There are many godfathers in music. The Godfather of Rock? Well, there’s the King, Elvis Presley, but Chuck Berry is probably a more accurate choice…the Godfather of Funk and Soul? James Brown. The godfathers of hip-hop? DJ Kool Herc was the O.G. Run-D.M.C. should be in there, too, along with Afrika Bambaataa, Spoonie Gee, and Fab 5 Freddy. How about the Godfather of Punk? Iggy Pop, no question. But what about the Fathers of Punk? I’m going to say that title belongs to Ramones, period, full stop, end of discussion. Wait: back up. In the early 1800s, an American pioneer named John Chapman travelled from Massachusetts, collecting seeds from Pennsylvania cider presses, and for the rest of his life, he planted thousands of apple trees through what is now Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois. Chapman was given the nickname “Johnny Appleseed” because wherever he went, apple trees sprouted in his wake. In the mid-1970s, the Ramones—four middle-class kids from Forest Hills in Queens—began to have the same effect with a new style of rock and roll known as “punk.” Whenever they played a town on one of their endless tours, new bands would inevitably start popping up just a few days later. What began as a cartoonish attempt at making goofy bubblegum pop music—think of what The Beach Boys might sound like if they sniffed glue and took a lot of meth—the Ramones stumbled on something profound and eternal. It was all a big, happy, dumb accident. The Ramones had no idea they were about to change the world of music. They were just four regular guys who wanted to rock in the most basic way. They certainly accomplished that—but they also reminded everyone that when it comes to the power and joy of rock, sometimes “less” is “more.” They gave rock ’n’ roll a much-needed kick in the ass, and it took a long time for them to be recognized for what they gave us. They got punk going on both sides of the Atlantic. The guys who would eventually become The Clash worshipped them. The Sex Pistols took cues from them. They’d go on to be an influence on hardcore, metal, thrash, grunge, and every flavour of guitar-based alt-rock. Fans include Nirvana and Foo Fighters, Metallica, Soundgarden, Pixies, Faith No More, Beastie Boys, Pearl Jam, The Strokes, The Offspring, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Guns N’ Roses, Motörhead, Green Day, Blink-182, Rancid, Fall Out Boy, and hundreds—probably thousands—of others. This (2026) is an important year in Ramones history. It’s the 25th anniversary of Joey Ramone’s death, the first member of the band to leave us. It’s the 30th anniversary of the last Ramones show, and it’s the 50th anniversary of the release of their debut album. Let’s cover all of that with this triple tribute to one of the greatest and most important bands in the history of rock. Songs heard on this show (all by the Ramones except the last one):

• • Sheena is a Punk Rocker

• • Judy is a Punk (demo)

• • Beat on the Brat

• • Blitzkrieg Bop

• • Teenage Lobotomy

• • I Wanna Be Sedated

• • Do You Remember Rock’n’Roll Radio?

• • Chinese Rocks

• • Anyway You Want It

• • U2, The Miracle of Joey Ramone

Here’s Eric Wilhite’s playlist. The Ongoing History of New Music can be heard on these stations:

• • 102.1 The Edge/Toronto – Sunday night at 7pm

• • Q107/Toronto – Sunday night at 9pm

• • Live 88-5/Ottawa – Saturdays at 9am and Sundays at 6pm

• • 107.5 Dave-FM/Kitchener – Sunday nights at 11pm

• • FM96/London – Sunday nights at 8pm

• • Power 97/Winnipeg – Sunday nights at 10am and 10pm

• • 107-3 The Edge/Calgary – Sundays at 10am and 10pm

• • Sonic 102.9/Edmonton – Sunday at 8am and 8pm

• • The Zone/Victoria – Sunday at 9am and 9pm

• • The Fox/Vancouver – Sundays at 10am and 10pm

• • The Goat Network/Interior BC

• • WAPS/WKTL The Summit/Arkon, Canton, Cleveland, Youngstown – Mon-Fri at 9pm

© 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

Our lesson on radio frequencies continues. We’ve looked at FM, AM, longwave, and shortwave. What else is there?

Well, there’s DAB, which stands for Digital Audio Broadcasting. It’s a standard used in Europe, Asia, and Australia that, in some countries like Norway, has replaced AM and FM altogether. On the radio spectrum, it gets 175.928 to 239.200 MHz, which puts it slightly above standard FM radio.

