The Ray Times

Christmas 2008

Our latest chapter in the adventures of the Ray family actually starts on December 26, 2007. Tom needed a second wireless network router and print server for the house. Sue, Sarah and Tom walked into Best Buy – and saw 40 WII’s sitting on a cart near the front door. Sure they were units that hadn’t arrived in time for Christmas and were spoken for, Sue asked tentatively if they were for sale. The manager said they arrived unexpectedly on the truck that morning – so Sarah whipped out her birthday and Christmas money and got herself a WII. If we knew it would be so easy, we wouldn’t have spent hours trying to find one online for her for Christmas!

Tom’s job changed on January 1 – something he couldn’t talk about in our letter last Christmas. The General Managers at both WOR and Buckley’s Hartford stations retired on December 31, 2007. The GM in Hartford, Wayne Mulligan, was also overseeing the tech operations in Hartford and Syracuse, as he was the Chief Engineer at WDRC and hired Tom when Tom was in high school. Tom is now directly responsible for the technical operation of WOR and The WOR Radio Networks, Buckley’s 5 stations in Hartford (WDRC, WDRC-FM, WMMW, WWCO and WSNG) and Buckley’s 3 stations in the Syracuse market (WSEN, WSEN-FM, and WFBL). Tom isn’t in New York every day any longer, and spent a good portion of January through April in Syracuse installing a new digital on-air system and taking care of some issues that needed to be addressed. It’s also very cool that he is now in charge technically of the stations he started at – WDRC and WDRC-FM. He’s also the acting General Manager at WOR when the GM is out. It’s interesting and a challenge. Especially the snow factor in Syracuse in the winter. He was up there in February. Baldwinsville (where the studios and two transmitters are) got about an inch of snow one day – ten miles north of Baldwinsville, they got 42”.

In February, Tom made his longest distance Ham Radio contact with a station in Odawara, Japan. He also put up a website for his (ugh!) 30^th High School reunion – http://www.bloomfieldhighreunion78.com. Tom’s age keeps marching on.

Michael Strahan, coach Tom Coughlin, and Super Bowl MVP Eli Manning at the NY Giants Ticker Tape Parade in the Canyon of Heros, NYC.

Tom and Chris Tobin from 1010 WINS setting up before the parade.

Also in February, Tom’s New York Giants won the Super Bowl in a fantastic game. The ticker tape parade in New York City went right by 111 Broadway where WOR is. So Tom basically had a front row seat for the parade on one of the 3^rd floor parapets. Tommy was considering skipping school and going – and decided not to. Besides the instructor, he was the only one in the class that day. Too bad. Tom reserves all gloating rights.

In March, Tom’s book, “HD Radio Implementation : The Field Guide for Facility Conversion” was published by Focal Press. Go ahead. Look him up on Amazon or Barnes and Noble.com. It’s a straight forward guide to installing HD Radio transmission facilities and what stations need to know to make it work. The website for the book is http://www.hdradiofieldguide.com.

NAB in April was somewhat quiet for Tom, as he wasn’t presenting a paper and wasn’t on any committees. He did, however, have a book signing at the Society of Broadcast Engineers booth which was kind of cool.

In May, Tommy ended the semester at Dutchess Community College with a solid B average. He’s looking for an internship. Actually, he’s looking for a job. He’s also applied at SUNY New Paltz to continue his education.


The Grad and Family	Tom and Sarah at Sarah's graduation dinner

June brought a graduation to the Ray household, as Sarah graduated from the 8^th grade of St. Joseph’s School here in New Windsor. The graduation was attended by Tom’s mother and step father from Arizona, as well as Tom’s brother Rob and his girlfriend, Joann. Tom is now feeling very old and has ordered a walker with the high tech two stroke engine. Sarah is now attending Washingtonville High School. Sarah graduated with a 98 average, passed the State Social Studies test with a 99, and passed the Integrated Algebra Regents exam (required for high school graduation – and normally given in either 9^th or 10^th grade) with an 84.

June also brought Ham Radio Field Day again – and Tom once again tuned the flagpole in Cronomer Hill Park to 40 Meters. Farthest contact with 5 watts? Hawaii. Tom also worked over 200 stations in 2 hours on 20 meters. What a hoot!

Also in June – before the graduation – Sue and Tom pulled out the lousy overgrown plants in front of the house. Sue and Tom had their first case of poison ivy (never had it before) and required drugs to clear it up. New plants were planted. The good news out of all of this is Tom bought a chain saw and got to kill things with it. Additionally, Tom and Sue’s economic stimulus check went to a new well pump. Sigh.

