The last few months have been action packed at work.  In a very short window of time, we managed to plan a succesful concert for artist Kanwar Grewal.  Ticket sale restrictions imposed upon us from the original venue forced us to quickly search out another. Luckily a new venue in the NE of Calgary opened up and had space on the same date so we were able to grab it. (Serious stroke of luck!)  This was the first time that I’ve hired and worked with this particular sounds & lights crew and security company.  I was a little on edge leading up to the show because the only way it was going to fly was if the people I hired all delivered as promised!  After the regular stresses of set up, sound checks and such, we managed to open doors and start the show ALMOST on time!  The show turned out to be really tight from a technical perspective and the audience seemed more than delighted.

Now for the most important part, my family!  Adderley is now beginning to say more and more words as the days go by.  Coltrane’s ability to speak is simply mind blowing.  Both of my boys are growing up so fast.  Amber is a rock star too.  She seems to be enjoying her work place, she is so good to the boys and somehow manages to cook these amazing meals everyday.  I am a lucky man :)

Alberta is an amazing province and the beginning of September brought snow.  I am just grateful that Amber didn’t pack her bags and go back to BC!  We saw lots of visitors this summer from BC as it seems we are the perfect resting spot for drivers traveling to Manitoba and back.  We have been lucky enough to meet some amazing friends in Airdrie and Calgary so life is beginning to feel normal again.  Adderley turned exactly 18 months yesterday and he turning into such a little boy.  Coltrane has a few play friends now (who happen to have cool parents) so he is socializing well in the new neighborhood.

Per usual, work has been extremely busy.  I am currently sitting in a studio with the winner of our RED FM Multicultural IDOL, Korean winner getting his track produced.  I am working out the details of our first “radiothon” at RED FM Calgary on November 6th.  We have managed to find two candidate organizations that deserve the support of the community.  We have launched 3 new language shows over the last month, which require a lot of training and production help.  We are also promoting a concert for Kanwar Grewal on October 25th at the EPCOR Centre.  This is the first time that I have worked with the EPCOR group and it is really nice to work with a team that is so professional.  Diwali, Halloween, Bumper stickers, Thanks Giving, Christmas and more, the promotions seem to never stop materializing!  I am a multitasking maniac!

We are going back to BC for Christmas this year and totally looking forward to the break!  Life is busy, but good :)

It is only late August, yet we are experiencing temperatures significantly colder than August should be!  We went from the mid 30’s (which is brutal in a suit) to just 10 degrees today. What gives Alberta?

Upon returning to work in mid-July, I have coordinated 2 concerts and 2 walk & runs.  Work has been so busy; I have barely taken a lunch break over the last month.  When it is brutally hot outside and your office is air conditioned, missing lunch doesn’t actually feel so bad.  The concerts both went very well from all perspectives, now I am spending my days trying to ensure that our CRTC commitments to the artists are fulfilled.

We have now been residents of Alberta for 3 months and the warm weather is officially here!  Airdrie is quite a nice city to live in although we only have a limited amount of time to really enjoy things as I work in Calgary.

The boys seem to be adjusting to our new house very well.  Coltrane completed his short soccer season and actually appeared to understand a little bit about the game by the end.  We finally cut Adderley’s baby hair and he now looks like confident little boy when stomping around at the park.  I have a sneaky suspicion that this weather is not going to last much past September, I grew up in Winnipeg so I’m no fool!  

The family just returned from a road trip back to BC.  The boys managed to survive the two-day drive thanks to lots of toys, the DVD player in the car and regular stops for treats.  Cole and Lee spent a lot of time with both sets of grandparents.  Cole discovered the BMX Park behind his Baba’s house, which he instantly fell in love with.  Adderley road his first horse solo at the tender age of 15 months, kinda!

It will take time to feel at home outside of BC and we were sad to finally leave.

Work has been as busy as usually, so taking a week off to visit family was challenging from that perspective.  As of late, I have another live show to orchestrate this Saturday and I have been attending many work related functions.  It is challenging to attend events when you have a family at home but we managed to keep it balanced.  The staff at RED FM is great, it has been a pleasure to work with a new “crop” of talent.  We will likely have a staff party in Penticton this year in the end of August, more on that in the next post!