We will never see DAB radio in North America. We tried to implement it in the early 2000s, but there was little appetite for the kind of investment it required. Instead, we got HD-Radio, a digital signal which basically hitchhikes on what’s called the “sidebands” of standard AM and FM frequencies. It hasn’t really taken off, but chances are you have HD-Radio in your car.

One more radio story next time.

© 2026 Corus Radio, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

We’ve been looking at the various types of frequencies that we use to listen to the radio, covering both standard FM and AM. But there’s more to AM radio than what you can get in your car.

What we listen to in North America is also called “medium wave,” because our AM is right in the middle of the spectrum allocated to this kind of broadcasting. Below standard AM is longwave, which occupies the frequencies between 148.5 and 283.5 kHz. What’s longwave used for?

Parts of Europe, Africa, and Asia use longwave in conjunction with regular AM. Then we have shortwave, which operates from somewhere between 2.3 and beyond 30 MHz. It’s used for ultra-long-distance international broadcasting. It’s been around since the early 20^th century.

More next time,

© 2026 Corus Radio, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

Staging a music festival is an extremely risky thing. Everything works on a knife’s edge. And while a promoter can make an insane amount of money from a festival, everything has to go just right. But if things start to go wrong at any point, the failures can cascade into a disaster, financial and otherwise… The basic logistics are daunting…you have to bring in a bunch of artists from all over the world, take care of all their transportation, accommodation, catering, and technical needs. Tens of thousands of people buy tickets to stand out in a field for one, two, three, or even four days at the mercy of the weather… Think about it…you need staff, security, medical personnel, sanitary facilities, food suppliers, parking, public transportation, camping, power, permits, and a million other things, all working together… And humans being humans, you can’t trust them…once you get tens of thousands—even hundreds of thousands—of people into a confined open space for an extended period of time and then add in drugs and alcohol, weird and bad things can happen. Some promoters have got it down to a science/ Glastonbury, which began in 1970, sells out within minutes of tickets going on sale. It’s celebrated as the most famous music festival in the world. The UK also has Reading and Leeds, which have involved running two festivals in different cities on the same weekend since 1999… The people behind Coachella and Lollapalooza have been able to consistently stage festivals for decades with only occasional glitches… But then there are the disasters…Woodstock 1994 was an organizational nightmare, complete with bad weather. I know because I was there. It was eclipsed only by Woodstock 1999, which was so bad multiple documentaries were made about it… And let’s not even get started on the disastrous Fyre Festival, a giant ripoff and boondoggle that saw people sent to jail… This is Episode 64 of Uncharted: Crime and Mayhem in the Music Industry.” These are the stories of two Canadian music festivals that crashed and burned. They’re both largely forgotten, too—probably for the best… This is The Spectacular Failures of the Strawberry Fields and Edenfest Music Festivals. In addition to the podcasts, you can hear Uncharted on these Corus radio stations (all times local):

• • Toronto: AM 640 (4-5am)

• • London: 980 CFPL (4-5am)

• • Vancouver: 730 CKNW (1-2am)

• • Edmonton: 630 CHED (1-2am)

• • Calgary: QR77 (770 AM) (1-2am)

• • Winnipeg: 680 CJOB (1-2am)

© 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

When it comes to listening to the radio, FM is the most popular set of frequencies. That’s what we talked about last time.

In second spot is AM, which stands for “amplitude modulation.” AM is the oldest of all radio spectrums, dating back to the very early 1900s. Depending on where you are in the world, the standard AM band runs from 535 kHz to 1705 kHz. In North America, stations are spaced 10 kHz apart, so allocations are 540, 550, 560, 570, and so on. But it’s different in Europe, Asia, and Africa, where spacing is kHz. Allocations go 531, 540, 549, 558, and so forth.

But there’s even more to AM radio than what we can get on our car radios. More next time.

© 2026 Corus Radio, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

Game 5 of the Professional Women’s Hockey League semifinal between the Montréal Victoire and the Minnesota Frost has been postponed for what the league calls “player safety concerns related to illness.”

The league made the announcement hours before the opening faceoff on Monday and said a rescheduled date will be announced soon.

In a release, the league did not detail the nature of the illnesses that caused the postponement, but said a medical assessment determined that the symptoms are not consistent with hantavirus.

The PWHL said an update will be provided within a day.

