It was a beautiful day when I came to Peterborough for the second time in my life.
I had come to move in to my room in a big student house on Water Street for my first year of school, and I was with my dad and brother and all of my stuff in our minivan.
I can’t be sure of the actual weather that day, but in my mind the scene is washed in sunshine and sparkles. I was elated to begin living on my own, meeting new people, and attending university.
As our car neared Peterborough, I leaned forward and turned on the radio to see what kind of local stations were in town. I hit the scan button, and after a few seconds the dial settled on… 92.7 FM.
A white noise came out of the speakers, then some distant beeping sounds. I was confused. We all were. It sounded like we were listening to 2001: A Space Odyssey’s ambient background noises. Did radio stations even play things like that?
A hush had fallen over the vehicle as the three of us furrowed our brows and tilted our heads at each other inquisitively. Finally, two voices began speaking—not like how radio announcers usually talk, however, but casually, kind of goofy even!
The speakers paused and said “ummm”, and they started talking about… Battlestar Galactica! These were two guys, on the radio, playing spaceship noises and pretending to be aboard a ship on Battlestar Galactica.
When my dad and brother and I realized this, we laughed harder than we had at any of the goofy car trip jokes that had been made in the four hour drive from North Bay. It wasn’t necessarily that the content itself was funny; it was just the sheer absurdity of turning on the radio and hearing…well, Trent Radio.
At the end of the segment we were heading down Parkhill Road, nearing our final destination, and the station announced that we had been listening to a rerun of a show from something called Geek Day at Trent Radio.
The absurdity of Trent Radio and its programmers was one of the best first experiences and impressions I had of Peterborough, and it made me feel like I would be right at home in the strange city I was about to jump into.
And who could have guessed that one year later I would be doing my own Geek Day show?
Since that fateful day, I’ve learned that Geek Day is an annual event at Trent Radio, where the regular programming is scrapped for the day and people can instead sign up for shows on whatever topics they geek out about, be it rock tumblers, knitting, Dungeons & Dragons, or, as it happens, Battlestar Galactica.
Listen in all day long at 92.7 CFFF FM in Peterborough on February 25, or sign up for your own show right now at the sign up sheet located in the hallway at Trent Radio House, 715 George Street North (take the West Bank bus to the Sadleir House stop and walk ten steps south – it’s that easy).
Join a host of other programmers and I here at Trent Radio in coming together to geek up the airwaves, and maybe, by extension, reaching out to the citizens of Peterborough to inform or remind them about how unique and wonderful our city is!