iSummit

Earlier today the Summit staff got together to take a look at some of Google's new features. At first I completely ignored the fact that Google is now called iGoogle. I figured they were just being trendy.

Turns out that they've rolled out a whole new set of features that you can use to personalize your Google page. I'm pretty sure it's just a ploy to get more information about their users -- "Oh! You searched for fly fishing once in December of 2005! Here are 25 ads about fly fishing." I guess it's better than ads for dating sites and/or penis enlargement pills (unless that's what you searched for in December of 05), but it still kind of creeps me out.

I've come to accept and occasionally embrace the fact that we're now constantly connected, but I'm not going to pretend that it doesn't boggle my mind.

I recently got an iPhone, and I swear it's possessed. I'm always accidentally hitting buttons. The other night I was in a noisy bar when the words "The Desperate Man" mysteriously appeared at the top of the screen. For at least fifteen minutes I was convinced that my phone was sending me messages about the other bar patrons, until I finally realized that I had accidentally started playing my phone's iPod and "The Desperate Man" was a song by the Black Keys.

I programmed different ringtones for different callers, and half the time I don't even recognize that the sounds I'm hearing are coming from my phone. One of the ringtones is a very realistic quacking noise. I temporarily freaked out one Saturday wondering how a duck had gotten loose in my third-floor apartment.

But beyond the perpetual terror/confusion I feel whenever someone calls me, the iPhone has some pretty incredible features. I was excited to find the Public Radio Tuner application, which allows you to listen to public stations across the country (including the Summit) on your phone. It also works if you have an iPod Touch.

If you want to try it out, there are full instructions on the "listen live" section of our webpage:

http://www.913thesummit.com/audio/iphone.htm

Ain't technology grand?

Massillon rocks

It took me three weeks to figure out how to say "Massillon."

I'm not (totally) ashamed of this, because how the hell is a person who grew up in Chicagoland supposed to know something like that?

The constant presence of the internet in our lives has made us feel like all information is available to us at all times, but when you move across the country to a place that you don't know very much about, you learn that there are some things you have to experience personally to figure out.

I've been trying to absorb as much about Akron, Canton, Massillon, Cuyahoga Falls, Cleveland, Barberton, Kent, etc... as I possibly can, but as you might imagine, it takes some time to figure it all out.

A lot of you reading grew up in this area, and there are things you just know. Like what "AK Rowdy" means. That "Rex's Erection" isn't as dirty as it sounds. And of course, how to say "Massillon."

I've learned to take advantage of some very knowledgeable people who work with me at the Summit. Yesterday, our morning host Bill Hall pointed me in the direction of a documentary airing on PBS about the golden age of FM radio in Cleveland ("Radio Daze"). At this point, a lot of the stories in the documentary were familiar to me, but that wasn't the case a few months ago.

The first week I started working at the Summit, Bill invited me to an event he was involved in at Borders, where radio people past and present were getting together. When he handed me the flier for the event, I asked, "what's that bird with the mullet?"

The mullet bird, as it turns out, was the old logo for the Buzzard in Cleveland, and I quickly learned that I should keep my opinions about its hairstyle to myself. It probably sounds bizarre to anyone that grew up in this area that I had never heard of the Buzzard, a radio station that made a huge impact here.

I decided to read up, not just on the Buzzard and Cleveland's radio history, but on Akron's musical past, and luckily, there are people here who took enough pride in their hometown that they've written books or made documentaries on the subject.

There's still a lot to learn, but so far I've been impressed with the vibrant musical history of this new place I'm in, and it's exciting to be a part of a radio station that is invested in its future.

So hopefully you'll go easy on me the next time I screw up the name of your favorite local town/musician/street name. I'm trying. And the internet can't tell you everything.

An introduction

Well hello. Welcome to Off the Record.

As some of you know, I recently joined 91.3 the Summit as the new Music Director/night host. I moved to Akron from Missouri to take this job and it's my first for a non-commercial station, so I've been having many new experiences.

We thought it might be fun if I had a place to share some of those experiences with listeners, and here I am. I hope you'll visit often and maybe even leave a comment for me. You can also drop me a line anytime at liz@913thesummit.com.