DNTO is working on a special on Stanley Park. We’re looking for stories on strange things that have happened in the park so if you have an interesting or entertaining answer to the question: What is the craziest thing you’ve done in Stanley Park? Please call their listener line (1-866-630-3686) and leave your name and number along with the story. And tell them you found out about this through the Inside the CBC blog.

DNTO’s Nick Purdon is working on a piece (for his upcoming summer show Hidden City) about personal space in the city — how to deal with crowded subways, close talkers, and (here’s the part where you come in) neighbours.  Neighbours who insist on crowding you out of your backyard space. People who “accidently” build fences on your property, or hang laundry lines from your trees. Knuckleheads who build massive, ugly garages two centimetres from your house.  If you’re in the midst of an epic “Battle of the Property Lines” with such a neighbour, we want to hear from you!  Please email Sara Tate at sara_tate@cbc.ca with the subject line “Get the heck off my property!”

This year marks the 40th anniversary of Expo ‘67, a turning point in Canadian culture. To celebrate, DNTO is marking the anniversary by devoting its June 23 episode to looking at the lasting impact of Expo ‘67. They’re seeking stories from you of what Expo ‘67 means to you. 1. How did Expo ‘67 change you? 2. What’s the biggest difference Expo ‘67 made to Montreal (or to Canada as a whole)? 3. What would we NOT have if it weren’t for Expo ‘67 (besides a new island in the St. Lawrence)? If you’d like to answer one or all of these questions, or have an Expo story to share, please call the DNTO listener line. That number is (204) 788-3182. You can also e-mail your story to dnto@cbc.ca.

DNTO’s pop culture professor and neurotic jock, Nick Purdon, is working on a brand new radio show — and he needs your help!

But first, some background. The show is called “Hidden City,” and it willl air this summer on CBC Radio One. The idea is to explore the hidden things — unwritten rules, behaviours and activities that most of us don’t notice but are integral to life in the city. It is about exploring the life of that unique human creature known as the “urbanoid.”

One of his episodes is about noise in the city, and he’s interested in exploring it at the micro-level — as in, the noise that drives neighbours crazy. So he and his production team are looking for people who are currently at war with a neighbour about loud music, barking dogs, shrieking kids, or any of the gazillions of noises that drive the modern urban dweller batty. They want people who’ve been feuding for a while. People who’ve tried to reach out to their neighbour, to no avail. People who are at their wit’s end.

Do you know of such a person (or maybe it’s you!)? Email Sara Tate at sara_tate@cbc.ca with the subject line “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore!!”

* Note: The term “whack,” of course, coming from the Latin whackus, meaning “to air a radio story about.” Has nothing to do with mobsters.

So, while producing my tech column for this week, I was digging around for some sound effects. I ran across one called “Muttering Crowd.”

Often, when you’re in public radio and on a limited budget, you have to make your own sound effects. This is something that my colleagues who produce Definitely Not The Opera at quite good at doing. That’s part of why I enjoyed working for that show. They’re based in Winnipeg, but as the west-coast producer, I could call up (as I did) and say “Hey, I need the sound of a crowd kind of muttering in the background about nothing. Something I can layer underneath a piece I’m working on.”

So rather than dig through the thousands (read: dozens) of sound effect CDs we have for just the right sound, the crew in Winnipeg would all gather in the little sound booth and just make the sound for me.

And so, I present to you, for the first time revealed in its entirety ever publicly, the raw sound of a crowd muttering, as performed by the production team of DNTO. (Some of them were laughing a bit during it because, let’s face it, gathering a dozen people in a room to mutter incoherently — for a living — is kinda funny.)… (more…)