TV Garth: Things I Learned From The “Magic Tropo Ride” of Mid-January!

Greetings TV Garth readers! The weather is back to freezing and snowy cold (with no more wild TV reception), but I wanted to do one more post related to the SUPER Tropo Event of Mid-January. This time, it’s a look back at what I learned from the many stations I watched during that legendary weekend. (Click here for a recap of all the reception from that weekend.)

Without further ado, here’s what I learned from the Mid-January burst of long distance TV reception:

• Joel Schipper (of South Bend, IN’s WNDU) has done entertainment reports from Toronto and even worked as a freelance correspondent for the show Star! Daily on Canada’s Star! Network.

• Recliners make great snowmobiles! (Commercial for Schroeder Furniture seen on South Bend, IN’s WSBT. Click here to download and watch the ad!)

• There’s a cool store called Detroit Comics in Michigan! (I love me some Wonder Woman and Archie!) Seen on Detroit, MI’s WMYD.

• CSI Weekends (both NY and Miami) are everywhere in syndication! I saw the same episodes on several channels including Lansing, MI’s WLNS pictured below, as well as South Bend, IN’s WSBT and Cleveland, OH’s WEWS!

• A furniture advertisement had a more impressive ball drop than the one seen on Dick Clark’s Rockin’ New Year’s Eve last month. (Furniture Row ad seen on Lansing, MI’s WLNS.)

• “Michiana” is the cute nickname for the general area between Michigan and Indiana, using South Bend as the centre point. (Ads for Jobs Michiana and Michiana Guide below seen on South Bend, IN’s WNDU!)

• Mattresses are, indeed, manufactured in Lansing, MI! This was revealed in the so-cheesy-it’s-magic faux TV interview shown below for The Mattress Source and Capitol Bedding. (Seen on Lansing, MI’s WLNS!)

• Conan O’Brien got royally screwed by NBC (and I still feel to some extent by Jay Leno too, no matter how he or Oprah tries to spin it.) I already knew this, but didn’t make a posting about it until now. TV Garth is proudly on Team Conan.

• Jerry Springer is just as trash-tacular as ever no matter what city I’m watching it from. (Seen on Detroit, MI’s WMYD.)

• Matlock is still running in syndication, bringing back fond memories of watching it as a kid with my family! (Seen on Cleveland, OH’s WEWS.)

• The news graphic below looked slightly inappropriate and confusing until the story explained that the party was intended to raise money for Haiti. (Seen on Lansing, MI’s WLNS.)

• Speedy G Bail Bonds will quickly spring your loved ones from jail - for a fee, of course! Check out the Lansing Police Department in the background. (Seen on Lansing, MI’s WLNS.)

• Spanish pop Divas lip-synch just as badly as the English ones. She does look fabulous, though. (Seen on Cleveland, OH’s Univision affiliate WQHS.)

• K.E.Y.S. Kids on Detroit’s WMYD showed a music video with eerily similar lyrics to the recent American Idol phenomenon Pants On The Ground. (Seriously…they sing something like “You can’t be a man with your pants on the ground!”)

K.E.Y.S. Kids also included singing puppets that began to swirl around on screen with a trippy background.

A woman started talking on screen, while the trippy singing puppets spun around to her left and I started thinking K.E.Y.S. Kids would make more sense if I was intoxicated. (Which totally defeats the purpose of the show’s message….)

The K.E.Y.S. Kids message? “Kids Enjoy Your Selves without drugs.” (I understand it’s a noble effort to produce a show like this, so I snark with love! Honest!)

• Communication in marriage apparently involves a lot of pained looks and screaming. (Seen on Kalamazoo, MI’s WLLA.)

Seriously – look at these people! I particularly love the woman on the bottom right, with her exaggerated “shock.”

• Willa’s Wild Life is surprisingly not a new VH1 reality show starring Willa Ford. (Seen on South Bend, IN’s WNDU.)

• This is what I look like when I’m taking pictures of major tropo events like this. (Seen on South Bend, IN’s WNDU.)

• South Bend, Indiana may not be the best place to be an openly gay person. The WNDU weekend news covered a story about an offensive cartoon in the Notre Dame University’s student paper. My TV promptly pixellated in protest! GLAAD also weighed in on the issue. (This blog post from South Bend Equality was also quite depressing. It uses hateful quotes from users of WNDU’s web site to illustrate why “South Bend needs to add protection on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity to its Human Rights Ordinance.”)

• On a happier note, if you are into men, Cleveland OH’s WEWS features the attractive forecaster Jason Nicholas!

• If you’re into women, Cleveland, OH’s WKYC features the attractive forecaster Hollie Strano!

I actually think it’s pretty clever that rival Cleveland stations compete with attractive weather people of the opposite sexes. I can so imagine that becoming some sort of romantic comedy. Think something like: She was the stormy, mysterious one. He was brooding and cautious, with a cold front that kept love at bay. Yet, one day the rival meteorologists crossed paths, and created a perfect storm of romance! From Showers To Flowers coming this Spring to a theatre near you. Watch to see weather or not they’ll live happily ever after!

That wraps up what I learned during the “Magic Tropo Ride” of Mid-January! Stay tuned to TV Garth for more television related fun!