Greetings TV Garth readers! I wanted to share my trip through Upstate New York on the way to New Hampshire for
JemCon (which is a convention devoted to the Truly Outrageous 80's cartoon.) This year's JemCon was being held in Manchester, NH, so I convinced my friends that we should drive through Upstate New York to get there. That way I could bask in the glory of passing through the cities of stations I've watched via long distance reception at home in Markham! As luck would have it, I visited WKTV in Utica, NY and got a mini tour of the station! I was even lucky enough to get pics on the same news sets that I've watched on TV! So grab a snack and get ready to see a road trip through NY State and New Hampshire in true TV Garth fashion!
The day started when my pals picked me up in Markham. We stopped at a bank on Main St so I could grab some cash, and I noticed there was a beautiful antenna on someone's rooftop near the Bank of Montreal! (I think it might be an original Channel Master!)
When we drove through downtown Toronto there were many signs for local news, including Dawna Friesen's "homecoming" to anchor Global's National News. (She previously worked for NBC, hence Global marketing it as her "return" to Canada.) It's kind of hilarious that the promo appears above a CBS logo, though.
We passed by the "future home" of Channel Zero, which owns several Canadian specialty channels and also saved Hamilton, ON's CHCH from Canwest's clutches when the station's future was in doubt. (Canwest rebranded many of their stations, including CHCH, as E! Entertainment, but the experiment failed.) Channel Zero then bought CHCH in 2009 and restored the channel to its former glory as a solid independent station, with a large focus on local news.
Here's another billboard in Toronto promoting CFTO's CTV News with Christine Bentley and Ken Shaw! This billboard also features the CBS logo! (It's actually for "CBS Outdoor" but it looks exactly the same as the TV network.)
I knew we were in Buffalo, NY as soon as I saw the giant billboard for Cellino & Barnes - the most inescapable law firm in Western New York! The second pic shows a commercial for the firm as seen March 10, 2010 on Rochester, NY's WUHF (RF28).
We continued on our journey and parked at a rest stop near Rochester, NY where I happily posed with the
Democrat & Chronicle newspaper box! (I bought a copy of the paper, as well as some Roch-Cha-Cha postcards!) Since I was a kid I've loved Rochester's TV stations (I grew up with WROC and WHEC on cable in Scarborough, ON and my love has only grown in the digital TV era.) But this is the first time I've actually been anywhere near the city!
My friend
Mr. A asked me what TV station I would want to visit the most if we stopped anywhere, and I immediately said Utica, NY's WKTV. Not only because it would be rare for me to be travelling that direction outside of this trip, but because the station quickly became one of my favourites after I
discovered it last year. I was also jazzed about getting to see a city in person that I'd been watching at home for over a year!
One thing I love to do during road trips through cities that I've DXed is take pics of places I've seen advertised on those cities' stations! (It's hard to describe...but I always think it's neat to see a place and think "Wow! I saw the commercial all the way back in Markham and now I'm seeing it in person!") Here's Romeo's Italian Restaurant which I saw on WKTV (RF29) back on June 7, 2010 followed by the pic when we drove by Sept. 23, 2010!
Moments later we were driving up the hill to see WKTV and my heart was pounding! (Visiting a fav TV station to me is like meeting a celebrity.) I tried to arrange a tour in advance, but the timings weren't working out. But I figured I would still like to come up and at least take some pics with the logos outside the station. We arrived and I squealed with excitement when we got there!
I was geeking out all over the place and much like trips to
Detroit,
Erie and Buffalo, I gleefully posed with the station logo!
There was also a gorgeous wood carved WKTV logo we spotted through one of the station entrances.
I also loved posing with one of the WKTV news vans, much like I did with other stations during a vacation
last March in Santa Maria, CA!
What happened next totally blew my mind! I was being shy, and didn't want to knock on the door to the station. However,
Mr. A said something like "We came all this way, why not try to see if they'll give us a tour?" He knocked and Steve K. answered. (He's one of the station's news directors.) I started stammering about how much I loved the station, and asked if they might be able to give us a tour. Then Mr. A piped up with "He's done interviews with
Don Shipman and
Andrew Donovan from your station!" Steve then said he'd heard of my blog and told us he could show us around quickly! (I think I almost passed out and Mr. A had to do the talking for me at various points.) I got to see the newsroom and the very well branded backdrop that I'd watched on TV at home so many times through the last two Summers!
Here's reporter Caroline Gable (along with the WKTV backdrop) as seen on my TV in Markham Sept. 3, 2010.
