Vacation Reception Reports: The St. Louis Road Trip Sept. 28-30, 2012 (Part 2)

Greetings TV Garth readers! After a long drive to St. Louis me, Mr. A and Miss Mitzy Cream were ready for JemCon, which celebrates 80's cartoon Jem & The Holograms! (Check out Part 1 for the first portion of our journey!) Since the 2012 JemCon was being held in St. Louis, we checked out the Gateway Arch and stumbled across KMOV! Throughout the trip, my portable Eviant TV helped me track the St. Louis locals along with tons of other stations while we traveled! So grab a snack and get ready for an Outrageous look back at a TV Garth adventure in the Midwest and beyond! (Channels listed by PSIP numbers instead of RF frequencies for this recap!) This is Part 2 of 3!

Sept. 28, 2012

MISSOURI

Mr. A and I got up bright and early to check out the Gateway Arch and I nearly screamed when I saw a KMOV van next to us in traffic!



The old adage may be "size doesn't matter," but the Gateway Arch is stunning to see because it's gigantic!



Our trip reached new highs as we got into tiny pods to ride to the top. (They warn you about claustrophobia before you get in!)



We were able to take some amazing pictures from the top of the Arch and the KMOV studios immediately caught my eye! (Mr. A noted that only I could discover a TV station while being that high up in the air.)



Once we left the Arch, I dragged Mr. A with me to get pics in front of the KMOV building!



Thankfully, Mr. A was all 4 my photo session that day, since my passion for television Never Stops!



All in all, we had a fabulous time taking in the St. Louis flavour!



Back at hotel, I pulled out my Eviant TV to do some over-the-air channel surfing! I found Canada's own Steven & Chris making an appearance on KMOV's Live Well Network subchannel.



I was also able to catch a good sampling of St. Louis newscasts! Mandy Murphey and Elliot Weiler were anchoring the FOX 2 broadcast on KTVI!



John delivered a story about gang colors very Knicely over on CBS affiliate KMOV.



Viewers ground to a halt when they heard Stephen Patterson report about traffic troubles on NBC outlet KSDK! (If people were smart, they'd get out of their cars, break into choreography and call it the "traffic jam!")



Interestingly, St. Louis' ABC station KDNL has their newscasts produced by KDSK. STL Now had reporter Casey Nolen covering the day's events!



There was a great shot of downtown St. Louis featured on KMOV!



KSDK anchor Art Holliday should totally have station promos with the tagline "Everyone loves a Holliday!"



I also think KMOV meteorologist Steve Templeton needs a quirky catchphrase like "Templeton Knows The Temps!"



A bold 69 was highlighted during Cindy Preszler's weather report on KSDK!



Unfortunately, a 69 didn't feature as prominently during Steve Templeton and John Knicely's newscast on KMOV...



The Taste of St. Louis was taking place and KMOV grilled Mack Bradley for a sizzling rundown of the festival's events!



Sept. 28-29, 2012 - JemCon

Then came JemCon! Click here for an overview of the 2012 event! Also check out Mr. A's full set of pictures from JemCon in this Flickr Gallery! All of the guests were gracious, friendly and made sure to give us fans an Outrageously great time!

We met the incredibly talented artist Will Munigot, who did storyboards for many of the iconic music videos seen on Jem!



Another highlight was getting pics with the awesome Patricia Alice Albrecht dressed up as her cartoon alter ego Pizzazz!



Musician, singer and voice actress Désirée Goyette-Bogas made us pirouette with glee when she arrived dressed up as Danse!



There was also a surprise appearance from Louise Dorsey who voiced the "sax-y and she knows it" Jetta from the Misfits!



JemCon was a blast, with tons of great people making it a memorable experience. It was so fun we almost couldn't bear to leave!



Sept. 30, 2012

Back on the road, I re-joined my quad state DTV tour already in progress!

ILLINOIS

3-1 WCIA (CBS) Champaign/Decatur, IL
After a thorough investigation, I felt pretty bubbly watching Champaign, IL's WCIA!



3-2 WCIX (MyTV) Champaign/Decatur, IL
This MyTV affiliate pours its signal across a big swath of Central Illinois!



51-1 WEIU (PBS) Charleston, IL
I would definitely give some great support to the alumni on the right...



INDIANA

10-1 WTHI (CBS) Terre Haute, IN
When you're this Big they call you...er...a different name, since this is The Good Wife, not Sex and the City!



WTHI ran an ad for Pilson Auto that claims, "We'll Do Whatever It Takes To Earn Your Business!" Cue shirtless mechanics popping out as seductive music plays...



10-2 WTHI (FOX) Terre Haute, IN
I caught a brief glimpse of WTHI's My FOX 10 news before the signal went wonky!



