Spring break at Panama City Beach, Florida

Spring break, also known as March break, Study Week or Reading Week in some parts of Canada, is a week long recess from studying in early spring at universities and schools in the United States, Canada, mainland China, Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Mexico, and other countries.

Time of the year

In the United States, the timing of spring break in tertiary institutions may range from the middle of March to the later part of April, but many schools are in recess for at least one of the weeks in March. Some schools call this “March break” if it occurs in a middle week in March. Other schools call it “spring recess”, or “spring recession”.^[1][2][3] Many K–12 institutions in the United States coincide their spring break with Easter and Passover. In New York and Connecticut, most students have spring break in April.

Canada has a very similar practice of giving a week-long break to its elementary school and secondary schoolNew Brunswick, for example, holds their March break during the first week of March, Ontario, Nova Scotia and British Columbia, have theirs during the second or third week, while the break in Alberta usually comes in the last week of March. In the United Kingdom, the corresponding 2 weeks’ holiday are called the “Easter break” or “Easter holidays”, as it is scheduled for the weeks following and preceding Easter, and accordingly is often held in April. students in the month of March. The exact time of the month varies from province to province;

In many Canadian universities, the similar break in late February or early March is called Reading Week, and is ostensibly intended to allow students to relax from the stresses of their studies.

In Japan, the spring break starts with the end of the academic year in March and ends on April 1 with the beginning of a new academic year.

In Southern African countries like Botswana, South Africa and Lesotho, the break is held late February or early March, with University of Botswana, Lesotho, Swaziland and others coming together for a week long of games, music shows and city tourism. [2]

History

From the end of World War II until the 1980s, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, was a notorious spring break destination in the United States. It was largely made so by the efforts of one man, George Warren “Bob” Gill Jr. who was called, “the Father of Fort Lauderdale spring break.”^[4] Prior to that, a few were coming to the area for a break from winter cold. On March 19, 2006, the New York Times reported that Fort Lauderdale’s reputation as a spring break destination for college students started when the Colgate University men’s swimming team went to practice there over break in 1935.^[5] Fort Lauderdale became even more popular due to the 1960 film Where the Boys Are, in which college girls met boys while on spring break there.

Common practices

In locales such as Cancún or Cabo San Lucas, Mexico, spring break activities traditionally include binge drinking, recreational drug use and casual sex.^{[citation needed]} In the past, residents of the Fort Lauderdale area have become so upset at the damage done by vacationers, that the local government passed laws restricting parties in 1985. At the same time, the National Minimum Drinking Age Act was enacted in the United States, requiring that Florida raise the minimum drinking age to 21 and causing many underage college vacationers to travel outside the United States for spring break. By 1989, the number of college vacationers fell to 20,000, a far cry from the 350,000 who went to Fort Lauderdale four years prior.^[6]

Spring break party goers responded by moving to the more permissive community of Daytona Beach area (over 200,000 students traveled there each spring at its peak), but after Daytona’s local government undertook similar measures, the crowds of the mid-1990s and early 2000s had fallen to a point where “a few students still come, but officials don’t even estimate their numbers.” Panama City Beach, Florida remains a popular spring break destination due to its relative proximity to many Southern colleges and driving distances. The locals in Panama City Beach welcome Spring Breakers every year, and is a major factor in the city’s economy. South Padre Island, Texas and Fort Myers Beach, Florida are also popular Spring Break destinations among students from colleges in the south-central and midwestern parts of the country, as well as from the Northeast. One of the biggest in the Southwest, popularized by MTV is Lake Havasu City, Arizona.

Popular destinations outside the United States include Cancún, Cabo San Lucas, Acapulco, Barbados, Mazatlán, Puerto Vallarta, Jamaica, the Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos Islands. Tour agencies have not only cited the lower drinking ages in these places, but also the fact that the drinking ages are poorly enforced. Some Tour Companies put on special chartered flights for Spring Break at discounted rates.

It is common for companies to market during spring break, for instance Coca-Cola, Gillette, MTV, and branches of the United States armed forces.

Posted by: Richard T. Mindler Jr.

