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Someone tuned into our International Village broadcast last week from 9,393 miles away.

More than 100 listeners checked in during our broadcast last Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, and while most were from Western Pennsylvania, at least one was from Okaya, Japan, about three hours west of Tokyo. Domo arigato to you, anonymous listener from the city of 52,000 people.

(If you'd like to visit Okaya, Google's directions helpfully include the information, "kayak across the Pacific Ocean 2,756 miles to Honolulu, Hawaii.")

Besides Our Fair City, the majority of our listeners came from such nearby locations as Pittsburgh, Homestead and Elizabeth. A few came from not-too-distant places like New Kensington, Butler and Baden, Beaver County, or from farther-off Pennsylvania towns such as Newville, Erie and Coudersport.

But we also had listeners from Stamford, Conn.; Jacksonville, Orange Park and Fort Myers, Fla.; Austin, Texas; Cleveland, Barberton, Mansfield and Englewood, Ohio; Wichita, Kan.; Brunswick and St. Louis, Mo.; Norfolk and Reston, Va.; Andover and Peabody, Mass.; Brooklyn and New York City, N.Y.; Chicago, Ill.; Columbia, S.C.; Athens, Ga.; and Livingston, N.J.

One listener even hailed from the picturesquely named town of Queen Creek, Ariz., population 26,361.

Thank you to everyone for tuning in, and to our broadcast volunteers --- Alycia Bencloski, Derrick Brashear, Doug Goffus, Dan Malesky, Eric O'Brien and Denise Ritter --- who made the event so successful, along with Bob Hoffman and Tom Schroll for their technical support. See you in 2012!

. . .

As for our FM radio broadcast over 92.3, it was designed to be heard only in Renziehausen Park.

But we've received unconfirmed reports of people hearing at least snippets as far away as Route 837 in Duquesne and on Foster Road in North Versailles. I was able to pull in the signal (just barely) in the Grandview, Fawcett Plan and Haler Heights sections of the city. If you were able to hear us on FM, please drop me a note and let me know how it sounded.

. . .

Winner of the Tube City Beer clock was Jesse N. of Elizabeth, while the WMCK coffee mug went to Mike M. of Munhall. Thank you to everyone who visited our booth --- many of you had kind words to say about Tube City Almanac, while others were just looking for the portable toilets. We could tell the difference --- the latter were hopping up and down on one foot.

. . .

Meanwhile, our International Village neighbors at Striffler's Family Funeral Homes awarded prizes of their own. According to Sue Striffler Galaski, supervisor, the following were awarded at the village:

• $100 Get Go Gift Card: Linda James (no address given)


• $25 Get Go Gift Cards: Kristina Johnson, Duquesne, and Kathy Daerr, West Mifflin


• $20 Eat 'n Park Gift Card: Armond Lann, McKeesport


• Kennywood Tickets: Christina Hughes, Elizabeth


• Striffler T-shirt and NAPA Auto Parts backpack: Laci Steiner (no address given)

. . .

For more photos from International Village, click the link that says (what else?) ... more!

All photos © 2011 Denise L. Ritter, special to Tube City Almanac.

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