38-1 WAWV (ABC) Terre Haute, IN
Ads for local car dealers like Terre Haute Chevrolet always get my motor going! Sorry, that was Terre-able...



29-1 WTTK (CW) Kokomo, IN
WTTK actually scraped into my neck of the woods one time during the historic tropo event of January 2010!



29-2 WTTK (This TV) Kokomo, IN
This looks to be a very serious situation taking place!



6-1 WRTV (ABC) Indianapolis, IN
WRTV reported on the presidential debate and being flamingly liberal, you can guess who I was rooting for!



Drew Smith and Kevin Gregory anchored the news that evening on WRTV!




8-1 WISH (CBS) Indianapolis, IN
I WISH to see more of Daniel Miller, Karen Hensel and Amanda Maynard in the future!





8-2 WISH (LWS) Indianapolis, IN
Pamela Gardner makes a WISH for great weather on the subchannel of Indianapolis' CBS affiliate!



42-1 WCLJ (TBN) Indianapolis, IN
Seeing over-the-air TV on the road while traveling really made me want to sing!



59-1 WXIN (FOX) Indianapolis, IN
Meanwhile, Aishah Hasnie was anchoring the FOX 59 newscast on WXIN!



My travel companions and I eventually stopped in Fishers, Indiana where we decided to stay the night. After checking into a hotel, we visited a nearby Steak 'n Shake for some AMAZING milkshakes and fabulous diner ambiance! (LOVE me a good diner and also remember seeing Steak 'n Shake advertised on Cleveland and Erie stations!)




Before hitting the hay, I snapped a pic of the hotel's channel guide!



Stay tuned to TV Garth for the final leg of my massive Midwest road trip!

Vacation Reception Reports: The St. Louis Road Trip Sept. 27, 2012 (Part 1)

Greetings TV Garth readers! Last year, I joined up with my pals Mr. A and Miss Mitzy Cream for an awesome road trip to JemCon (a convention devoted to the Truly Outrageous 80's cartoon.) The 2012 JemCon was being held in St. Louis, MO and the journey took us through Michigan, Indiana, and Illinois on the way to Missouri! Thanks to my portable Eviant TV, I got pics of many stations I had never seen before during our trip! So grab a snack and get ready to see a quad-state road trip in true TV Garth fashion! (Most of the channels were new to me, so I'm using PSIP numbers instead of RF frequencies for this recap!) This is Part 1 of 3!



Sept. 27, 2012

HOME - Markham, ON

I was cranky about being up so early, but enjoyed catching a promo with GMA's Lara Spencer and the fab Ginger Geoffrey on Buffalo, NY's WKBW (RF38.) Not too long after, I would be on the road heading towards the American Midwest!



MICHIGAN

28-1 WCMZ (PBS) Flint, MI
This PBS affiliate relays WCMU and has visited my home turf a few times!



66-1 WSMH (FOX) Flint, MI
Flint's FOX affiliate is another station that's been seen in TV Garth territory!



10-2 WILX-DT2 (WX) Onondaga/Lansing, MI
From here on, everything was new to me, including WILX and their weather subchannel!




43-1 WZPX (ION) Grand Rapids/Lansing, MI
It was positively entertaining to catch the ION affiliate serving the Grand Rapids area!



INDIANA

33-1 WISE (NBC) Fort Wayne, IN
Melissa Long and Jason Meyers are the WISE choice for news viewers in Fort Wayne!





33-2 WISE-FX (FOX) Fort Wayne, IN
I thought of all my page turning pals when I saw this ad for The Bookmark!



Also of note is that WISE briefly took over the area's FOX affiliation and put it on their subchannel, before rival WFFT won it back.




6-1 WRTV (ABC) Indianapolis, IN
Everytime I see new channels, I say Gimme More! My travel companions saw my TV obsession in action, but didn't Hold It Against Me!



6-2 WRTV (HTSN) Indianapolis, IN
I caught a great ID on WRTV's Hometown Sports Network subchannel!



23-1 WNDY (MyTV) Indianapolis, IN
Survey says that it was great catching Family Feud with Steve Harvey on MyTV affiliate WNDY!



23-2 WNDY (Cool TV) Indianapolis, IN
I got a little misty eyed when I saw that WNDY still had their Cool TV music subchannel! (Cool TV was dropped in September 2012 from all the stations that carried it in TV Garth territory. They played a great mix of current and classic music videos!)



40-1 WHMB (LeSEA) Indianapolis, IN
This host's fabulous hair made her look like one of Charlie's Angels, which seems appropriate for a religious station!



46-1 WALV-CD Indianapolis, IN
WALV-CD airs weather reports and doppler radar from NBC station WTHR!



47 WBXI-CA (Tr3s) Indianapolis, IN
Network execs weren't horsing around when they dropped the "MTV" from "MTV Tr3s" which is still seen in analog in some markets.