Uses of radio

Early uses were maritime, for sending telegraphic messages using Morse code between ships and land. The earliest users included the Japanese Navy scouting the Russian fleet during the Battle of Tsushima in 1905. One of the most memorable uses of marine telegraphy was during the sinking of the RMS Titanic in 1912, including communications between operators on the sinking ship and nearby vessels, and communications to shore stations listing the survivors.

Radio was used to pass on orders and communications between armies and navies on both sides in World War I; Germany used radio communications for diplomatic messages once it discovered that its submarine cables had been tapped by the British. The United States passed on President Woodrow Wilson’s Fourteen Points to Germany via radio during the war. Broadcasting began from San Jose, California in 1909,^[9] and became feasible in the 1920s, with the widespread introduction of radio receivers, particularly in Europe and the United States. Besides broadcasting, point-to-point broadcasting, including telephone messages and relays of radio programs, became widespread in the 1920s and 1930s. Another use of radio in the pre-war years was the development of detection and locating of aircraft and ships by the use of radar (RAdio Detection And Ranging).

Today, radio takes many forms, including wireless networks and mobile communications of all types, as well as radio broadcasting. Before the advent of television, commercial radio broadcasts included not only news and music, but dramas, comedies, variety shows, and many other forms of entertainment. Radio was unique among methods of dramatic presentation in that it used only sound. For more, see radio programming.

AM radio uses amplitude modulation, in which the amplitude of the transmitted signal is made proportional to the sound amplitude captured (transduced) by the microphone, while the transmitted frequency remains unchanged. Transmissions are affected by static and interference because lightning and other sources of radio emissions on the same frequency add their amplitudes to the original transmitted amplitude. In the early part of the 20th century, American AM radio stations broadcast with powers as high as 500 kW, and some could be heard worldwide; these stations’ transmitters were commandeered for military use by the US Government during World War II. Currently, the maximum broadcast power for a civilian AM radio station in the United States and Canada is 50 kW, and the majority of stations that emit signals this powerful were grandfathered in (see List of 50kw AM radio stations in the USA). In 1986 KTNN received the last granted 50,000 watt license. These 50 kW stations are generally called “clear channel” stations (not to be confused with Clear Channel Communications), because within North America each of these stations has exclusive use of its broadcast frequency throughout part or all of the broadcast day.

FM broadcast radio sends music and voice with higher fidelity than AM radio. In frequency modulation, amplitude variation at the microphone causes the transmitter frequency to fluctuate. Because the audio signal modulates the frequency and not the amplitude, an FM signal is not subject to static and interference in the same way as AM signals. Due to its need for a wider bandwidth, FM is transmitted in the Very High Frequency (VHF, 30 MHz to 300 MHz) radio spectrum. VHF radio waves act more like light, traveling in straight lines; hence the reception range is generally limited to about 50-100 miles. During unusual upper atmospheric conditions, FM signals are occasionally reflected back towards the Earth by the ionosphere, resulting in long distance FM reception. FM receivers are subject to the capture effect, which causes the radio to only receive the strongest signal when multiple signals appear on the same frequency. FM receivers are relatively immune to lightning and spark interference.

High power is useful in penetrating buildings, diffracting around hills, and refracting in the dense atmosphere near the horizon for some distance beyond the horizon. Consequently, 100,000 watt FM stations can regularly be heard up to 100 miles (160 km) away, and farther (e.g., 150 miles, 240 km) if there are no competing signals. A few old, “grandfathered” stations do not conform to these power rules. WBCT-FM (93.7) in Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA, runs 320,000 watts ERP, and can increase to 500,000 watts ERP by the terms of its original license. Such a huge power level does not usually help to increase range as much as one might expect, because VHF frequencies travel in nearly straight lines over the horizon and off into space. Nevertheless, when there were fewer FM stations competing, this station could be heard near Bloomington, Illinois, USA, almost 300 miles (500 km) away.^{[citation needed]}

FM subcarrier services are secondary signals transmitted in a “piggyback” fashion along with the main program. Special receivers are required to utilize these services. Analog channels may contain alternative programming, such as reading services for the blind, background music or stereo sound signals. In some extremely crowded metropolitan areas, the sub-channel program might be an alternate foreign language radio program for various ethnic groups. Sub-carriers can also transmit digital data, such as station identification, the current song’s name, web addresses, or stock quotes. In some countries, FM radios automatically re-tune themselves to the same channel in a different district by using sub-bands.

