasn’t as much relaxation as I had hoped but still provided some great, warm weather and tropical sun.

I just got through all of my photos this past weekend, so here’s a small collection of my favorites from the trip.

You can see the whole set of photos on Flickr.

I never like to pass us an opportunity to see some carnage and destruction, preferably that of the controlled type, but this was a chance that doesn’t come along too often.

In my near 15 years of being involved in the radio industry both in the U.S. and Canada, I have never seen a transmitter site have its towers knocked down first hand. Using my Nikon D90 and a cheap tripod, I thought I’d use the opportunity to take some video such opportunity.

To give a bit of back story, this is the now former home of CKST (TEAM 1040AM). Built in the early 80′s, the five tower site has been replaced with a completely new site, not far from this location. This site was slated for eventual demolition, but recent site inspections discovered some structural problems on the base of two towers that the need to bring them down became extremely urgent. In fact, this information was discovered late last week, and this past Monday’s appointment with experts in knocking down towers like this was bumped up.

As you’ll see in the video below, my video techniques are a little rough, but the sound of each, 240 foot tower hitting the ground was impressive. By the time I captured the third tower coming down, I figured out that static shots of each collapse worked much better on my cheap tripod, hence that annoying crunching sound of sorts. Live and learn.

And some photos of the aftermath.

The best part of this whole day was being able to hop back in the truck and drive away because I didn’t have to help clean it up, not that I’m against the manual labor. There’s a lot of twisted metal, glass, ceramic, and other pieces to deal with. There are experts to handle that part, too.

As apart of the day job, I had the opportunity to shoot some photos at the red carpet event for the 2009 Juno Awards last weekend. Some of Canada’s best known musicians and performers came through to talk to members of The Beat morning show, so I did my best to shoot through the thick crowd of fellow media members, such as other photographers, producers, TV cameras, etc.

Here’s a few of my favorite shots.

Elise Estrada

Sam Roberts

MuchMusic VJ, Leah Miller and Dallas Green of City and Colour

Mike Reno of Loverboy

Elvis Costello and Diana Krall

Sarah McLachlan

You can see all of the photos from that night on Flickr, and I’m fairly impressed with how some turned out compared to others. All of these were shot with my Canon S5IS, and I took some time after this to learn more about my camera in anticipation of having more opportunities like this. You never know what type of situation you’ll be in when you get to shoot events like this, and it really made me feel like a newbie standing there.

People have asked me a few times as to what I thought about the whole experience, and to be completely honest, it was just another day on the job. However, when Elvis Costello walked up with his stunning wife, Diana Krall, I did have a brief moment of where I couldn’t believe how close I was standing to a man of great talent, if not a lasting impression on rock and roll history. That would have to be my highlight of the Junos.

I have never been close enough to the Stanley Cup to really even see it prior to today. The one day I go to work without my camera, it decides to roll through the front door at work and pay the place a visit. In a mad scramble, I was able to snag a pic with it via cellphone, not to mention the opportunity to touch it as well as take a good look at it.

The one thing that struck me was how scratched it is. That’s not surprising, and I think it’s a lot like seeing people on TV and them not looking the same as they are in real life. It’s been through a lot, not to mention that its century old lifespan lends to have a little bit of wear and tear to it.

The cup was in town tonight for the Vancouver Giants home game where they honored legends of the NHL. The Giants even dawned the jerseys of the last team to win the Stanley Cup in this city, the Vancouver Millionaires[wiki] in 1915.

Back then, all you had to do was be a proven team and issue a challenge to the reigning holders of the title. A far cry from the 82 game regular season and playoffs consisting of four rounds, best of seven series. This point was only driven further into my head when I got home tonight to turn on “Hockey: A People’s History“[wiki] on television. A must see for any hockey fan.

Alas, one day, Vancouver’s name shall appear on this cup once more as champions.

Zanstorm posted about this on Waiting for Stanley some time back when he saw me in the background during the Nashville game, and he asked if I knew I was on TV. I honestly didn’t know if I made it on the TV, but it didn’t surprise me. We’re all down there doing our sports coverage thing.

It was when I got an email from faithful TCC listener GZ Expat that it was kind of fun to acknowledge that yes, that’s me in the background… the really short guy with Brad Isbister, #27. That guy is huge.

If you’re wondering why it’s been so long since I’ve posted, this is apart of that. It’s been quite the month with my day job. After Northern Voice, the pace has gone nonstop, even if we did make a weekend for ourselves on Salt Spring Island. The toughest part is coming home and wanting to do much of anything except relax.

I hope to do more soon, but the season isn’t over for the Canucks just yet (which could be an entire other post for another time). One more regular season game, then, I hope, things will slow down. Hope is the key word there.