I caught Information Morning this morning on 1070 AM out of CBC Moncton. We think of AM radio as what you play in the car now when you run out of tapes or CDs when you are far from town but, like longwave airline beacons, they can still guide through the night. Fewer and fewer AM CBC signals are out there. In my adult life Halifax, Montreal and Toronto have all moved to short distance FM. We are left in hte night with too much Drudge and other syndicated US homogenizers talking over eastern North America.

To get Moncton, Sarnia must be nulled. One of those awful good time oldies format money makers - nothing local and nothing for anyone under 60, but lots of ads. Nulling is like something out of Hornblower, setting a course on the waves of propagation. Your basic AM radio has a basic carbon rod for an antenna. To null, you point the antenna's end at the direction of the undesired incoming signal. It is a delicate task, a few degrees NWN here, raise the radio's edge a few degrees as well and - presto - no more Sarnia and the f'ing Mommas and Poppas. The desired station comes in clear through the broadside. You can (ed: could) buy fancy rigs to do the job...or just mutter "aye, aye, captain" to yourself as your wife calls you a weirdo as you lean your radio up on bedside books.