The best-of-five series is tied 2-2. The Victoire are looking for their first playoff series win, while the Frost won the Walter Cup in each of the league’s first two seasons.

The winner of the series faces the Ottawa Charge in the final. The Frost beat the Charge in four games in last year’s championship series.

© 2026 The Canadian Press

The Halifax Thunderbirds are heading to the National Lacrosse League (NLL) finals for the very first time and fans are buzzing with hope that the team will bring home its first-ever championship.

Superfan, Isaac Crossman, says he’s been on cloud nine since the Thunderbirds’ big win Sunday.

“I am extremely pumped, very excited,” Crossman said.

“Words can’t explain. I mean, I’m choked up right now thinking about how amazing this is.”

The team booked a ticket to the finals on the weekend for the first time in franchise history, beating the Georgia Swarm 15 to 11 in a best two-of-three final series.

Forward Clarke Petterson was the star of the show on Sunday, tallying a game-high nine points.

“We’ve made it the furthest we’ve ever had and we’re looking to go all the way and win a championship this year,” he said.

The 28-year-old has been with the Thunderbirds since 2020 and says bringing a trophy to Halifax is the goal. He’s hoping to reward a dedicated fanbase for keeping the faith throughout the years.

“We believe that we’re going to win every game that we play and we know the fans do as well. It’s just so important that we keep the faith and keep the momentum rolling,” he said.

The last time a Halifax sports franchise won a major trophy was when the Halifax Mooseheads lifted the Memorial Cup in 2013.

So, understandably, downtown restaurant owners are welcoming the excitement and hoping for a big win too.

“You can really tell the city gets alive with it. We already know the game is going to be on the 17th and we’re already planning for it,” said Niall McGuinness, the general manager of Durty Nelly’s pub.

“It’s great to see it, you know, getting people downtown, getting involved in the sports that are going on over at the Scotiabank Centre. And you can really see it in the air. Everyone’s got jerseys on. Everyone’s excited for the games.”

The Thunderbirds’ final stop on their quest to hoist the NLL cup begins Friday in Toronto when they face off against the Toronto Rock.

The series returns to Halifax on Sunday, and Crossman said he hopes they draw big fan support.

“Do everything you can,” he said. “Come support the team. Let’s go!”

© 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

Elizabeth Chambers stepped away from her dream job of being a teacher when she was 40, decades before retirement. But like many of Canada’s caregivers who are looking after ailing loved ones, she had little choice.

“It was one of the hardest decisions,” said the now 46-year-old. “I was very proud to be in the field of education, and I was proud that that was who I was.”

With her mother suffering from Alzheimer’s disease and her son dealing with lifelong learning disabilities, Chambers said they needed her full-time attention.

Canada’s caregivers are being financially squeezed as they try to balance having a career with taking care of loved ones who need them, a survey by the Canadian Centre for Caregiving Excellence shows.

Around six in 10 (59 per cent) said they are juggling their caregiving duties with their careers, while 36 per cent said caregiving had hampered their productivity and caused them to lose earnings.

Chambers is part of what is often called the “sandwich generation” — the cohort of Canadians, typically between the ages of 40 and 60, caring for both ageing parents as well as their children.

“People don’t know what our lives are like until they live them,” she said.

Pamela Barkhouse, who is based in Halifax, was 45 when her father was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and lung cancer. Four years later, after he passed away, her mother developed cancer as well.

Barkhouse, 49 at the time, took an early retirement from her job to take care of her.

“The federal government was downsizing. There were workforce adjustments in the year 2011, 2012, just after my dad died and they were laying people off. Even though I wasn’t red-circled, I put up my hand because I found the caregiving exhausting,” she said.

While stepping away from her job helped her take care of her mother, and later her husband when he fell ill, it cost her in her retirement years.

“At the age of 60, when people start to think about drawing CPP, I then realized being out of the workforce for well over 10 years, the hit was huge because you were penalized for that in your retirement. You have not made contribution to CPP, therefore you’re penalized for that lack of employment years,” she said.

When the financial strain of being a caregiver took a toll on Barkhouse and her husband, they had to readjust the dream they had for their retirement.

“We were pretty frugal. We loved boating and we loved travelling. Not that we travelled a lot, but we wanted to just experience life together without the stress of going to work every day. But that financial plan went out the window,” she said.