In July, Sarah was hospitalized with seizures. There is no family history of seizures, and all tests were negative – thankfully. Sarah’s doctor says that sometimes, at this age, some people are just prone to seizures. She is doing very well on medication, and the doctor thinks that if she stays seizure free for two years, she can be weaned off the medication for good. Tom literally aged 10 years in the week Sarah was in the hospital. Also, Sarah decided to take up archery while Tom was trying to shoot a rope into a tree in the back yard to put up a 160 meter Inverted V ham antenna. Sarah got the rope in the tree on the first shot. Sigh.

In July and August, Sarah bought all of the Stephenie Meyers books about Vampires and Werewolves. She read them all in about a month and is looking forward to the movie, “Twilight”, in November.

In August, Sue and Sarah went shopping for school clothes (Sue is teaching computers again this year at St. Joe’s). Mastercard sent Tom stock certificates. Also in August, Tom and Tommy attended the Jets/Giants pre-season game. The Jets won – but only because the Giants felt sorry for them, being Super Bowl champs and such. WOR’s tickets are great. First mezzanine. First row. Fifty yard line. Home side of the field. Doesn’t get much better than that (cell phone self portrait to the left). Incidentally, Tommy is a Jets fan. Tom swears we tried to bring him up right!

The State Fair was early this year because Labor Day was September 1. Tom and Tommy somehow didn’t manage to get thrown out again this year. As a matter of fact, they got a temporary job helping out by following fat people around with a tuba (if you’re a fan of the TV show “Family Guy”, you’re on the floor laughing right now!). Tommy had a friend come in from Binghamton, so they spent Saturday afternoon and night at the fair. Tom did not have to bail them out. Sarah came in 2nd in the State in Cavy knowledge, and her Guinea Pig Holly (a White Crested) came in Best of Show. Orange County dominated the Cavy awards again this year.

Sarah started her FRESHMAN YEAR of HIGH SCHOOL on September 3 at Washingtonville High School. Sarah is playing flute in the concert band and pep band, and has joined Jr. ROTC. Tommy started his last semester at Dutchess Community College. Sue, being the masochist that she is, took over as leader of the 4-H Cavy club – the Cavy club decided to split from the rabbit club. Sarah is doing very well in school and is taking on the entire high school experience.

When the stock market crashed in September, Tom was assigned “body watch”, as he can see Wall Street from his office. And he found a use for those now worthless Mastercard stock certificates borne out of necessity - and desperation - when the “spare roll” was missing from the bathroom.

The unfortunate part of the economic bust was that in October, Tom had to take the Hartford stations to “unattended operation” and almost 1/3 of the staff was let go. In November, Tom took the Syracuse stations to unattended operation. It was neither fun nor a good time.

Sue was busy in September, October and November making Christmas presents for family members – gifts of which cannot be mentioned here, as family members are reading this and then would no longer be surprised. That, and Tom would get slugged.

Sue has been having pain in her back and legs – and has trouble feeling where her left foot is. An MRI showed just normal age related degeneration in her spine, and she has been referred to a neurologist for evaluation for a nerve disease. Stay tuned.

In November, Tom’s mother went flying off a treadmill at the gym at their complex in Phoenix breaking her shoulder. The doctor said that falling on her face was the best thing that happened to her as the CAT scan they performed showed two very small masses in the left front lobe of her brain. A follow up MRI showed two possible tumors, most likely from her lung cancer 5 years ago. Mom will be undergoing Cyberknife treatment in either late November or early December.

Tommy was accepted at SUNY New Paltz in November and will be starting there in January. He also has an interview with the Office of Radio and Television at the Archdiocese of Hartford for a possible television production position.

In November, Sarah was promoted in Jr. ROTC to Cadet Private, one of only 3 new cadets in the program to be promoted thus far. The promotion is based on academic standing and participation, among other things.

.Well, that’s about it here in New York. Hope your year went well – and hope this Holiday Season finds you happy and healthy. As always, we can be found on email: Tom – tomray at hvc.rr.com : Sue – sueray at hvc.rr.com : Tom 4 – tomray4 at hvc.rr.com : Sarah – sarahray at hvc.rr.com.

PS – Santa can feel free to bring another Super Bowl championship to the NY Giants this year. If it turns into a Jets/Giants Super Bowl, it’s going to be VERY interesting around the Ray house! :o)