There's so much to update over the past little while, where do I start? Let's start with culture shock. There's so much about Canada that strikes me as slightly odd. One of my most nagging annoyances is radio in Canada. In the UK, I fed myself a diet of essentially half Radio 4 and half Radio 1. I would occasionally pick up one of the private London radio stations. It was a healthy balance of education, pop, humour and news.
In Canada, if you're not listening to some gardening show on CBC, you're probably listening to classic rock. If not classic rock, then it's likely pop rock that sounds suspiciously like classic rock. Our English friends once teased that the pop station in Calgary should be called Nickleback FM. It's just as bad here in Vancouver. Stations that declare themselves "all hits" and "top 40" still manage to include random Guns n' Roses, Nickleback, Metallica and Bryan Adams songs thinly disguised as 'retro'. It's really no wonder there are so many people running around with jeans, trainers, leather jackets and Ford Mustangs here.
Still, I can hear you say: "Ben you can avoid the radio (and consequent Foreigner and Aerosmith ballads) by bringing along your own music for the ride." This has always been my plan. Once we get settled, I fully intend to live off BBC podcasts. However, I currently lack the time, resources and MP3 player necessary. So, for my epic 12 hour drive from Calgary to Vancouver in a 26-foot moving van with a top speed of 60 mph, I came armed with many, many CDs.
When I had booked the truck (lorry?) online, I specifically noted that the 17-foot truck had a CD player. However, once I realised how much stuff we actually had, I phoned in to upgrade the truck to the bigger one. Somehow the bigger truck had fewer amenities. Actually, just one fewer. No CD player. AM/FM radio. On realising this, my shock and disappointment made me weak at the knees. Was this trip possible with the worst of regional radio as my only companion?
Let me assure you that it was bad. If I thought Calgary and Vancouver pop stations were agonisingly rock and roll, I was simply not prepared for what was on offer from Golden, Revelstoke and Salmon Arm. To be fair, I spent most of my time simply scanning for a station--any station--that I could get a signal on. There were several hours where I had no radio whatsoever. When I did, it was often country and western. However, the overriding station format of choice for rural BC seems to be rock. Often soft rock. Occasionally light rock. Invariably some classic rock. One station even proudly proclaimed that the entire city of Kamloops, "Rocked."
At first I smiled. It's been a very long time since I've heard the George Thorogood classic, 1 Bourbon, 1 Scotch, 1 Beer. Who'd have thought that I would have heard it twice in the first three hours? Aerosmith wailed Love in an Elevator twice before Revelstoke and three times by Hope. Billy Joel was a welcome relief, if only because his songs are often mercifully free of guitar solos. Still, once I heard She's Always a Women to me four times, it occurred to me that no matter how many light or soft or classic rock stations I came across, the same artists and songs were on replay. And unlike Radio 1's repeat-list of current hits, many of these songs had possibly been on a 3 hour repeat for more than 30 years.
So, with little to do other than keep track of which song was going to win the Sunday, 23 October rock-off, I tallied. I know you're dying with anticipation to know who came out on top. So, without dragging my long day out any further, let me announce the winners.
In the category of Song-most-played-on-regional-Canadian-radio-23-October-2008, the runner up was a draw between the aforementioned Billy Joel, She's Always a Women and Alanis Morisette's You Oughta Know. The winner was a run-away: Bryan Adams' 1983 (!) ballad One Night Love Affair.
In fact, on the basis of One Night Love Affair airing an incredible seven times, two renditions of Straight from the Heart, two re-runs of It's Only Love (which, if you give an equal vote to Tina Turner meant she notched four songs on the day) and one Summer of 69, there wasn't another artist or band who even came close to competing with Bryan Adam's pre-1985 repetoire currently airing regularly on regional Canadian radio.
It is as astounding as the mountains I drove through.
