Thanks to Ben Fong-Torres for the nice article on yours truly yesterday in the Sunday Pink Section of the SF Chronicle. He interviewed me in the heat of battle, so to speak. It was during the busy 7am hour of the show a month or so back. I had no idea afterwords what he asked me and much less of how I responded so I was a bit nervous I’d come off like a moron. Ben accurately distilled my professional life down into three columns of copy. I love my job and realize I’m a very fortunate guy as so many of the great talents I worked with are either un-employed or under-employed.

Just a reminder: KDFC’s “102 Days of Summer” starts up Friday morning at 8:40. We’ll call out a name of a Club KDFC member who’ll have 15 minutes to call back to claim a KDFC beach bag filled with goodies…hot tickets and cool getaways. If you haven’t joined our Club KDFC, now is the time. If you are a member it’s time to update your profile. Club members should look for the e-Notes going out Monday the 19th.

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I know you’ve been hearing me talk about the Croquet Invitational at Sonoma-Cutrer, a glamorous fundraiser for the Make-a-Wish Foundation. So there we were Saturday , all decked out in our Croquet Whites, making our way across the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge when we hear a suspicious bumpety-thumpety sound.  “I hope it’s just the pavement!”  But no such luck.  As the sound got louder, more of a slappety-slappety, I knew we needed to pull over.  Now, that Jim Hanson is a world-class tire-changer.   Under normal circumstances we would have been on our way in under 10 minutes but for some reason, he could not get the wheel to come off.  We kicked and banged.  And when the Highway Patrol Officer showed up, he also took a whack at it.  Only Bill from Corte Madera AAA was fearless enough to slide under the car and shove the tire off with his feet from the inside!  A man who knows his business.  My hero.  And so away we flew on the spare, arriving only an hour later than we had planned and just in time to join Mark Danon of KRON 4 for the Croquet Awards ceremony.  What a beautiful day it turned out to be in the Sonoma Wine Country.  Make-a-Wish raised a ton of dough for their great cause and the most amazing thing was that neither Jim nor I got a speck of grease on our Croquet Whites!

Walking to work today and trying to keep in the shade of the buildings downtown I noticed a wonderful cool spot.  On the corner of Third and Howard, right in front of the W Hotel there was a breeze and the sun was blocked by our building across the street.  Ah.  Perfect.  Another place that’s always cool no matter the temp outside is my kitchen pantry.  Not too much to do in there, though.  I just re-organized the wine glasses by size a few weeks ago.  Hope you’re managing to keep your cool in this crazy heat.  Remember, classical is cool!

One of the great by-products of this week’s KDFC World Tour is the response we’re getting from listeners around the world.  In my early days in radio, I would never have dreamed that my show would be broadcast anywhere in the world.  We have a stack of international “shout-outs” in the studio, with folks thanking us for just being there on the internet.

From Gerard in Frankfurt: “To me, KDFC is the voice of the America that I love”
Guy in Ottawa, Canada: “Your station is one of the best, if not the best, classical radio station on the internet.”
Pekka in Finland: “I and my wife are listening to 102.1 in the city of Oulu, Northern Finland.  It’s like to be back in San Francisco!”
Jorge from Mexico:” Just a note to thank you for the way you present the great music of the world.”
Michael in Australia: “Really enjoying your program in the office here in Sydney.”
Horia from Romania:”I listen constantly to your radio station.  It is great.  Thank you.”

I could go on and I know we’ll continue to get e-mails from the far reaches of the internet universe during the World Tour (through Friday) and beyond!

I was just reading on Yahoo news that there will be some relief at the pump coming up. Oil demand will probably ease due to many factors and I’ve heard rumor of more refining capacity coming online in the next year. I won’t argue the merits of the internal combustion engine here, just pass on some tips on finding the cheapest gas from a Wall Street Journal article from last week. Here are three web sites that help drivers find the best deals on gas.
www.gasbuddy.com
www.gaspricewatch.com
gasprices.mapquest.com

The cellphone link: www.getmobio.com

If you’re into widgets check this one out: www.automotive.com and for Macs www.interdimensionmedia.com

While we’re at it lets not forget public transit: www.google.com

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This week marks the return of our popular World Tour.  But this year, instead of visiting a different country each hour, we’ll be making at least three stops every hour!  Keep track of our various destinations and you may qualify for the grand prize, airfare for two to any place in the world! Now that’s a great question.  With KDFC picking up the tab for the plane tickets, where would you go? I’m very predictable.  I always say Italy but maybe I should go someplace even further away like China or Japan.  Or, if I could stand the long flight, Australia or New Zealand.  So many amazing places to see. Below is just one of them.  Let’s get going!