Orlena Broome has no regrets about quitting her job when her son was eight so she could spend more time with him, as his needs required her attention. But she wishes she had better financial advice back then.

“The fact that I stayed home was good for the child. Not so good for my retirement,” she said.

Broome eventually returned to work, albeit in a different field. As an immigrant from Barbados who came to Canada in 1984, Broome was no stranger to starting over. But going back to work after eight years out of the job market proved difficult.

“I began again at the entry-level salary,” she said, “but it was still better than the zero salary I was getting as an unpaid caregiver.”

One in four Canadians is currently a caregiver and at least half will take on the role at some point in their lives, contributing an estimated $97 billion in unpaid labour each year, the report from the Canadian Centre for Caregiving Excellence (CCCE) shows.

“It is becoming unaffordable to care for our loved ones,” Liv Mendelsohn, executive director of CCCE, said.

The care crisis is holding Canada back from economic prosperity,” the report says, adding that working caregivers are “trapped in a vicious cycle of needing to work more to meet the financial demands of care and needing to work less to meet the time demands of care.”

The burden of caregiving predominantly falls on women in Canadian society, Barkhouse said.

“The statistics from the National Caregiver Strategy has pointed out that very, very clearly and predominantly the caregiving falls on the women,” she said.

The cost of caregiving begins well before retirement. Nearly half (49 per cent) of caregivers said they face financial strain, while one in five said they spend more than $12,000 a year out of pocket.

“You start selling things. You start dipping into savings that you thought you were going to be using once you turn 65,” Barkhouse said.

The cost of taking care of kids with special needs compounds over time, Broome said, especially when one person quits their job.

“You were grateful that you got time to stay home. But at the same time, you were now down to one income. You’ve got an extra mouth to feed. An extra month that needs special formulas, special apparatus and speech therapy,” she said.

Professional care is also getting harder to find for many Canadians. More than three-quarters (76 per cent) of care providers are considering leaving the profession, citing low wages and safety concerns, the report shows.

“I needed to be educated (myself). I started researching how to do lifts, how to transfer from a chair to a bed, how to not hurt myself when I’m doing that, how to interact with somebody who has dementia,” Barkhouse said, adding it was critical for nurses and personal support workers to be adequately compensated.

The lack of professional care takes a toll on families, Chambers said.

“If we don’t have nurses, my husband and I are staying up. That is going to mean that we’re now getting lack of sleep,” she added.

“Our health and social systems depend on unpaid caregivers and underpaid care providers, but like the roads, bridges, and buildings we rely on every day, our governments need to invest in this critical infrastructure before it collapses,” Mendelsohn said.

Canada is currently in the midst of its largest-ever wave of retirements, with all baby boomers set to hit retirement age by 2030, having far-reaching implications for Canada’s economy and labour market, a recent RBC report said.

The boomer retirement wave, which started in 2011 when the oldest boomers turned 65, will reach its peak by the end of this decade, the Royal Bank of Canada report said.

By 2024, two-thirds of all boomers had reached retirement age, and the remaining boomers will reach age 65 by 2030.

“We’re struggling, and I would worry about what’s happening next,” Chamber said.

As provinces play catch up with the ageing population, the expenditure on health care is the biggest risk to Canada’s financial stability, a recent Desjardins report says.

According to Statistics Canada, the share of people 65 years and over in the population went from 16 per cent in 2015 to 19.5 per cent in 2025 and could rise to nearly 23 per cent by 2035.

“As the population ages, this gets compounded. On the revenue side, the share of working-age Canadians who finance these rising expenditures is getting smaller,” Randall Bartlett, deputy chief economist at Desjardins said in the report.

The Canadian Centre for Caregiving Excellence calls for higher wages and better working conditions for care workers, including protections for migrants who work in the sector.

The report also calls for improved access to mental health supports, respite care, and practical services.

In addition to fixing staffing shortages, the group is also asking the government to “simplify and expand access to tax credits and benefits” for people receiving care, as well as their families.

“Canada’s care system is under strain — but the path forward is clear. With targeted action, governments can reduce pressure on caregivers, improve productivity, strengthen workforce participation, and build a more resilient care system for the future,” the report says.

© 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

The Alberta government has shot down a request for a raise from the province’s top elections official.

Chief electoral officer Gordon McClure told a legislature committee that he has faced an “unprecedented” workload since he took the job in 2024.

