TV Garth: Adventures In Detroit including my visit to WDIV!

Greetings TV Garth readers! I was recently part of a road trip with friends (Mr. A, Chantal & Marsha) to Michigan for the JemCon (devoted to the Truly Outrageous 80’s cartoon!) While in Michigan, I got to experience some first hand TV adventures with Detroit market stations! Making the trip even more exciting was the fact that I picked up Detroit’s WDIV from my own home in Markham only a day or so before we saw the station in person!

We began our trip Friday Sept. 25th. As soon as we crossed the border, I saw this awesome billboard for FlashForward on Detroit’s WXYZ and whipped out my camera to take a pic.

Later in the evening, my friends and I ventured out to visit a couple of gay bars while we were in Detroit. To my surprise we were right near a Hungry Howie’s location! I had first heard of Hungry Howie’s via a series of humourous commercials shown on Erie, PA stations. (I had no idea the chain even stretched as far as Detroit.) I was expecting it to have some fun “diva sass” like this woman in a giant pepperoni costume does (seen on Erie’s 12-2 WBEP):

Instead, this is what Detroit’s Hungry Howie’s looks like. Oh my…. The location itself looked plenty sketchy, but the photo makes it look even worse because it was at night and I was taking it from across the street. Sketchy or not, it was still neat to see a pizza place in person that I’d only seen advertised on my "tropo” TV stations.

We were safe from the sketchy inside of Diamond Jim’s Saloon!

After a few Jell-o shots and a delicious alcoholic slushie, Mr. A noticed that there was a TV at the bar showing the WXYZ news. He was encouraging me to take pics of the station’s weather, knowing how much I love capturing it at home during tropo events. Despite my fears about “coming out” as a TV DXer, I ran up and got one shot of Detroit 7’s weather just as they zoomed out to promote their website. (I know it technically doesn’t count as DXing, but still….it’s WXYZ and it’s weather! I love it! Especially the way they ponder “Will it be nasty?” at the bottom right corner of the screen!)

When we left the bar, we got lost on the way back to our hotel (which was in Romulus, MI.) But in our travels, we passed by Cattleman’s which made me squeal because I had seen them advertise on Detroit’s WMYD back in July 2009 when I first picked up their station at my house!

Below is the pic I took (and you can kinda make out the orange-y glow of the Cattleman’s “bull” logo). The pic isn’t the best because I was taking it through the window of a moving car at night. (Plus, Chantal showed much patience in navigating us back to the hotel and I couldn’t really say “Stop! I need to get out and take pics!) When I went back to look at my pics of the Cattleman’s ad that I saw back in the Summer, it made sense that we passed by, as we went down Telegraph and Goddard to eventually find our way back to Wick Road in Romulus.

On Saturday morning, Sept. 26th, we were up at the crack of dawn to pick up our friend Marsha from the Detroit Greyhound bus terminal. I did some investigative research, and found out that the Greyhound terminal was only a minute away from Detroit’s NBC station WDIV! (They’re one of the two Detroit stations I’ve captured from my own home in Markham! WDIV is also noteworthy for having some of the scariest local news I’ve ever seen compared to other markets I’ve watched.) So I dragged my friends along so I could get pics and hopefully visit the station.

There are three flags that fly high and proud outside the station, including the one below that promotes WDIV and their Click On Detroit website.

This appears to be a control panel with four different TV feeds inside the WDIV offices. (I suppose four feeds is appropriate for a station that brands itself Local 4. Heh…) I captured this pic from outside the station’s studios.

[Insert sound of angelic choir.] Here is the main WDIV Local 4 pillar outside of their studios!

Here I am putting on my best Vanna White impression (according to Mr. A) in order to show off the awesomeness of the sign!

Yes, I actually stood there and modeled with the sign for several minutes as my friends took pictures.

When it came time to go inside the station, the outer door appeared locked, but a security guard buzzed us in. As soon as we stepped in, I was enthralled by a tiny lobby area that was plastered with NBC promotional pictures above a couch, along with a pillar that had a poster with Local 4’s September ratings victories. Mr. A captured that poster in the pic below! (Check out the hilarious snark on rival station WXYZ in the top blurb about Local 4 Morning News! Click on the pic to see the large version.)

I then snapped out of my haze when the Stern Yet Pretty Security Guard behind glass wanted to know why we were there. I forget exactly what I said, but I stammered something like “I love the station, and was wondering if it’s ok to take some pictures?” as I pointed towards the lobby. SYPSG replied “No, are you here for an appointment?” I replied “No,” and then my elation turned to deflation when she spat “You have to leave.” Mr. A gamely protested, “He came all the way from Toronto to see your station!” SYPSG wasn’t having that and repeated “You have to leave.” I then said “No problem, thank you” and we were on our way. Marsha later commented that she thought I was very polite in contrast to the SYPSG’s rudeness. (SYPSG was sort of staid and unapologetic to us, which seemed kinda cold. She didn’t even attempt a “Sorry we don’t do tours” kinda thing.)

But when I came home from the trip I did some digging and found out that the station apparently stepped up security big time around 2005 after a nutcase started harassing WDIV employees and eventually shot one of them in that very lobby. (From what I’ve read, that’s possibly even the reason why the station has to buzz you in, and the Guard speaks to you through a ginormous sheet of bullet proof glass!) So it made a bit more sense that the Guards wouldn’t be that nice, even to wide eyed, friendly TV fans from Canada. Maybe I should have pulled a Lucy Ricardo, and faked my way in. I could have said “Yes I have an appointment! I’m Rhonda Walker’s stylist, and today we’re going to figure out whether her hair should take more influence from Kate Gosselin or Rihanna.”

Out of nowhere, Rhonda appeared and snarled “What the F**k are you talking about??? My hair’s just fine!”

Then I thought about the poor Stern Yet Pretty Security Guard and how it’s her job to sit there all day behind the bullet proof glass trying to keep nutbars away from WDIV. How stressful is that? I can imagine her starring in one of those “dance is the passion in her heart” movies where she’d come home from a long day at WDIV, lock the four locks that protect her apartment, and press play on a (most likely atrocious) “update” of the Irene Cara hit “What A Feeling.” She’d then break into a tightly choreographed routine showing off her highly skilled moves, and the promo for the film would have her screaming: “They can try to shatter the [bullet proof] glass, but they can’t shatter my soul!” And to tie it all back to her job at Local 4, they could call the movie Don’t 4get To Dance.

But back to life, back to reality… I took a chance, had no real “plan” mapped out except a desire to see WDIV, and I saw more of the station than I expected. So even though they threw us out, I still heart WDIV (maybe not as much as Utica’s WKTV….but I’ll spark that rivalry another day!)

Don’t 4get to check out my Flickr gallery of TV DXing during Sept. 23-24, 2009 which includes pics of WDIV when I received it in Markham.

Stay tuned to TV Garth for more TV adventures and Reception Reports!