Some of you may have caught this on Amateur Radio Newsline.



The "announcement" of the takeover on the website below is even more funny
than the audio on the Tick link.

I once had a spoof of a job description for the position of WWV announcer,
but it went away with a computer crash long ago.

K5XU


THAT FINAL ITEM: THE TICK

And finally this week, most hams are well aware of time standard station
WWV at Ft. Collins, Colorado . Its run by the National Institute of
Standards and Technology and radiates 10,000 watts on 5, 10, and 15 MHz;
and 2500 watts on 2 point 5 and 20 MHz. And over the years WWV
broadcasts time and frequency information 24 hours per day, 7 days per
week to millions of listeners worldwide.

Well now it appears to have an on-line rival. Well, one that's at least
a tongue in cheek rival called "The Tick." Take a listen:

--

THE TICK HERE

--

The Tick is the creation of Douglas Grant, KD1TJ, who happens to own
Lownoise Productions in Tucson, Arizona. We asked him to tell us how
The Tick came about.

--
KD1TJ: "Back in the late 70's, about the time that I got my ham ticket
and while I was still working in commercial radio, I turned a
broadcaster and friend of mine onto shortwave listening, which I had
been doing since the 60's. I sold him one of my used radios and he
became familiar with what was on the dial. He would listen to Vladimir
Posner on Radio Moscow, theatrical works on the BBC and all the other
noises that you hear like WWV. So he and I used to joke about the
announcements that might be heard on that time and frequency station if
it were commercial radio, like -- all the time, all the time.

"Fast forward to 2003. Another friend of mine had moved to Atlanta and
was working as a television engineer for The Weather Channel. And he
revealed that one of the local TV weathermen on the air in Atlanta was
in fact one of the voices of WWV -- John Doyle.

"So on a whim I wrote to John and I told him about some of the laughs
we'd had at WWV's expense over the years and inquired if he might want
to voice ome lines in order to create a spoof . And, to my delight he
liked the idea, did some recording for me. What resulted is The Tick.
The new WWV."

--

Grant tells Newsline that he has received lots of very positive feedback
since he brought The Tick to the world of cyberspace several years ago.
You can check out "The Tick" for yourself at
www.lownoiserecords.com/wwv_the_tick.html
(ARNewsline and The Tick)





Mike Duke, K5XU
American Council of Blind Radio Amateurs