Aviation voice radios use VHF AM. AM is used so that multiple stations on the same channel can be received. (Use of FM would result in stronger stations blocking out reception of weaker stations due to FM’s capture effect). Aircraft fly high enough that their transmitters can be received hundreds of miles (or kilometres) away, even though they are using VHF.

Marine voice radios can use single sideband voice (SSB) in the shortwave High Frequency (HF—3 MHz to 30 MHz) radio spectrum for very long ranges or narrowband FM in the VHF spectrum for much shorter ranges. Narrowband FM sacrifices fidelity to make more channels available within the radio spectrum, by using a smaller range of radio frequencies, usually with five kHz of deviation, versus the 75 kHz used by commercial FM broadcasts, and 25 kHz used for TV sound.

Government, police, fire and commercial voice services also use narrowband FM on special frequencies. Early police radios used AM receivers to receive one-way dispatches.

Civil and military HF (high frequency) voice services use shortwave radio to contact ships at sea, aircraft and isolated settlements. Most use single sideband voice (SSB), which uses less bandwidth than AM. On an AM radio SSB sounds like ducks quacking, or the adults in a Charlie Brown cartoon. Viewed as a graph of frequency versus power, an AM signal shows power where the frequencies of the voice add and subtract with the main radio frequency. SSB cuts the bandwidth in half by suppressing the carrier and (usually) lower sideband. This also makes the transmitter about three times more powerful, because it doesn’t need to transmit the unused carrier and sideband.

TETRA, Terrestrial Trunked Radio is a digital cell phone system for military, police and ambulances. Commercial services such as XM, WorldSpace and Sirius offer encrypted digital Satellite radio.
From Wikipedia ( The free Encyclopedia )

For Your Warehouse of Useless Knowledge

1. 1,525,000,000 miles of telephone wire a strung across the U.S.
2. 101 Dalmatians and Peter Pan (Wendy) are the only two Disney cartoon features with both parents that are present and don’t die throughout the movie.
3. 111,111,111 x 111,111,111 = 12,345,678,987,654,321
4. 12 newborns will be given to the wrong parents daily.
5. 123,000,000 cars are being driven down the U.S’s highways.
6. 160 cars can drive side by side on the Monumental Axis in Brazil, the world’s widest road.
7. 166,875,000,000 pieces of mail are delivered each year in the U.S.
8. 27% of U.S. male college students believe life is “A meaningless existential hell.”
9. 315 entries in Webster’s Dictionary will be misspelled.
10. 5% of Canadians don’t know the first 7 words of the Canadian anthem, but know the first 9 of the American anthem.
11. 56,000,000 people go to Major League baseball each year.
12. 7% of Americans don’t know the first 9 words of the American anthem, but know the first 7 of the Canadian anthem.
13. 85,000,000 tons of paper are used each year in the U.S.
14. 99% of the solar systems mass is concentrated in the sun.
15. A 10-gallon hat barely holds 6 pints.
16. A cat has 32 muscles in each ear.
17. A cockroach can live several weeks with its head cut off.
18. A company in Taiwan makes dinnerware out of wheat, so you can eat your plate.
19. A cow produces 200 times more gas a day than a person.
20. A dime has 118 ridges around the edge.
21. A dragonfly has a lifespan of 24 hours.
22. A fully loaded supertanker travelling at normal speed takes a least twenty minutes to stop.
23. A giraffe can clean its ears with its 21-inch tongue.
24. A giraffe can go without water longer than a camel can.
25. A goldfish has a memory span of three seconds.
26. A hard working adult sweats up to 4 gallons per day. Most of the sweat evaporates before a person realizes it’s there.
27. A hedgehog’s heart beats 300 times a minute on average.
28. A hippo can open its mouth wide enough to fit a 4 foot tall child inside.
29. A hummingbird weighs less than a penny.
30. A jellyfish is 95 percent water.
31. A “jiffy” is an actual unit of time for 1/100th of a second.
32. A jumbo jet uses 4,000 gallons of fuel to take off.
33. A male emperor moth can smell a female emperor moth up to 7 miles away.
34. A man named Charles Osborne had the hiccups for 6 years. Wow.
35. A mole can dig a tunnel 300 feet long in just one night.
36. A monkey was once tried and convicted for smoking a cigarette in South Bend, Indiana.
37. A pig’s orgasm lasts for 30 minutes.
38. A pregnant goldfish is called a twit.
39. A Saudi Arabian woman can get a divorce if her husband doesn’t give her coffee.
40. A shark is the only fish that can blink with both eyes.
41. A quarter has 119 grooves on its edge, a dime has one less groove.
42. A shark can detect one part of blood in 100 million parts of water.
43. A skunk can spray its stinky scent more than 10 feet.
44. A sneeze travels out your mouth at over 100 m.p.h.
45. A toothpick is the object most often choked on by Americans!
46. A walla-walla scene is one where extras pretend to be talking in the background — when they say “walla-walla” it looks like they are actually talking.
47. A whale’s penis is called a dork.
48. About 3000 years ago, most Egyptians died by the time they were 30.
49. About 70% of Americans who go to college do it just to make more money. [The rest of us are avoiding reality for four more years.]
50. According to a British law passed in 1845, attempting to commit suicide was a capital offense. Offenders could be hanged for trying.

