Reception Reports: An Erie Day In May (May 12, 2009)

Greetings from TV Garth! This is a quick report on my reception from May 12, 2009 in which I picked up Erie, Pennsylvania’s WQLN for the second time, and also caught a neat DTV Minute with Scott Fybush on Rochester, NY’s WXXI.

Below we see Fybush showing us some information about how to use the functions on your Digital Converter box! (The one used in their example is a Zenith box, much like the one I currently use!)

Rochester’s 31-1 WUHF (FOX) flickered in briefly, but seemed to fade out just as quickly (reception on this day really seemed to be a PBS-fest, with solid signals on WXXI and WQLN.)

And then came Erie’s WQLN on 54-1, 54-2 and 54-3! One of the first things I noticed was that the PSIP information on 54-1 was totally wrong, but 54-3 (which was running the same programming in standard definition) had the accurate program listings. Check out the caption below, where it lists We Shall Remain: American Experience instead of the correct Tavis Smiley.

54-2 WQLN-S1 is now a full time PBS Create station, showing arts, crafts, and travel shows. Below are shots from Burt Wolf: Travel And Traditions with some nifty paintings in the first picture.

Meanwhile back on the main WQLN, Tavis Smiley was interviewing William Baker who was the former CEO of famous PBS station Thirteen/WNET.

I also noticed a frustrating lack of unique station IDs on WQLN during their late night programming. Compare to the pics I took the first time I received the station on April 23, 2009 in that Reception Report. I think they now may be running a feed directly from PBS at night, so the PSIP is the only way to see their call letters.

The woman below looks like she’s about to scream about the upcoming Frontline story on notorious scam artist Bernie Madoff. Or maybe she’ll just give you gardening tips.

Below is the teaser for Frontline: The Madoff Affair, which was coming up on WQLN.

Meanwhile, 54-2 WQLN-S1 was promoting Sara’s Weeknight Meals.

This may not be a “unique” station ID, but I’ll take what I can get! This is a Create logo as seen on 54-2 WQLN-S1.

Next is a great commercial about the DTV transition with some fabulous old TVs and antennas and the guys from This Old House to tell us about it!

Meanwhile, 54-2 was showing The Victory Garden.

Compare the two pics below of 54-1 and 54-3. Diana Henriques does not look pleased to have her edges lopped off on the standard definition version of Frontline on 54-3. (In fact even the Frontline logo gets cut in half.) This is in contrast to what other PBS stations do. Stations such as WNED and WXXI letterbox their HD shows for SD rather than chop the sides off.

Here’s the program info on The Victory Garden, as aired on 54-2 WQLN-S1. As Paris Hilton would say, “That’s hot!”

I mainly use a Panasonic TV and a Zenith DTT901 digital box for my OTA experiments, but I also couldn’t resist picking up an RCA DTA800 box as well. Here is the channel guide after I programmed in WQLN.

And here come more Create logos on 54-2 WQLN-S1!

They were soon showing The New Yankee Workshop.

The incorrect program info seemed unintentionally funny below, as I’m sure the people burned by Bernie Madoff didn’t find the rhythm all around them.

There’s a cute wacky commercial with all the Create personalities showing off their craft (cooking, travelling, etc.) So here’s one guy who’s ready to drill his way into your heart. (Er….maybe not drill into your heart literally, but you know what I mean…)

This is only the beginning, as there’s more Rochester, more Erie, and special guest cities Syracuse and Utica coming very shortly to TV Garth’s reception reports! Stay tuned!