Welcome to TV Garth!

Ever since I was a kid, I loved antennas and TV reception. It was always a thrill to hook up an antenna and see what stations I could get, and see if I could pick up anything from a far distance. With the transition to digital broadcasting happening, my love for OTA (over the air) reception came back and this blog will focus on what channels I'm able to receive via antenna from my home just outside of Toronto, Canada. Plus there may be occasional commentaries on shows that I see while adjusting my reception.

Friday, July 24, 2009

Reception Reports: Syracuse, Rochester & Erie! (May 30 to June 1st)

Greetings TV Garth readers! This post covers my reception of all the Rochester digitals, plus Syracuse’s WSTM & WSYR, and Erie’s WQLN. This involved some more DXing at my pal Mr. A’s place in Downtown Toronto! Reception took place between May 30th to June 1st, 2009.

May 30, 2009

At home in Markham, before heading to a friend’s BBQ and later to downtown for some rousing karaoke, I picked up WXXI doing a pledge drive.

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Then, much later on in the night, I was again DXing at Mr. A’s place, hoping to pick up WSTM as it’s days on RF 54 were numbered! I noticed that the Rochester digitals were all coming in very strong (even WXXI & WUHF, which don’t seem to come in as easily at Mr. A’s place.)

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Check out that crazy doppler radar going on below on 10-2 WHEC-DT!

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WHAM on 13-1 was running an infomercial, while CW-WHAM was showing a movie called The Cave on 13-2.

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Peggy Lee brought the glamour over to WXXI’s subchannel on 21-2, which was showing Classic Arts Showcase at the time.

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Meanwhile, One On One was getting frisky and half naked over on 31-1 WUHF. Check out the second photo below for some fleshtacular action.

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What I was hoping would expose itself at some point in the evening was Syracuse’s WSTM, and eventually it did come in! It arrived just in time for a commercial for lawyers Alexander & Catalano!

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Below is the promo for WSTM’s Action News on 3-1. They’re digging deeper as we speak! The last shot in the trilogy is a great logo shot that got dampened by a weakening signal.

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Over on 3-3, WSTM’s Weather channel, their meteorologist was frozen on screen every time he came up that night. Since it wasn’t Winter, I’m guessing there was something wrong with the pre-taped footage.

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It wouldn’t be a late night on 3-2 WSTQ if they weren’t running endless infomercials for the Sun auto dealership.

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WSTM launched into infomercials, including one for “Free Cylapril” in which the woman below looks more skeptical and worried than enthused about trying it. Add in the cult-like triangle on the mic, and it just gets kinda weird.

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The Syracuse night cam is capturing the town over on 3-3 WSTM Weather.

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And at last we have some doppler radar and the temperatures for Syracuse.

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The woman below looks like she really doesn’t want to be giving to others. It almost looks like she’s thinking “What, you want a donation or something?” Maybe she’s afraid the group is related to the Free Cylapril people, hence her skepticism.

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Then we have a great logo shot combined with WSTM’s Qubo (kids programming) schedule for June 6th.

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Below is a another promo for Action News. Here the headline “Keeping Your Family Safe” is splashed in bold letters under shots of….a rainstorm? We need to keep our families safe from the rain??? Forget the average assortment of criminals, it’s the rain that’s a real menace to society! (Actually it is a menace to good TV reception, so what do I know?) This was followed by shots of WSTM’s meteorologist Wayne Mahar, and the CNYcentral.com website.

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Below we have another infomercial, and the woman on the left certainly knows how the product Worx. Just don’t make her angry at this point in time.

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Then I checked to see if other stations were coming in, and found that Syracuse’s WSYR was also coming in with Hometime on 9-1.

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Love that doppler! Below is a great shot of WSYR-2’s weather system.

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Meanwhile, lots of construction work and drafting were taking place on Hometime!

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Even though it’s not a reception shot, I couldn’t resist taking a shot of Toronto from Mr. A’s balcony window, as it looked gorgeous at the time of all my DXing.

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I was also surprised to find that a low powered home shopping channel from Buffalo was coming in loud and clear at Mr. A’s apartment. This is WBXZ-LP on analog channel 56.

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More infomercials on WSTM, but this time featuring Kathy of Snackmaster fame! Here she and another gentleman promote another cooking device that can make delicious 3-cheese omlettes.

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After that, WSTM showed a community billboard which included events such as “Woofstock”. You’d be barking up the wrong tree if you didn’t think of bringing your pet to that.

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The signal started to fade, but I got a shot of the last infomercial of the evening (morning?) which involved the curiously named Huge-A-Thon run by Kia and Hyundai dealerships in Syracuse.

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***

May 31, 2009

Back in Markham, I saw WGRZ promoting the new NBC Universal Sports channel that would be replacing the Weather station on WGRZ’s subchannel.

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The men of Masterpiece Mystery were jogging in preparation for the new network. (Seen on Rochester’s 21-1 WXXI.)

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Meanwhile, one of my fav shows Half & Half was airing on 31-1 WUHF, with Essence Atkins and Rachel True pictured below.

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Telma Hopkins was putting on a Divatastic performance in this episode!

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10-1 WHEC was running Dateline. And the second pic shows 10-2 WHEC-DT with the Rochester overnight cam.

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Back on 21-1 WXXI, there was a neat commercial about the DTV transition aimed at the hearing impaired.

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8-1 WROC featured CBS News Up To The Minute.

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Baby Baby Baby, it’s T-Boz from TLC over on 31-1 WUHF! She Ain’t Too Proud To Beg for help with combating Sickle Cell Disease.

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Back on WXXI there was an interesting American Masters special about Chinese-American filmmakers and actors, including the awesome B.D. Wong pictured below.

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I was initially disappointed about losing the weather subchannel on Buffalo’s WGRZ.

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June 1, 2009

However, I wasn’t quite as disappointed when I saw the types of programming that NBC Universal Sports would be carrying. (Seen on 2-2 WGRZ-US.)

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June 1st also marked the beginning of Conan O’Brian’s hosting gig on The Tonight Show.

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Buffalo’s 17-1 WNED was running a neat special about Toronto landmarks. (Their PSIP info though was only showing a generic “DTV Program” which was unusual.)

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Erie’s WQLN on 54-1 was also coming in.

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I love that a woman named Joan Younger was writing about babies. (As seen during an American Experience special about test tube babies on Erie’s WQLN.)

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The host of Simply Ming talks to us on WQLN’s 54-2 subchannel, and this is followed by a unique version of the Create logo.

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And there you have it! Syracuse, Rochester & Erie covered from May 30th to June 1st. Stay tuned to TV Garth for more Reception Reports coming soon!

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