Radio advertising is far from being a new concept; in fact, radio advertising has been around for a very long time. Yet, often times business owners and organizations overlook the very real marketing potential that radio advertising offers. Radio advertisements reach individuals when they are in their homes, in their cars, while they are on the Internet, and can even reach them in a public setting. For example, while people are waiting in the doctor’s office for an appointment, or even while they shop, radio advertisements are often played in the background. Such a time is an excellent time for business owners and organizations to get their message heard by the public.

Business owners and organizations also need to realize that not everyone is going to pick up the magazine or newspaper they may decide to advertise in, or they may not even watch television and view commercials—radio advertising is thusly, another way to try and get one’s attention. In fact, if business owners and organizations are using methods other than radio ads to advertise, they may want to consider supplementing their marketing strategy with radio advertisements: it will give the business or organization additional exposure to a previously untapped forum.

WGPA is ready willing and able to take a look at your product and thrust it on to the World stage if you will with the amazing invention of the Internet, we can take you where you want to go. Around the corner or around the World let us help you.

Timmer Broadcasting Company ™  2009

Influenza A H1N1: KEY FACTS

Q: What is Influenza A H1N1?
A: According to the CDC, Influenza A H1N1 is a respiratory disease typically found in pigs that is caused by type A influenza viruses. While it is not typical for humans to contract Influenza A H1N1, human infections occasionally do happen.

Q: Where do these current human cases of Influenza A H1N1 stem from?
A: According to the CDC, human infections with the Influenza A H1N1 were first reported in late March/ early April 2009 in Southern California and San Antonio, Texas. The original source of the infection is unknown.

Q: Is the current strain of Influenza A H1N1 contagious?
A: Yes, the CDC has determined that this Influenza A H1N1 strain is contagious and can spread from human to human.

Q: How does Influenza A H1N1 spread?
A: It has yet to be determined how exactly the current strain of Influenza A H1N1 is spreading, but flu is normally spread through the air via droplets expelled from the mouth when an infected person talks, coughs or sneezes. These droplets often land on hands and adjacent surfaces. Following proper hygiene routines can help prevent the spread of illness.

Q: The World Health Organization has raised the pandemic alert level for influenza A (H1N1) from 5 to 6. What does this mean?
A: It simply means that the WHO is following protocol established for pandemic alert warnings. It does not mean that influenza A (H1N1) is necessarily causing more serious infections, or deaths. It simply indicates that the virus is spreading in additional regions of the world, such as Australia, Japan, Chile and the United Kingdom.₁₂ The declaration is designed to help accelerate the production of a vaccine against this new virus and encourage countries around the world to put additional funding toward pandemic research.₃ According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention representatives, U.S. health authorities have been taking full pandemic preparedness measures over the past month to help protect families from influenza A (H1N1).

