It’s probably fair to say that in the year 1979, Ottawa was not a particularly \u201ccool\u201d place.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n I was 13 years-old, hopelessly white and just starting high school. I wanted to be cool but didn’t have the foggiest notion how to go about it. Cool was an undiscovered, mythic country that existed off at some unknowable distance, and I was lost, so very, very lost.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Eventually, I learned that the best passage to this land was through music. At the time, while punk and new wave were exploding around me, Billy Joel was my God, and this was not cool. <\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n I found out that the music I had been listening to was wretched kid’s stuff, as were the lame, middle of the road radio stations I pledged allegiance to. If I wanted to be cool, I had to listen to college radio, CKCU specifically.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n