He asked for a three per cent pay bump.

McClure and Elections Alberta have facilitated more than two dozen recall petitions and citizen-initiated referendum drives while managing a series of legislative changes.

McClure also cited preparation work for the Oct. 19 referendum and next year’s provincial election, as well as active investigations.

He says all the work is covered in his job description but that it doesn’t usually happen at once.

Opposition NDP committee members supported the request, but it was voted down by the majority of United Conservative Party members.

Provincial public sector compensation disclosures show McClure’s annual salary was just over $138,000, plus nearly $33,000 for other benefits, in 2024.

McClure is still set to receive a small salary increase this year but had asked for the three per cent on top.

The committee heard that even with an extra three per cent McClure would still be paid less than his predecessor.

McClure took 75 per cent of the previous chief’s salary when he was hired.

© 2026 The Canadian Press

EDMONTON – After the Tre Ford quarterback experiment failed last year, the Edmonton Elks turned to the most accurate passer in CFL history in hopes of ending five years of futility.

Veteran signal-caller Cody Fajardo, who joined the team last year and signed a one-year contract extension this offseason, isn’t shying away from lofty expectations.

It took just one two-hour training camp session on Sunday for the two-time Grey Cup champion to declare this year’s roster “good enough to win a Grey Cup.”

Bold words for a team that has missed the CFL playoffs the last five years and hasn’t posted a winning regular-season record since 2017. Still, the first two days of training camp at old Clarke Stadium — site of some of the franchise’s great moments — were filled with enthusiasm and optimism.

The 34-year-old Fajardo said players talk about winning the Grey Cup on Day 1 and then “stop talking about it because then you want your focus to be right in front of you.”

“But you have to let the guys know what the end goal is. And the end goal is a Grey Cup. We have a Grey Cup-winning roster,” he said.

That would mark a massive turnaround for a team that finished 7-11 the last two seasons and will play its home exhibition game at Clarke Stadium before returning to Commonwealth Stadium, which is undergoing upgrades that include new turf ahead of a pre-World Cup soccer friendly.

Starting the season as the No. 1 quarterback is a role Fajardo knows well, so last year — when he stood on the sidelines and watched Ford and the team stumble to a 1-6 start — became a learning experience for the nine-year CFL veteran. Ford departed for Hamilton on a two-year deal in the off-season.

“Last year was new for me, and it helped me grow in ways that I didn’t think I would be able to grow,” said Fajardo, who owns the highest career completion percentage in CFL history at 71.53 among qualified quarterbacks. “So I grew as a player, I grew as a human, I grew as a man, as a quarterback. So I’m just implementing that into this training camp.”

He showed what he could do once he took over the starting role midway through last season. Fajardo, who won Grey Cups in 2017 with Toronto and 2023 with Montreal, completed 282 of 385 passes for 3,409 yards — the third-highest total of his career — and 14 touchdowns.

He also rushed for 319 yards and seven TDs.

All the Grey Cup talk will ring hollow if the team can’t avoid another poor start. The Elks opened 1-6 last season after going 0-7 in 2024, 0-9 in 2023 and 2-7 in 2022.

“It’s everything right now for us,” Fajardo said of needing a strong start. “Those early games are really four-point games because they set you up later on, and you don’t want to be in that chase-pack mentality when everybody’s jockeying for position. At the end of the year, you want to put yourself in the driver’s seat, and the only way you can do that is by winning early.”

He’s confident it can happen because, unlike previous seasons, there was no major overhaul to the roster.

“We don’t have a bunch of new guys coming in, we don’t have new systems that we have to learn. So we’re able to have that continuity and jell a little bit quicker. And so I’m excited for that, and I’m excited just to see how these days continue to progress and how we continue to get better offensively, defensively, special teams.”

And make no mistake, this version of the Elks — which hasn’t made the playoffs since the franchise changed its name in 2020 — won’t be content to simply make the playoffs.

“This isn’t a team that, oh, we just want to make the playoffs. Oh, we just want to make a run,” said Fajardo. “We want to win a Grey Cup. And this roster is good enough to win a Grey Cup.

“And for me, you know, you only have so many years left. So I’m in the business of winning games, and I’m in the business of winning Grey Cups. And so you talk about it Day 1, and then after that you focus on how we get better to get to that end goal.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 11, 2026.

© 2026 The Canadian Press