Q: How can families protect themselves from Influenza A H1N1?
A: Like all viruses, the best way to help prevent infection and protect your family is to follow proper hygiene routines. These include routines recommended by the CDC Ounce of Prevention Initiative:

• Wash your hands: Thoroughly wash your hands throughout the day with soap and water for 20 seconds (the time it takes to sing the “Happy Birthday” song twice), making sure to scrub underneath the nails and the back of the hands. If soap is not readily available, use a hand sanitizer.Disinfect surfaces: Regularly disinfect the frequently-touched surfaces in your home with a disinfectant to prevent viruses from spreading from surfaces to people.Avoid close contact with people who are sick. And if you yourself are ill, stay home to avoid spreading germs to those around you.

Change the Channel…

If you are contemplating using radio to deliver your advertising message, we’d like to help you make informed decisions. Here are some of the advantages for using this popular medium.

Americans are on the move, they are listening to radio in their cars. Radio is considered the “mobile medium.”

In-Car Listening Facts:
Arbitron is the ratings firm that surveys and analyzes radio usage. A recent national Arbitron sponsored In-Car Study found that 96% of those who have driven or ridden in a car in the past month have used the car radio. More than 80% of 35-64 year olds say they spend most of their time with radio.

Highlights of the Arbitron National In-Car Study
• Americans are in their cars an average of 15 hours per week, up 17% from 1990 to 2009.
• The average commute to work is now 51 minutes round trip.
• 39% say they spend more time in the car now than a year ago.
• The greatest percentage of increase in time-spent-commuting is often in small and medium size markets.
• In-car listening averages 2 hours and 12 minutes weekdays, and 2 hours and five minutes weekends.
• Men spend more time in cars on weekdays. It’s about even between men and women on weekends.
• Since 1999 in-car radio listening has increased.
• 43% say they leave their car radio set to one station.
• Almost all in-car listening is to pre-set stations. People rarely change their pre-sets.

Radio’s audience size continues to grow. Not only with in-car listening, but at the office too.

For the advertiser as well as the listener, radio is everywhere reaching virtually everyone.
Radio works 24/7, 365 days a year. Think about it, how many businesses do you visit where a radio is playing>

A distinctly user-friendly medium, radio gives advertisers the speed, flexibility, and immediacy needed to compete and excel in today’s highly competitive and oft-times cluttered marketplace.

Interesting radio facts:

541,000,000+ radios in use.

5.6 radios per household.

Every car comes with a radio as standard equipment.

169,000,000+ radios in vehicles.

Have you ever thought about how an automobile is a radio on wheels?

Americans spend more time listening to radio than any other medium 6 AM – 6 PM.

Radio gives you the opportunity to effectively target your message to a specific consumer.

Radio is a sound solution as media continues to fragment with increasing cost.

If you are interested contact us here at WGPA SUNNY 1100 AM.

Radio revenue, which has held steady at $20 billion for the past few years, is going to come back, averaging 3.2% growth a year and hitting $28.7 billion in 2016, says research firm SNL Kagan.

Interesting: Just about everyone who doesn’t run a radio company or own shares in one is convinced that the industry is stagnant at best. What does SNL Kagan know that everyone else doesn’t?

We’re not sure. A  summary of the report notes that radio stations have high margins and nice cash flow — true — and that investors have beaten up radio companies over the past few years — also true. But neither of those things explain why revenue is going to increase. So what will make it grow?

The recent bright spots in the revenue picture have been nontraditional revenues and initiatives, including HD channels and incremental growth in internet dollars: The internet generally makes up 3% to 5% of overall revenues for operators, who are hoping for growth of 7% next year and growth of up to 15% in 2016, according to the report.

In addition, many stations are converting to HD, and significant revenue associated with the new technology is expected to emerge next year.

WGPA Streams Audio and Video  around the world and is already advancing into the next step of ” Internet Radio ”. We only hope to better serve you the public with our robust programming that is constantly changing to meet the needs of our listeners and advertisers.

The next level of Radio is right here and moving ahead every day. Here is your chance to get in on the ground floor so to speak for once these Radio Station/ Production Companies take off it may be too late to climb aboard !

WGPA SUNNY 1100AM  – Timmer Broadcasting Company ™                                                            June 2009