Things are great and when my new car shows up in 2 weeks, they will be even better ;)

After months of waiting, we are now in our new home in Airdrie and I have “officially” started my new job at RED FM Calgary.  BC was particularly lush and green this spring so setting up the family in a region that was still experiencing snowfall was tough psychologically!

The boys have adjusted well; our new place has lots of areas to play.  Coltrane doesn’t realize that he is living too far away from his grandparents to visit every week, which is sad.  We have Coltrane enrolled in soccer, we hope he will find a friend or two to hang out with.  Amber and I are busy trying to network with some of the other parents in the area.  Getting to know other like-minded parents with children the same age is challenging!

My workload at RED FM has been massive from the moment I walked through the door.  I have about 10 projects on the go, some continuing from RED FM Vancouver.  We just participated in the Calgary Vaisakhi Celebration, which once again was a lot of work.  This particular Vaisakhi was the 19th event that I have attended and worked at.  Up next, we have RED FM IDOL Vancouver, Calgary and the RED FM RUN Vancouver and Calgary. 

I am spending a lot of my time just trying to familiarize myself with the staff, learn everyone’s duties, strengths, habits, loyalties and the like. 

One of my primary duties is program directing all of the independently produced shows at RED FM; these are essentially the non South-Asian shows.  Just trying to make sense of all of the details at the moment, there are a lot of different groups doing a lot of different things, thus the need for organization is obvious.

Exactly 10 days before moving to Alberta our car was hit and written off it when it was parked on the side of the road.  I am now car shopping, not something I had in the plans upon moving to Alberta!

All said, life is good and we look forward to the coming
warm weather!

Happy 46th wedding anniversary mom and dad!  I remember celebrating their 25th at a small banquet hall in Winnipeg.  I was emcee and many family and friends took time to speak about their experiences with my parents.  Has it been 21 years? 

The house is back on the market and so far the lookers are materializing!  Hopefully, this go around, we will find a buyer and the next chapter in my career can begin. 

I have had ample time to work on a social media protocol for both stations, which has been quite refreshing.  House keeping was in order, figuring out what we had and who was involved.  I feel that all systems are now streamlined and adhere to safe practices.  It’s pretty crazy how quickly social media can get out of control when you have about 20 people on staff who are motivated to get in involved but no one to steer the ship.  I have developed what I refer to as a “Social Media Producer” position, not dissimilar to the role of a standard broadcast commercial producers only utilizing social media, video, images and graphic design as the medium.  I think that this is really the answer for our growing company at the moment and in the future.  Upon moving to Calgary, I hope to hand over the keys to this new position to one person who can take on the challenge.

Coltrane and Adderley are growing up too quickly.  In the last month, Adderley has learned to crawl and can now stand when holding on to something.  Coltrane is a boy and “baby Coltrane” will forever be a memory at this point.  I freaking love those guys.

Spent this entire week attending CRTC hearings in Surrey.  It was awesome witnessing many of the local broadcasting “players” in action.  The CRTC staff was fantastic, never missing a detail.  We will find out the results of our proposal likely in the next 45 days and the outcome will have a significant footprint on the future of radio in the City of Surrey.

It is hard to believe that the holidays came and went so quickly once again this year.  Christmas, Boxing Day and new years was quite wonderful.  This was the first year that Coltrane had a basic understanding of Christmas so Christmas morning was a blast.  Adderley is becoming very responsive, he babbles a lot and he moves very well although not fully crawling yet.  Having two boys is truly a joy; I’m not sure how I made it through 36 years before knowing either one of them.

Unfortunately we did not sell our house yet so we took it off the market for the Christmas season. We will list the house again around Jan 25th so that we will have a “new” listing at the start of what will hopefully be a busy real estate season.  I have kept busy at RED FM planning promotions, writing department protocols and participating in CRTC application preparations. 

We have a trip to Mexico coming up that we are happily anticipating.  Song writing over the last few months has been very good although finding time to do it has been difficult.  It is wonderful to have a true hobby; it is certainly one of the many keys to living a fulfilling life.