Much ado about classical radio

Last month I wrote about the potential purchase of Washington, DC's only remaining classical music radio station by Washington Redskins owner Dan Snyder. Today's Washington Post has an article on the front page of the Style section that suggests that the deal might be stalled. Apparently, comments made by officials at Bonneville International, the company that owns WGMS, suggesting that Snyder was offering more than the station was worth have created a snag in the negotiations.

Unfortunately for classical music fans in Washington, WGMS appears to be considering a format change, even if the sale doesn't go through. One possibility is that the station would switch to a sport talk format, competing directly with Snyder's other stations in this market, using the stronger signal he wants against him. The only good news in all of this is that the local public radio station, WETA has indicated that they would return to the classical music format they abandoned in 2005 in the event that WGMS changes format. WGMS, which has been broadcasting classical music for 60 years, plans to donate its library of classical recordings to WETA when and if any format change takes place.

[via The Washington Post]

We should have bought a lottery ticket

On our last day of our vacation at Steamboat, we had an experience that simply defies any sort of probabilistic belief. Because it was our last day, we lingered on the mountain far later than we had any other day, and we found ourselves trapped at the end of a LONG lift line waiting to ride up to the top of the front peak, where we could either catch the gondola back to town or ski down. This was to be our last lift ride of the day, and all the other lifts on the upper part of the mountain were already closed for the night.

At this point, as we're standing there, my wife's right foot starts to get cold. This isn't normal, because my wife has a set of Hotronic heaters installed in her ski boots, which generally work to keep her feet warm. So, she bends down to check the battery on the back of her right boot, only to find that the battery was missing! We look at each other, stunned. We've been skiing all over the mountain, and could have lost the battery anywhere. The lifts are closed, and its our last day, so there's no way we can even begin to look for it. We decided to stop at Lost and Found on our way back to the condo, but we held out very little hope of recovering the battery. It looked like we would be out about fifty dollars for a new batter pack.

Eventually, we made our way up the lift and down the front of the mountain. Lost and Found was closed by the time we got there, but the lady at the Resort Information Center took our information and promised to pass it on to Lost and Found. We headed back to our condo to have dinner and pack for our trip home.

When we arrived at the condo, we told the other family that was sharing the condo with us about what had happened. "You're never going to believe this," the mother said when we finished, "But my son found a Hotronic battery at lunchtime today. Maybe you can use it to replace yours?" She had tried to get her son (age 12) to turn it in to Lost and Found, because the battery pack is useless by itself, but he thought it was cool, and had pocketed it. When he pulled it out, my wife gasped. It was either her missing battery, or else its twin! It even still had the original tag on it, just like hers did. He had found it at the cafeteria area where we'd eaten lunch.

I'm still stunned by this sequence of events. Steamboat has almost 3,000 acres of ski-able terrain, and has thousands of skiers on the mountain on a busy day. What are the odds of losing a piece of equipment somewhere in all that space, in the midst of all those people, and having it recovered by one of the seven people in your own condo, who was completely unaware that you'd lost it? This has to be one of the luckiest coincidences I've ever experienced in my life!