I am so happy I found this site!  I find it very interesting, knowledgeable and at times humorous. Thank you RA for keeping this site going and also a thank you to Iain Grant for the GTA information.  When I hear sirens in my neighbourhood, I just check Iain's post and I can usually find out what is happening.  Keep up the great work!

Happy A Day eh. 

And 9 more years - at least. Well done RA and all!

Happy 9th Birthday.  Thanks to Dale Patterson for starting SOWNY, Ian Grant, Craig Smith for bringing it back and RA for keeping the boat afloat.  A great site and lots of fun. Congratulations all!  

All the hard work from the very start has made SOWNY a go-to site for many of us. Thank you to all who have and continue to make it happen. Particular thanks to RA for solid moderation.

Thanks RA, for all the hard work over the years of refereeing, maintaining order and doing your best to make sure we all "play nice in the sandbox", as Craig Smith used to say. 



PJ

Lots of hard work to make and keep "Big Yellow" going. Thanks to all, and RA especially for continuing the site. Hopefully, many more years ahead - for all of us.

If you think about it, this board was one of the safe spaces we had during the pandemic, a bit of normal in an uncertain and scary world.

Happy 9th! Anniversary to everyone who reads and contributes. I've learned many fascinating, fun, useful and interesting things and on more than one occasion laughed out loud.

And sincere thanks to Dale, Iain and the man who, day in and day out, keeps the content of the big yellow board fresh and on track, the pun and only RadioActive.

Last edited by betaylored (May 28, 2024 3:49 pm)

RadioActive wrote:

Thanks for all the kind words, but it's you guys and gals who make SOWNY by sharing your thoughts and opinions. 

Does that make this SOWNY & Share?

The beat goes on...

That put a smile on my face this morning. RA, you never disappoint with your puns.

RadioActive wrote:

There have been many incarnations of the SOWNY Board since Dale Patterson first started it a few decades ago. The much-missed Craig Smith was one of those who took over and continued to make it work.
 
March 28th is the 9th anniversary of this current version of the Board, restarted by Iain Grant of CFRB in 2015 when it was suddenly shut down by its previous administrator. But it didn’t stay that way for long. The same day the third (or was it the fourth?) version of SOWNY disappeared, Iain had it back up with a new version, the very site you’re reading now.
 
So what was the very first post on that momentous day when SOWNY returned once more from the dead? To be honest, it wasn’t all that great a message, but Iain apparently needed something to post here just to get things started, so he wound up with this – ironic, considering the job was long filled and Shaw doesn’t even exist anymore. But most were appreciative of his efforts.

Here's a look at that very first page of topics.
 
So how in the world did someone so unqualified as yours truly end up doing this? Several years into it, Iain was busy with work and – noticing I tended to post a lot (some would say way too much) and seemed to care about the place – he sent me a DM asking if I wanted to take over as Board Admin., with the warning that he was otherwise going to shut it down for good, since it was taking far too much of his time.
 
After thinking it over and being warned repeatedly that I should say no by a lot of well meaning people, I finally said yes rather than see it go into what syndicated radio host Kim Komando calls "The Intergalactic Bit Bucket."
 
And so here we are almost a decade later. But I take no credit for keeping this place alive. It’s all those of you who post and/or read the site on a regular basis that makes it worthwhile to keep it going. At last count, we have more than 1,550 members and just under 77,000 posts.
 
So happy ninth anniversary to SOWNY. I appreciate all who regularly stop by here.  And thanks for not letting it go by the “boards.”

The original SOWNY board was started in October 1998 (it wasn't even called SOWNY at that time). It was originally a place where Rock Radio Scrapbook visitors could gather and chat. It took a while to get noticed, and I almost closed it due to lack of traffic. But interest picked up in late 1999 and then just exploded. Craig Smith took it over in February 2000 and moderated it until his death in September 2010. He was succeeded by Rob Edds, then by Iain Grant, who actually served two separate tours of duty before and after the original board's brief closing in 2015. Iain later handed the reins to RA and the rest is history.
 

RadioActive wrote:

Thanks for the history Dale. I'd long forgotten how far back this thing goes. But wasn't there also a ham radio operator of some kind who was an admin. at some point before Iain? I can't quite recall his name. 

Phil McBride?