KFRC was home to Merv Griffin in the 40’s (swing music) and Dr. Don Rose in the 60’s (Top 40) when the station was on the AM dial at 610. The station has gone through a number of format changes over the years. CBS bought KFRC, leaving the AM dial ending up at 99.7 FM. More format changes with KFRC becoming Movin’ 99.7 playing dance music. About a year later CBS’ Free FM shock-talk format at 106.9 was dropped and 106.9 FM became the new home for KFRC playing a classic hits format. Got it so far? Try this.

If you have not already heard, Monday the KFRC on-air staff was told that they were history; KFRC would start simulcasting KCBS all news broadcasts beginning Monday, October 27.

This past season the A’s were on KFRC, it has been suggested that they helped lower the station’s ratings but were not at all the main reason for the poor numbers. Jumping around the dial and format changes did not help. Low ratings and KCBS wanting to expand its audience, younger listeners who hang out on the FM dial being a reason for the move.

KFRC’s Classic Hits have not completely disappeared; the classic hits will continue to be available as streaming audio at KFRC.com and on KFRC-HD2; however, you will not hear Dave Sholin, Celeste Perry, Sue Hall, Jay Coffey, and Ben Fong-Torres.

If this turns out to be a positive move for KCBS, will KGO and KLIV be next?

Before Santana Row, there was Town & Country Village, a sprawling one-level, Spanish-style buildings with stores and restaurants. Before Town & Country Village, there was a 65-acre pear orchard.

The festival includes chef demonstrations, wine tasting, live entertainment and samplings of pear-influenced recipes by Santana Row Chefs.

Wine tasting, $20 for six tastes with 20% of proceeds donated to Hospice of the Valley.

Food Network’s Giada De Laurentiis will appear at noon in Santana Row Park with a Q&A and book signing. Tickets for this event will be distributed in Sur La Table at Santana Row with the purchase of Giada’s Kitchen.

Santana Row
Winchester & Stevens Creek Boulevards, San Jose

Sunday, October 19, 2008
10:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m.

Free except for wine tasting and the Giada De Laurentiis event.

This Sunday noon to 5:00 pm is The 8th Annual Antique Autos in History Park. There will be vintage autos (1900 to 1945), bicycles, motorcycles, fire equipment, early day gas engines which will power saws, washing machines and other tools needed in the early days, and more lining the streets.

There will also be children’s activities provided by Schmahl Science Workshop, vintage clothing and handcraft demonstrations. Movies which include early day automobiles will be shown in the hotel. Of course, there are the historic buildings to visit and the trolley to ride.

This year is the 100th anniversary of the Ford Model T and there will be a short presentation to commemorate the event followed by the assembly of the Model T in less than 6 minutes.

For more about History San José check this earlier post.

History San José
Kelley Park, 1650 Senter Road

Sunday, September 14
12:00 pm - 5:00 pm

Free Admission, Parking $6.00

Last night I attended the first bout for the Silicon Valley Roller Girls (SVRG), our very own roller derby team here in the south bay! It was an action-packed game and close score the last half — but our girls demolished Port City Roller Girls! SVRG won their first game! Go girls!

Established in 2007, SVRG is an all-female flat track roller derby league. Their dedication, while not only to kick major you-know-what during the games, is to empower their skaters to improve their skating ability through training and teamwork and help Silicon Valley by participating in various community services.

It was my first game, any kind of roller derby exposure I had before last night only came from television programs or movies. Before the game started they had a few players from each team do a pretend round while the announcer explained the game.

In brief, you have 5 members of each team on the floor. You have 1 Pivot, 3 Blockers, 1 Jammer. Pivots are at the front and they set the pace. Blockers are behind and they cannot go infront of the Pivots and their job is to keep the opposing team’s jammer from passing. One whistle is blown, the Pivots and Blockers start off — a second whistle for the jammers to start. When the first jammer breaks through the pack, they’re the Point Jammer and get points for every time they pass an opposing team member. Jams last 2 minutes or when the jammer declares they’re over (by placing their hands on their hips.) This is all a very quick way to describe it - learn more about it here.

Roller derby is an awesome sport and a great way to spend your time and money! Go out and support these girls.

Upcoming Games:
Saturday, Sept. 20th - SVRG vs. Bakersfield Rollergirls @ Bakersfield, CA
Saturday, Oct 25th - SVRG HOME BOUT @ SAN JOSE SKATE
Saturday, Nov 15th - SVRG vs. Sonoma County Roller Derby @ Rohnert Park, CA

Find out more about the team at:
www.svrollergirls.com
www.myspace.com/svrollergirls

Joe Claus has been working on a project called My Neighbors since last year, documenting with photographs the small business owners who make San Jose’s downtown unique.

Joe started his project because he’s a San Jose native, from a family that’s been in the area since the 1820’s. In 2007, he was completing an SJSU degree in industrial design and photography, and he decided to use his skills to give something back to his hometown. He felt that “Big business really tears up small businesses” and that if the community doesn’t support its small businesses, it loses a vital element.

He began taking portraits of small business owners at the entrances of their businesses. His camera is a Hasselblad medium-format camera, the kind traditionally used by portrait photographers for the incredibly sharp prints that can be made from its relatively large negatives. He loves the hands-on process of film photography, and he started out developing and printing the photos himself, but he now uses a professional lab for printing.

Joe says that at first he was turned down by as many as 80% of the business owners he approached, but now he’s usually able to make contact with a potential subject through another person he’s already photographed, and he now has much better success in convincing the business owners to participate. He says that his early efforts to convince people to be photographed, including a 45 minute conversation with one particular owner, also helped him to understand his own motivations and goals for the project.

