We borded the MegaBus Saturday morning on February 12th and I caught this pic of a giant billboard for City TV (and The Bachelor) as we left downtown Toronto.
As soon as we crossed the border, I finally got a shot of Buffalo's PBS station WNED! I've seen their building on previous trips, but never managed to get any pictures of it.
When we arrived at the Buffalo bus terminal, I was happy 2 see a box for the WGRZ related "2 Find Your Home" newspaper on my side.
We took public transit to get to our hotel, where we struck up a conversation with some awesome and friendly riders. When they found out we were Canadian, one guy enthusiastically remarked that Global TV was "off the chain." They also recommended we should eat at Salsarita's, which coincidentally was located in the same complex as our hotel! (I saw the chain advertised as part of the Mobideals campaign about a month later on Buffalo's WNYO, RF49!)
Our hotel cable (Time Warner) included Toronto's CFTO, with Ben Mulroney hosting eTalk as seen below.
After a night of eating (TGI Fridays!) and dancing (Club Marcella's!) we woke up bright and early on Sunday morning to visit the WIVB studios! (The building also houses sister station CW23 WNLO.) WIVB is Buffalo's longtime CBS affiliate, and a station I grew up with! (The station was also used as a draw to get Toronto residents to buy television sets back in the late 1940s!) WIVB's Director of Engineering Dennis Majewicz generously provided my group with an amazing tour of the station.
Marsha, Mr. A, Indira and I were all ready 4 our tour!
As soon as we went in, there was an intriguing sign that caught Mr. A's eye, as seen below:
Little did we know that the note was for a program that came to WNLO only a couple of months later! Check out the promo for Winging It: Buffalo Style (with Victoria Hong and Joe Arena) as seen on WNLO (RF32) on April 11, 2011. (The show airs weekdays at 8am.)
Dennis recently passed along some great shots he had of the Winging It: Buffalo Style sets! Here are a couple that he sent me, including a look at their sizzling kitchen layout:
My eyes were as wide as a kid in a candy store when we stepped onto the WIVB news set. It was a thrill to be touring a station I've watched for so many years! (Compare the set with a shot from Wake Up with Mike Cejka, Joe Arena and Victoria Hong as seen on Feb. 17, 2011.)
The WIVB set includes a flat screen TV used during news items, as well as a great backdrop of Buffalo seen behind the anchors.
It was exciting to sit on the same set where longtime anchors Don Postles and Jacquie Walker deliver the news! I actually remember seeing Jacquie Walker on WIVB when I was a kid! She rocks! (Check out the pic of Don and Jacquie on air Feb. 18, 2011.)
My attempts to pose like a serious anchor couldn't hide how excited I was to be sitting there! (Either that, or I'm trying to channel some of Jacquie's fierceness!)
I also enjoyed sitting at the Weather Watch 4 desk!
I didn't enjoy the "Let It Snow" sign, given the cold season we were experiencing...
WIVB has a great team of meteorolgists including Mike Cejka, Amelia Segal and legendary Don Paul (pictured below on Feb. 14, 2011.) Look closely at the pic below and you'll see my city - Markham - near the top of the Doppler Radar above Toronto!
Marsha got to become a weather girl (however, it wasn't raining men in her forecast.)
I also took a shot at being a weather man! It was awesome to get a live demonstration of how they insert the graphics behind you while you're on the green screen.
Mr. A did a great job capturing all the action taking place!
Indira also enjoyed hanging out on the WIVB set.
Marsha and I sat down for a chat on the set used for WIVB's local talk show By The People! (Compare with a pic from their June 5, 2011 broadcast below.)
I was all 4 the cute snow family and the gorgeous station logo beside me!
After thoroughly enjoying the news set, we continued our tour with a look at one of the old control rooms previously used at WIVB! (The master control is now run out of a hub in Springfield, MA.)
I fought the urge to shout "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore!" as we explored the control rooms! (tm "Network".)
Dennis showed us the DTV encoders that process the feeds for both WIVB and WNLO. (The small screens at the top showed what programs were being relayed on both stations.) I was also surprised to learn that they track Canadian ratings for BBM, even though they can't "officially" be counted in the total ratings for the stations.
Here's a look at the WIVB newsroom in all its glory!
One of the cool things in the newsroom was an award presented to WIVB for their "clean sweep" of the ratings. You just can't brush off success like that!
Before we left we got to see a soundstage that's used for shooting promos and we posed just like the folks they show at the end of the evening newscasts! (Compare us with the closing credits of the Feb. 13th newscast.)
One more 4 the road! I couldn't resist getting one last shot of me posing with the WIVB banner.
A BIG thank you to Dennis Majewicz for providing us with such an amazing and informative tour of WIVB! (Check out WIVB.com for more about the station!)
On the way home, I pressed up against the MegaBus window and caught the following shots of Buffalo's ABC affiliate WKBW.
Upon getting back to Markham, I rushed into my house and turned on the WIVB 11pm newscast! It was neat to see the news after being on their set that very same day! The Sunday news featured Amelia Segal, Mylous Hairston and Paul Peck.
And here's a special Buffalo Bonus! Marsha loved Salsarita's so much that Mr. A and I went along with her on a day trip to Buffalo on May 1st. The only Buffalo station I hadn't visited in some form was WUTV/WNYO. So we drove up and I took pics in front of their building!
There you have it! A Buffalo Bonanza of TV adventure! Thanks again to Dennis Majewicz for the WIVB tour! Stay tuned to TV Garth for more television related mayhem!
