Morning Show Blog

This month, if you find yourself being pulled over by the Huronia West OPP, it may just be to reward you instead of ticket you. The town of Wasaga Beach along with the OPP and several local businesses have partnered up to launch the "Do Good" campaign.

It's easy to do good things. If you pull over to the side of the road to answer that text or call on your cell phone, if you shovel someone's path, if you give someone the right of way and an OPP officer catches you in the act, you will be rewarded accordingly!

Ehab Masad from Harvey's in Wasaga Beach explains how in this video: http://youtu.be/XG9yWLBn5Hg 

So, keep your eyes on the road and your hands upon the wheel this month. Like the great E.T. once said...

What a success it was Friday morning at the Wasaga Beach Ministerial Food Bank! The "Beach Breakfast with Mac & Mariane" was broadcasting live at the annual 97.7 the Beach "Christmas Drive-Thru Drop-Off." This has been the most successful event so far and it's all thanks to the generosity of Carly's Angels who graciously donated $5,000, the Wasaga Beach Chamber of Commerce and area businesses for providing hundreds of pounds of food and to you, our listeners, who without your support, none of this would have been possible. The Food Bank received over 1,000 pounds of food and over $6,000 in cash!!

Thank you so much for all of your donations and thanks to Caithkin Treatment Foster Homes - Wasaga Beach for sponsoring the event, Tim Horton's - Wasaga Beach for providing the much-needed coffee and Sears - Wasaga Beach for the giveaways!

Special thanks to Christina Armstrong and the volunteers of the Wasaga Beach Ministerial Food Bank who were up before dawn with us to collect donations and make hampers for families in need.  

Give yourselves a hand, Wasaga Beach! You are awesome!!

~ Kevin

Last night, I read a story online about a couple in Toronto who were on the subway giving new meaning to "riding the rocket". I'm sure you catch my drift, but if not...one look at the front page of this morning's Toronto Sun would clear it up for you, and then some. Now before you accuse me of being a prude, it's not the content of the story that offends me. My wife & I were even poking fun and making a few cracks about the story last night. And then this morning, it was a crack of another kind that I was faced with!

I understand that in order to sell anything, you need a gimmick. The Toronto Sun's gimmick is usually to post a full-page picture with a catchphrase to get your attention - and it works! I've often picked the Sun over numerous other papers whenever I'm at a restaurant or waiting area. But, how much is too much?

In a case like this, where the story's content is most definitely mature, a tiny red "censored" strip still doesn't cover up what the couple is doing. Nothing is left to the imagination, and that's what offends me. I'll bet the ones who experienced this indecency in the first place wish they could get it out of their head. Now, the Sun's entire readership are stuck with the sight of an intoxicated couple on the front page doing the "horizontal hokey-pokey" on a filthy subway platform.

Some moms & dads are also finding themselves in a sticky situation. One listener commented on our Facebook page about how to explain to her kids what they saw on the front page of the paper while at the bus stop. They weren't angered by the story, it's where the story was that was the issue. The story is newsworthy, but why display it so boldly on the front page without any regard for people with young children, or people who would prefer not to choke on their breakfast first thing in the morning?!

Take a note, Toronto Sun Editors: Instead of stacking this morning's edition in newsstands, and in newspaper boxes across Southern Ontario, perhaps it should've been wrapped in cellophane and placed on the shelf with Hustler and Penthouse. Your front page today is just as smutty. If not, worse!

~ Kevin

If you are one of "those" people who uses 'password' as your actual password to your private and personal information...congratulations, you're an idiot!
The annual list of the 25 worst passwords is out, and these are based on actual passwords. SplashData, a password management app maker, compiled a list of the 25 worst passwords of 2011, based on millions of stolen passwords that were dumped online. Many of the passwords are sequential numbers like "12345" or "654321," while others contained messages like "letmein" and "trustno1". Even if you thought you were being clever with "qazwsx," (look at your keyboard, you'll get it) it's number 23 on the list. "Monkey," "password," and "qwerty" are ALWAYS on these lists. I know I'm preaching to the choir here but, seriously?

1. password
2. 123456
3. 12345678
4. qwerty
5. abc123
6. monkey
7. 1234567
8. letmein
9. trustno1
10. dragon
11. baseball
12. 111111
13. iloveyou
14. master
15. sunshine
16. ashley
17. bailey
18. passw0rd
19. shadow
20. 123123
21. 654321
22. superman
23. qazwsx
24. michael
25. football

Having a tough-to-crack password won't thwart a sophisticated cyber-criminal. They can use other methods to breach a server in which passwords are stored. But a solid password will at least deter the lowest common denominator like a nosy partner or a low-level hacker using a dictionary attack that simply tries thousands of passwords. And if you thought typing "password" backwards was a clever choice...think again!!

- Kevin

Rolling Stone magazine is at it again. After taking some heavy flack for its "Worst Songs of the 80's" readers' poll. the rock & roll mag has put readers on the spot again asking for the worst of the 70's. I must admit, readers' picks this time around were a little better since they really blew it on the 80's. However, I still can't agree with their #1 choice. It's certainly not the best song of the decade, but really, can't these readers find worse songs than 'Disco Duck'?? My pick for worst of the worst would be the #3 choice on the list. That song has aged about as well as a glass of milk. Not just any glass of milk, but warm, raw milk!!

Here's the list:

1.)  "Disco Duck",  Rick Dees  (1976)

2.)  "Afternoon Delight",  Starland Vocal Band  (1976)

3.)  "(You're) Having My Baby",  Paul Anka  (1974)

4.)  "You Light Up My Life",  Debby Boone  (1977)

5.)  "Muskrat Love",  The Captain and Tennille  (1976)

6.)  "Escape (The Pina Colada Song)",  Rupert Holmes  (1979)

7.)  "Seasons in the Sun",  Terry Jacks  (1973)

8.)  "Billy Don't Be a Hero",  Bo Donaldson and the Heywoods  (1974)

9.)  "Feelings",  Morris Albert  (1974)

10.)  "Lovin' You",  Minnie Riperton  (1975)

Feel free to leave me your picks for the worst songs of the 70's. Just e-mail me at kmacdonald@bayshorebroadcasting.ca and let's see what you think is the worst!

- Kevin