  Iguazu Falls in South America

This week we gave away tickets for the Oakland East Bay Symphony “Follies” concert next Friday, May 16th at the Paramount Theater.
Here are this week’s questions and answers.

MONDAY (Cinco de Mayo)
There are at least 13 states with a town named Montezuma.  Name one.
ARIZONA, COLORADO, GEORGIA, INDIANA, IOWA, KANSAS, NEW MEXICO, NEW YORK, NORTH CAROLINA, OHIO, TENNESSEE, VIRGINIA, WEST VIRGINIA
(Winner-Brad Justice, Richmond)

TUESDAY
These are the worst gifts to give on Mother’s Day.   Name three of the five from a Canadian survey.
ANYTHING FOR THE KITCHEN INCLUDING APPLIANCES OF ANY KIND, CLEANING PRODUCTS, CLOTHING, VACUUM, IRON
(Winner-Paula Vander Pool, Fremont)

WEDNESDAY
According to Men’s Health, 8 out of 10 couples who do this together say they have an excellent relationship.
COOK (Winner-Blaise Curet, Oakland)

THURSDAY
According to a learning website, this is the most popular book among American first graders.
GREEN EGGS AND HAM by DR. SUESS (Winner-Paul Almy, San Francisco)

FRIDAY
(I played a montage of clips of four TV Moms and asked you to name three of the characters).
CLAIRE HUXTABLE-Cosby, EDITH BUNKER-All in the Family, DEBRA BARONE-Everybody Loves Raymond, THELMA HARPER-Mama’s Family
(Winner-Deborah Ferry, Sunnyvale)

Have a great Mother’s Day Weekend and join me for a luxurious Big Island of Sanity, Sunday from 9am to Noon.
Ciao for Niao.

Trivia buffs, it’s time to test your knowledge. Here are my questions for this week’s Lunch Box and this morning’s Commuter Quiz.  (I filled in for Hoyt.)  Scroll down  for the answers.

Monday-
 Cinco de Mayo: Tequila is made from what native-Mexican plant?

Tuesday-
  What baseball-great once said, “Everytime I look in my pocketbook, I see Jackie Robinson.”?

Wednesday-
   The famous American painting “Arrangement in Grey and Black” is better known by what name?

Thursday-
   What does the “S” in Harry S. Truman stand for?

Friday-(Commuter Quiz)
    On the TV show “Murphy Brown”, what was the name of the fictional news magazine?  (Candice Bergen’s birthday)

Answers:

blue agave
Willie Mays  (77 years old)
Whistler’s Mother
nothing
FYI

This is always a special day for music lovers.  May 7th is the birthday of both Peter Tchaikovsky and Johannes Brahms.  Makes me wonder about May 7th.  Something unusual about that day?  I mentioned on the air that I had seen a photo of Brahms as a young man that had changed my whole image of him.  Here is that picture:

And how about equal time for the young Tchaikovsky, also a looker:

I have memories from my childhood of hanging out with my dad while he did chores around the house.  Always with his transitor radio nearby,  Lon Simmons calling the baseball game on a summer’s afternoon.  The names from that era are etched on my brain:  Willie Mc Covey, the Alou brothers, and of course, Willie Mays.  I have to confess that I’m not a huge baseball fan.  Literally a fair-weather fan.  I like sitting in the sunshine at the ballpark with a beer.  The part about the sunshine means I don’t attend the Giants’ games very often and most night games at the Coloseum are too cold for wimpy me.  But there’s something about the memory of Willie Mays and the laid-back sound of the game on the radio that makes me nostalgic.  There’s no such thing as “dead air” when you’re announcing a baseball game.  The warm ambience of the ballpark crowd is just enough audio to keep listeners glued to their radios. Happy Birthday to the Say Hey Kid and here’s to 77 more great years.