59-1 WXIN (FOX) Indianapolis, IN
I was pretty animated when I caught The Simpsons on WXIN!



30-1 WTIU (PBS) Bloomington, IN
Bloomington's PBS station certainly doesn't monkey around with well branded station IDs!




2-1 WTWO (NBC) Terre Haute, IN
I heart wacky commercials and squealed when WTWO showed an ad for Honest Abe Roofing, complete with an "interview" with Mr. Lincoln! LOVED it!




I also squealed when I caught some of the WTWO newscast that night! I was thrown for a loop, since their station logo looked much like one used by Buffalo, NY's WGRZ!




Soon, my pals and I would experience a different Power of the Pink, celebrating the 80s cartoon icons Jem & The Holograms!



Shelly Shearer had a bloody good time collecting donations in Indiana that day! (Also check out WTWO's graphics, which are a lot like the ones used on Rochester, NY's WHEC!)



38-1 WAWV (ABC) Terre Haute, IN
I caught a nice ID for WAWV around the time we stopped to get gas at a jaw dropping truck stop. They had a sign highlighting an "Asian Massage" area upstairs, while you could grab free religious comics about people going to hell downstairs. Because that's how they roll in Indiana...



ILLINOIS

8-1 WUSI (PBS) Olney, IL
Aretha Franklin has lots of Respect for PBS and so should you!



15-1 WICD (ABC) Champaign/Urbana, IL
I saw WICD long enough to notice we were entering the Central Time Zone, though other stations I was catching (like WTWO) still displayed Eastern Standard Time.



17-1 WAND (NBC) Decatur/Champaign, IL
I waved my antenna like a WAND and conjured up scattered reception of weatherman J.C. Fultz! I also saw anchors Sean Streaty, Dawn Sterling and a Matt who certainly shouldn't be Loveless!






55-1 WRSP (FOX) Springfield/Decatur, IL
Everybody Loves FOX 55/27 in the Central Illinois viewing area!



3-1 WSIL (ABC) Harrisburg, IL
We were still on the road when late night shows like Jimmy Kimmel started showed up!



MISSOURI

St. Louis stations began popping up as we got closer to our destination! The following shots of the city's main lineup come from both the road and after we arrived!

2-1 KTVI (FOX) St. Louis, MO
Brian Amon talked about the recovery of an inflatable rhino named Rico that was stolen from Michael's Flooring Outlets. The thieves tried to sweep the evidence under the rug, but it was too late...



4-1 KMOV (CBS) St. Louis, MO
There were a few holes in KMOV's story about South St. Louis!



I couldn't predict it at the time, but KMOV's Larry Conners would become quite the controversial figure in 2013!



5-1 KSDK (NBC) St. Louis, MO
I loved that I could still catch Kathie Lee & Hoda during my trip!



7-1 KTPN-LD (HSN) St. Louis, MO
Viewers give a lot of credit to the Home Shopping Network, seen via KTPN! No, really...they have to give credit to pay for their purchases!



9-1 KETC (PBS) St. Louis, MO
Some folks think that PBS is for the birds, but it's also for many other animals depending on the episode of Nature being shown.



9-3 KETC (PBS World) St. Louis, MO
Like many PBS stations, KETC runs a World of programming on their subchannels!



11-1 KPLR (CW) St. Louis, MO
Later that weekend, I'd become the King of Queens when I dressed up as Jem for the convention!



I found it hilarious that I could still find ads for Value City furniture in the Midwest! (I see these all the time on Buffalo stations, where people dance wildly to imitations of 90s dance hits...usually beside couches!)



11-2 KPLR (This TV) St. Louis, MO
This would be a good time to note that MGM's movie network is a subchannel on KPLR!



16-1 KDTL-LD (RTV) St. Louis, MO
I found some CanCon In The US with RTV affiliate KDTL-LD airing Cold Squad!



24-1 KNLC (IND) St. Louis, MO
KNLC appears to be an independent religious channel.



30-1 KDNL (ABC) St. Louis, MO
Leave it to KDNL to 30 Rock my world with a nice "ABC 30" logo in the bottom corner of the screen!



33 K33GU (TBN) St. Louis, MO
Trinity Broadcasting Network makes their analog home on channel 33.



46-1 WRBU (MyTV) St. Louis, MO
I turned on WRBU just in time for a trashy episode of Scrubs!



51-1 KUMO-LD (Daystar) St. Louis, MO
KUMO-LD brought me some Table Talk courtesy of Daystar!



This recap is Only The Beginning of my St. Louis mayhem! Stay tuned for Part 2, which features a brief encounter with KMOV, a trip to the famous Arch of St. Louis and Outrageous fun with Jem!