"The 1960s Pop-Rock Music and TV Shows Net" Monthly   Roundup for April 2009

Welcome to "The 1960s Pop-Rock Music and TV Shows Net" Roundup report for the month of April. Its hard to believe we have already gone through "winter" and our usual brief spring here in Arizona and are now just a few days away from triple digits and the long, hot summer.

The Net aired each week of the month with excellent participation. A total of 16 different stations checked in at least once or more during the month.
 
Two stations are to be commended for participating every week on the Net. The two hams making the "PA (Perfect Attendance) List" this month are:

KE7FQL (John in Phoenix)
KE7GRV (Terry in Tempe)

As always, there were a lot of great trivia questions covering both '60s rock music and TV shows. The three featured segments of the Net each week, "This Week In 1960s Rock and Roll History", "#1 Hits For The Week Of.....", and "This Week In 1960s Television History" continued to be an integral part of the Net. One news item from "This Week In 1960s Rock and Roll History" from the April 29th Net concerned Cass Elliot. "Mama Cass" as she is commonly known, and a member of the very popular '60s group, "The Mamas and The Papas", was noted as having given birth to daughter Owen Vanessa on April 28, 1967. The interesting thing about this '60s music factoid is that Cass Elliot never told anyone who the father was. Pictured is a 1960s photo of Cass Elliot (center and possibly pregnant at the time of the photo)  along with the other members of The Mamas and The Papas.

A few highlights from the April Nets noted below includes a synopsis of discussion on "synchronicity", on the "Tunatic" computer program, and on a ships "chandler". 

*SYNCHRONICITY- first of all, lets start with a definition of the word. Synchronicity is a term "for a meaningful coincidence that has a low probability of being a random or chance event". We seem to have quite a few instances of synchronicity happen on the Net where, for example, I will talk about a particular '60s song that may be infrequently heard on the radio and the next day a Net member will hear it on the air. Conversely, a member may hear a certain '60s song on the radio or see a news piece on a television show or actor from that decade and I will then discuss the same on the next Net. Is this purely coincidence, or is there a deeper meaning to these synchronous random, chance events? Hmmmnn?

*TUNATIC- KE7GRV (Terry) introduced Net members to Tunatic, a free music identification software developed for use with both Windows and Mac OS. The program analyzes a song be recording it via micrpphone or just by playing it through the sound card, and then sends the data online to its database where it searches for a match. Tunatic will return the title of the song and the artist/group along with a link for more information if a match is found. The database is created with information that users can upload with a software called "Tunalyzer". As '60s Baby Boomers, it is sometimes difficult to remember the title of a song and/or the recording artist, however, with this incredible piece of software, music identification has become easy! Terry reported that it works very well and was impressed with the results in recent testing he performed with several different songs played from a radio. Give this computer program a try and let us know how it performed for you. And its free, something all hams can certainly appreciate! Right?

*SHIPS CHANDLER- on the first Net of the month, one of the television trivia questions asked was: "What was Bonanza star character Ben Cartwright's occupation prior to moving out West with his young son, Adam?" The answer was, "Seaman (ship's chandler)". K7SLS (Shel), a long-time navy veteran, asked what a "ship's chandler" was, explaining that he had never heard the term. Several other Net members, also with considerable maritime knowledge, likewise noted that they had never heard the term before, either. As of the end of the month, Shel had still not found a definition and was continuing to research the term. If you know what a "ship's chandler" is or discover the meaning through research, please let us know on the Net. We are all waiting, anxious to learn about this possibly old term that perhaps is no longer used in current maritime jargon.
           
      
Please don't forget that your comments, suggestions and questions for the website, "CQ Hams Still Groovin' In The 60s" are always welcome!

If you live in southcentral Arizona, are visiting, or just passing through, please join us on Wednesday evenings at 7:30 pm for the Net on the 224.500 repeater (N7EOJ) located at 9,100' above Tucson in the Santa Catalina Mountains. Everyone "into the '60s" is welcome!

73',
John  N7LQR
Maricopa, Arizona