I've worked in radio.  I've worked in sales.  Now, I work in radio sales, and more.  If you've kept up with my personal blogging, you'll know that I had a stint with ABC Radio, doing commercials for 92.5 KQRS, 93X and was a DJ on Drive-105.  You can read that story here.  Recently, I've been employed for over two years as the Advertising Manager at the Northfield News.  On Monday January 5th, they suddenly let go of me and Creative Services supervisor me due to the economic downturn as sited in their article in the paper on January 7th 2009.   On Tuesday January 6th, (one week ago) the new owner and long time employee of KYMN Radio, Jeff Johnson and I sought out each other for lunch to discuss the possibility of finally working together.  We have been friends for a few years and I have always been a fan of Jeff's radio talent.  In fact, in 2005, I did some volunteer work for Jeff recording some commercials for the station.  I've quietly craved getting back into the studio since. 

Fast forward through the routine employment detail discussions and I am now officially announcing my employment with 1080 KYMN radio in Northfield Minnesota as VP of Sales Operations.  In addition, I am very exited about some big changes coming for the station.  Ready for this?  You'll see some format changes, a new logo, new programs, equipment upgrades, updating the offices, a website with live-streaming, and I will eventually be taking some on-air roles myself.  My job duties will include overseeing the advertising group and all ad sales for the company, which will including putting together promotional programs for local customers that will be effective and affordable.  I will also work on commercial production and manage the online presence including web advertising.  Maybe if I am lucky, Jeff will give me my own show eventually.  I can hear it now..."it's Tim on KYMN".

I will need to wear many hats as I help Jeff re-vitalize our community radio station.  I want to be part of the vision that Jeff has in delivering to the community a locally-owned media service that they deserve. KYMN has been here for over 40 years.  Here's to 40 more! 

I have been teaching piano on and off since 1990.  I have recently been carrying a load of 6-12 students and have a few openings at the moment.  If you'd be interested in talking, please send me an email (contact Tim) and we can discuss my program.  I prefer 5th grade and up, but will consider motivated younger students.  I also teach adults. 

I have attached information on my program that I give out the first day.  

Thanks!

Tim Freeland

Click here to watch me play one of my favorite piano songs.

What started out as a weekly "meeting of the minds" at the Rueb n' Stein in downtown Northfield turned into what we believe to be a unique concept.  Adam Gurno  & Tim Freeland have teamed up to launch a mostly web-based endeavor that turns old photos and any video into a custom tailored presentation for any event, set to your choice of music and fully personalized to please. 

"We really seemed to click and had unique talents that fit together perfectly," said Tim.  "We found a shared interest in entrepreneurial endeavors and quickly agreed that the path to success was to include the latest technology and had to be driven by an online presence."

The concept of their business includes taking old and new photos and video relevant to a certain person or event, for example, and artistically weaving them together  into one flowing presentation, all to the beat of your chosen musical soundtrack.  Using their own experiences along with the latest video and digital photography software, they are able to enhance, fix, alter, blend and direct the content together in ways that tell a story. 

"Tim had skills with business management, video production, advertising, sales, video archiving and photo restoration while I had experience with building online web site systems, multi-media software, video editing, artistic direction as well as working with the local Northfield Citizens Online (NCO) group and running Northfield.org," explained Adam.

I promise, this is not meant to be sac-religious at all.  I came up with the cleaver idea last DJJD and thought I would mass produce a tee-shirt for the 2008 event.  The problem is that I don't know which version to print.  Please comment below and let me know which you like best or provide your own idea.  The font, cowboy graphic and copy is not final.  Please respect my creative ownership.  Thanks to Adam Gurno for a few of the tag lines.

....leave the Youngers at home next time

...probably shoot you in the head

...take up fishing next time

...probably skip Northfield next time

Finally I have done it.  The wife was away today so I set my brand new Sony DSC-H9 camera on top of my tripod and started to film some of my magic effects.  The very first one is a floating bill.  Very awesome trick.  I've been studying and performing magic for 15 years now.  I always say "I do the cool magic...not the stuff you see on stage, like with doves and magic assistants".  I think a lot of magicians give the art a bad name by being super-corny.  If you've seen David Blaine or street magicians, that's more my style.  My magic is close-up, interactive and in your hands.  It's perfect for trade shows, parties, happy hours, etc.  I work best when I can float around and mingle with small groups so that everyone can be involved.

Last weekend I did a show in Faribault for the "Health Finders" fund raiser.   Thanks Pauline & Paula (reporter and publisher).  Click here to see my blog on it.  

Enjoy the video

I learned this technique from Mozart.  Well..from the Amadeus Mozart film.  Take a song you know well, lay upside and cross your arms.  Then just play as normal.  It really works.  Looks like your some prodigy, but it's really easy.  Check out the video below.

One of my worst takes ever.  But, I was too tired to re-try.  I also wimped out and skipped over 2 solo's.  Anyways...here I am.  Playing on my new Yamaha Portable Digital Grand YPG-625.

I've decided to sell of 6 of my neon beer signs.  I put them on eBay with local pick up only.  If you or anyone is interested in making me an offer outside eBay, just let me know.  Click below to go to eBay. 

I was pleasantly surprised this morning when I found a large story and a photo of me doing card magic at the "Health Finders" gala on page 3A of the Sunday edition of the Faribault Daily News.  What a great event.  It was well attended and very classy.  I was able to walk around the crowd and entertain individual tables while they had dinner.   I was able to turn the "oh crap a magician" look into a "I can't believe what I just saw" look.  That's why I do what I do.

I did have to question the placement of this story.  Please don't confuse it's elegance and philanthropic tone with the murder and drunk driving story found on the left rail and the sex sting story on the right rail.  But heck, I work in the news industry.  There's only so much room on a page to fit in all the local content.

FARIBAULT - Magician hobbyist Tim Freeland delighted diners at Saturday night's "An Evening Under the Stars" HealthFinders 5th annual gala.
He did card and other slight-of-hand magic tricks. Those attending the gala, however, knew there is no magic cure to the issue of families and individuals without health insurance.

"The need is so great," said Rae Crumsby, co-chair of the HealthFinders Board of Directors. "When the free clinic started in the summer of 2005, it was open one night a week. Now it's open two nights a week for three hours each night, but we are scheduled out with appointments a month or more in advance."

In the spring of 2004 I came up with a great idea.  I was standing in the back yard of my house and looked down the neighbors back yards in my block.  It seemed that almost half had one of those gigantic wooden play fort swing sets, maybe of which were Rainbow Play-systems.  Rainbow is the "Cadillac" of forts and can be denoted by their trademark red, yellow and blue striped canopies.  Rainbow is very expensive.  So my good friend Chad and I got together and went to work for Rainbow installing these sets.  Out goal was to learn about the product and either try to re-sell Rainbow or make our own models.  Well..it didn't take long to rule out manufacturing and we hooked up with Outback Play-systems in Wisconsin.  We bought by the truck load and installed all over the twin cities.  There was some rewarding about putting these fun little kits together.  It paid pretty well. 

After installing these for just one summer, I ended up here.  I had wrecked my right shoulder.  Four years later I had the surgery.  I held off for so long hoping it would go away only to ice the pain away every day. 

Well, I'm back and available to install should anyone be in the market.  Just shoot me an email to learn about the various brands on the market.

Don't Let this happen to you....Call us!

Here's a photo from 1979 of Chad, Andy and I building our first fort.