The project is now just over 100 photos of local business owners. Joe took about 80 of these pictures in the past 6 months, despite having only one free day per week to devote to his project. He had originally planned to move away from San Jose after graduating from SJSU, but he’s stayed here, living near downtown and commuting to Santa Cruz for work, to be able to continue the My Neighbors project. He has no plans to wrap up the project in the near future: “I just want to keep going,” he says.
Read more

Sitting in a cube buried deep in an office building you wonder what it is like outside. Hello, webcams!

You can find a plethora of webcams from around the world via Google. One of my favorite local webcams is the Lick Observatory’s Hamcams atop Mt. Hamilton.

There are two Hamcams with a view of the South Bay and a view of six telescope domes. The quality of the views depend on weather conditions and the often present hazy in the valley. At night, there is a great view of the city lights; however, the view of the six domes is nonexistent due to lack of light. Clicking “Image With Description” provides information of that webcams view.

When I viewed the city lights the other evening I wondered about the light interfering with astronomical observations. I learned from the Santa Clara Valley & Lick Observatory website, among other criteria, “Some types of lighting are far better for astronomical observations than other types. Low Pressure Sodium (LPS) is the best, metal halide is the worst. LPS lamps produce almost all their output in a single color, or narrow range of wavelengths. To the eye, the light is a very pure yellow, because it emits only at that color. Astronomers prefer this lighting because it is easy to filter out.”

Lick Observatory’s Hamcams

Metblogs author Victor gives his account of visiting Lick Observatory here.

San Jose State University Department of Meteorology has a webcam view of downtown San Jose here.

Drop off your old, unwanted or obsolete computers, monitors, TVs, cell phones, keyboards, mice, cabling, and more this weekend.

Saturday, May 3
Woodland Meadow
1600 Whitewood Drive, San Jose
11:00 - 2:00

Sunday, May 4
West Valley Presbyterian Church
6191 Bollinger Road, Cupertino
11:30 - 2:30

Free events

For more info or other options: GreenMouse (eWaste Services) 408.464.9999

While waiting for our respective customers at SFO, I noticed that the chauffeur standing next to me was holding a clipboard. Attached to its back was a small handbill from the San Jose Jazz Festival. Seeing it was enough for me to start up a conversation. I learned that this chauffeur was none other than Afrikahn Jahmal Dayvs a.k.a. radio KKUP DJ - Bajaba On Jazzline.

KKUP’s involvement (Blues Stage) with the Jazz Festival includes being one of its sponsors. Mr. Dayvs was surprised to hear that because of a miscalculation, San Jose’s Office of Cultural Affairs had made the recommendation to significantly cut funds for this years festival.

To shift funds away from the Jazz Festival and give it to other city venues such as Christmas in the Park is not in the best interest of San Jose. Christmas in the Park makes for a nice local family tradition but it does not generate the revenue or recognition that a jazz festival does.

Hopefully wiser minds at City Hall will prevail and the San Jose Jazz Festival will receive the well-deserved attention it deserves.

KKUP 91.5 Peoples Radio

Bajaba On Jazzline 4PM Tuesday

San Jose Jazz Festival 2007

Mark your calendars on May 3rd and 4th! It’s time for the Maker Faire!

If you’re not aware:

“Maker Faire is a two-day, family-friendly event that celebrates the Do-It-Yourself (DIY) mindset. It’s for creative, resourceful people of all ages and backgrounds who like to tinker and love to make things.”

The MF is packed with amazing projects, hands-on events, performances, music, and shopping! Bazaar Bizarre is one of my favorite parts of the faire. This year there are 72 Crafters! “A smorgasbord of handmade items, many cleverly made with recycled materials. Something for everyone—jewelry, toys, lotions, art, glass, fiber arts, ceramics, handbags, baby items, even crafting supplies.”

Last year was a blast:

From unique musical guests… To Eepybird and their Coke+Mentos show…

Some odd outdoor contraptions… (you run in the hamster wheel and it would cause the finger to pick the boogie)

And more and more and more. Check out the zillions of photos on Flickr if you need more proof that you will have an awesome time.

Tickets:
Weekend Passes - $20 (kids), $30 (students), $50 (adults)
Daily Passes: $10 (kids), $15 (students), $25 (adults)

[Maker Faire]

Inadvertently contributing to the celebration of National Library Week, as noted by my fellow Metblogs San Jose cohort, Gary Wiens, I figured now would be a good time to share the status of the demolition of Santa Teresa Branch of the San Jose Public Library.

In 1984, I was 12 years old, and clearly remember the opening of the Santa Teresa library–a bright, shiny facility located on International Circle, by the Kaiser Santa Teresa Hospital. Covering nearly 14,000 sq ft., it was the haven for working on many school projects. It was a surprise for me to see the library being torn down, before I had a chance to dig up some facts about the demolition.

The $13.6 million dollar Santa Teresa Library reconstruction project began with the its closing in late 2007, with demolition beginning in March of this year. The expected opening date for the new facility is June of 2009. The Branch Library Bond Measure, of which Santa Teresa is the 15th project, was approved by voters in 2000, which provides $212 million dollars over 10 years for new and upgraded libraries in San Jose. This new library is designed by STUDIOS Architecture in San Francisco, and is managed by BRCO Constructors of Loomis, CA.

Notable changes to the new library which, will be built on the same spot on International Circle, include an increase of computers from 13 to 33-40; seating increased from 48 to 122-156; group study and storytelling areas (previously lacking in the old library) ranging from 20-39 seats; and an increase in parking of roughly 20 more spaces. source: SJLibrary.org

More pictures of the demolition (click to zoom):

images: Eric Rice, Microsoft Virtual Earth, Google Maps, STUDIOS Architecture