Corby's Orbit

Corby's Orbit
Listening in All the High Places illustration by John Kricfalusi

Saturday, January 29, 2011

I Was the News Today - Oh boy...


CKLN host Paul Corby breaks the news to his audience that CKLN's license has been revoked.
PHOTO BY: KEVIN MISENER/680NEWS

CRTC revokes licence of community radio station
Kevin Misener and The Canadian Press Jan 28, 2011 15:07:23 PM

TORONTO, Ont. - Canada's broadcast regulator is pulling the plug on a Toronto radio station.

The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission announced it revoked the licence of the community-based station, CKLN-FM.

The CRTC said the station breached numerous regulations and condition of its licence.
It also said it began investigating the radio station July 2009 after receiving numerous complaints about its governance structure, day-to-day management and operations, programming and ability to remain on air.

The CRTC said "significant infighting" plagued the station and the building manager on campus eventually locked out staff and management for a period of seven months, during which intermittent loops of programming went over the airwaves.
Listeners to Paul Corby's show on CKLN, "Corby's Orbit" were the first to hear the news as he explained the station's license was being pulled as of February 12.

In between playing songs, Corby told 680News the volunteer board was fixing CKLN's financial and management problems.

"I thought we presented a pretty good case to the CRTC to keep us going with maybe some sort of a warning but they've taken a rather strong step. I think it's unwarranted." said Corby

Independent musician Mike Evin was in the studio, Friday, for an interview and told 680News he was shocked the station could soon go silent.

"Community radio is such a big part of a lot of peoples lives. For that to be taken away from them is just a big shame." said Evin.

The station, which runs operates out of Ryerson University, could not maintain a significant quality-control mechanism once regular broadcasting resumed, the CRTC ruled, and cited limited involvement from Ryerson's student body.

The station management was not able to comply with licence requirements, including submission of on-air tapes, program logs and complete annual returns.

While the decision passed by majority vote, one CRTC commissioner, Louise Poirier, "firmly opposed" revoking CKLN's licence and said intermediate steps should have been taken before taking the station off the air.

She said the decision is "unwarranted and inequitable" and creates a precedent regarding how to deal with stations that are non-compliant.

Friday, January 28, 2011

Escapades with Sidewalk Friends on the Milky Way Esplanade

This Friday we greet the music of

Jessica Stuart and Nick Teehan, soon to be united on:

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 3rd @ SUPERMARKET, when
Nick Teehan & The Jessica Stuart Few celebrate the premiere of “Kid Dream”
268 Augusta Ave., Kensington Market
9 pm show
$8 advance, $10 at the door
416-840-0501 / www.supermarkettoronto.com
Advance tickets: Available Jan 15 @ Soundscapes (572 College St.),
Rotate This (801 Queen St. W.) + Circus Books & Music (866 Danforth Ave.)
Then, at 12-ish Twilight Hotel will radio in a report of their on-going tour of duty supporting When The Wolves Go Blind at the DAKOTA Saturday night.


Fine fun then from Mike Evin
his new disk DO YOU FEEL THE WORLD will be a-poppin' at the Mike Evin CD release, with guests The Pinecones
WHEN: Tuesday, February 1st, 2011, 9 pm
WHERE: The Supermarket, 268 Augusta, Toronto, ON
ALSO: Coxsone Dodd Birthday selection by Greg Lawson (see 2 posts below).
Listen up.

Wednesday, January 19, 2011

Coxsone Dodd Candle Party

   On January 28th, at 1:00, Greg Lawson will intersect with the Orbit for a special birthday tribute to the late Sir Clement ' Coxsone ' Dodd, who revolutionized not only Jamaican reggae music, but, consequentially, all of the world's music.
    A jazz fan, Dodd originally was a DJ who operated one of Kingston's first popular sound systems, Coxsone Downbeat. He began recordingR&B-styled material by homegrown talent in 1959, and worked with virtually every significant Jamaican performer of the '60s and '70s.
Working with future producer Lee Perry, Dodd began documenting the pre-reggae ska sound on his Studio One label in 1963. In the early '60s, the Skatalites, ska's most important instrumental group, was his house band. Singers Delroy Wilson, Ken Boothe and Owen Gray and keyboardist Jackie Mittoo were the most influential performers in Dodd's stable.
Dodd's major early discovery was the Wailers. The trio of Bob Marley, Peter Tosh and Bunny Livingston recorded such early "rude boy" ska hits as "Simmer Down" at the producer's Brentford Road studio.
As ska evolved into rocksteady, Dodd recorded major dance hits by Alton Ellis, Slim Smith, Marcia Griffiths and vocal trio the Heptones. As the roots reggae sound developed in the late '60s and early '70s, these artists were joined at Studio One by Horace Andy, Dennis Brown, Burning Spear, John Holt and the Wailing Souls.
During the '70s and '80s, Dodd released his studio's spare rhythm tracks in a series of instrumental albums that helped define Jamaican dub. He also cut early dancehall reggae hits by Willie Williams, the Lone Ranger and Michigan & Smiley.
In the mid-'80s, Dodd moved to Brooklyn, N.Y., where he ran a record store, Coxsone's Music City. His classic Studio One recordings were extensively reissued by Rounder's reggae imprint Heartbeat Records. --By Chris Morris 

Be There or Cut Yr Hair!

Johnny Osbourne's cover of The Heptones' "Pretty Looks Isn't All"

Saturday, January 15, 2011

Hey! It's Snowin' AGAIN!


Illuminations from Bill Newsinger on Vimeo.

Vortex of Blues

Paul James at 60
Film by Phil Weir, at 60, also.
The show kicked off with a massive turntable crash that pre-empted a broadcast of special guest Paul James' first 45RPM recording and a 1982 12-inch of "Stand By Me" that he made with Willy DeVille. Great anecdotes and attitudes flowed from a Toronto blues legend, and an appreciation of a great 4-decades-+ career seen from the perspective of  Paul's 60th birthday TO! DAY! See party evidence of Paul in action above..!
Brian Blain dropped by with his about-to-drop cd, New Folk Blues, which he made at the end of 2010 with big bass boss George Koller. He previewed a couple of lean soulful tracks from the disk, including a tribute to Lenny Breau, and played one live selection on his road-scarred Epiphone. He also echoed Paul James' assertions that the blues revival began with the Beatles on tv, and that one must constantly and by all means hold on tightly to one's Stratocasters.
Then the blues birds of happiness flocked into the Orbital flightpath with Treasa Levasseur, Monkey Junk's harp wielder Steve Marriner and Sirius DJ Bill Wax, king of American blues broadcasters.
Respect for the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s upcoming birthday celebration gave the whole show a warm gospel undertow, and the landing pad will be the Toronto Blues Summit weekend, now in full swing.