Troix Ans en Alaska!

Alaska Public Radio suits me pretty well. They've got all kinds of interesting shows on there including the news, of course, and programs like Fresh Air, music shows like Afropop Worldwide and Echoes, and they even let me come down to the studio every once in a while and spout off about something on Outdoor Explorer.

But lately, Alaska Public Radio has started airing a Canadian news show called "As It Happens". The show focuses on news from Canadia that nobody cares about.  They will do a 20 minute interview with a woman from Winnipeg with too many cats, and sandwich it between a 10-minute segment about a coal mine in northern Ontario that's ignoring provincial environmental laws and a 15-minute segment about a change in residential zoning in a little town in Saskatchewan. These are issues that few (if any) people in Canadia care about.  And contrary to what many folks believe, Alaska is not part of Canadia.

When D hears "As It Happens" on the radio she says, "Nobody cares about this Canadian news here in Alaska."
D says, "Canadian news is to normal news what Christian rock is to normal music."

When I'm home or driving my car on the mean streets of Anchorage, I want to hear stuff that's interesting.  I want to hear about Alaska news. Or American news. Or world news.  I don't want to hear about Canadia.  If I wanted to know about Canadia, I'd go there myself.

But sometimes I do want to know what's going on in Canadia.  And when I want to hear about Canadia, I tune into my favorite Canadian public radio station, CBC Bas-Saint-Laurent.  For example, just the other day I was listening to CBC Bas-Saint-Laurent on my shortwave world-band radio when I heard a familiar voice comparing the Chic-Choc mountains of the Gaspé to the Chugach Range, rambling on about skiing at Powerline Pass with the UAA Ski Team in September, and discussing his love of fishing under the midsummer midnight sun. Who could it be, talking about these things so close to my own heart?  It could only be our very own Étienne Richard, Prince of All Media, on the radio yet again. I bet you're sorry you missed it!

But you're in luck. Because of the magic of the interweb, you can still catch Étienne's interview here. You're going to want to scroll to around 16:45 in Richard Daigle's radio show to be entranced by Étienne's silky smooth radio voice. This preseason report from Etienne has become a regular thing in the maritime provinces - an event that all Gaspésiens anticipate with great excitement and joy. Happy listening!