And here's Caroline Gable
in person on Sept. 23, 2010! She was super sweet and friendly (and just as gorgeous in person!) She noticed my TV Garth shirt and when I explained what my hobby was, she didn't even look at me like I was crazy! (Trust me, explaining TV DXing to my friends has gotten some strange looks...heh...) She joined the station last year as a producer and reporter for NewsChannel 2 At Daybreak, before reporting for the evening newscasts.
I
almost told Caroline about how I love to caption my TV pics with bad puns and that one of her
stories this past Summer inspired one! Since I got backlogged, I didn't get to blog it, but it would have read: "Caroline Gable reminds us not to horse around when it comes to the EEE virus!"
Steve then took us over to the main set where the newscasts are done. My eyes widened and I was thrilled to see the Storm Tracker 2 weather area!
I remember gingerly stepping behind the newsdesk and carefully sitting for the pic, since I didn't want to pull a Lucy Ricardo and knock something over, or roll off the chair. I couldn't believe I was sitting in the same spot where so many awesome WKTV anchors have delivered the news.
Mr. A specifically framed this pic to get me and the
WKTV.com sign in the shot. (Check out the ecstatic look on my face...heh...)
Here I am sitting at the Storm Tracker desk! I was amazed to be in the same spot where meteorlogists like Jill Reale, Bill Kardas and Adam Musyt have given their forecasts!
I wanted a shot of the full news area (I actually think it was Mr. A was taking all these, since I was too flabbergasted to focus during the tour!)
Here I am with Steve, who very generously gave me the tour! He was awesome! A BIG thank you to him for making my week! (Heck, making my
year is more like it!)
Before we left, I got a picture - appropriately enough - with one of WKTV's photographers! This is as good a place as any to give a huge shout out and thank you to
all from WKTV! Wonderful station and wonderful people!
As we left, I snapped one more pic of a news van - this one branded as Central New York's CW, which appears on WKTV's subchannel WKTVDT2. This station airs NewsChannel 2 at 10!
We got back on the road and I kept my eyes peeled for anymore Utica sights! Here's
Carl's Furniture City as seen at home on WKTV on July 27, 2010.
And here's Carl's Furniture City while we were driving! (I may have poked fun at his aggressive advertising style in previous blogs, but I was seriously excited to see the store after watching all his ads! I was all "
Look! It's
Carl's!" as my friends stared at me blankly.) I noticed they were having a "Killer Mattress Sale" which would, frankly, make me afraid to roll over in bed!
We were all hungry, so I suggested eating at
Carmella's Cafe. As proof that advertising works, I remembered the restaurant for their commercials on Utica's ABC affiliate WUTR (RF30). Carmella's Cafe actually made my "
Commercial Countdown" of 2009 for the appearance of what I dubbed a "gangsta skateboard kid" in their ad. So oddly enough, I wouldn't have thought to eat at Carmella's Cafe if it weren't for that commercial! (Turns out the restaurant is
excellent! It had a great atmosphere with smooth jazz music, pop culture decor, a friendly waitress, and wonderful food!)
As soon as we went in, I was excited to see an ad for an event I remembered being promoted on WKTV! Check out the ad as seen on WKTV June 17, 2010 followed by my sighting at Carmella's Cafe!
Carmella's Cafe is celebrating their 25th anniversary, just like
Jem! Check out my pic of their ad as seen on WUTR July 27, 2010, followed by a pic of me at the restaurant!
They had a
delicious menu. (That same menu also popped up in the ad I saw on WUTR!)
Their bread was homemade and SO tasty! (Heh...I asked if it was Heidelberg bread, and the waitress said it wasn't, but noted that it was made on site at the restaurant!)
Here's the complete JemCon / Upstate New York travelling crew in two shots:
I ordered a Diet Coke, and immediately spotted some CanCon in the US on the glass! There was a "Labatt Blue" logo shown on the glass with "imported" written under it! (Musically, we also heard them playing Canadian artists Michael Buble and Deborah Cox!)
My meal was a hamburger and fries and they were delicious! Mr. A laughed when I said the fries tasted like "real" fries. What I meant is that they tasted like real sliced potatoes and not overly processed fast food fries!
Maybe they suspected something about us, because the sign at the table we were seated at proved they really did have
everything I wanted!
I've heard a lot about Saranac Thursday through WKTV's news. Check out a pic of Bill Worden reporting about it on May 27, 2010, followed by me posing with a Saranac sign near the front of Carmella's Cafe.
After we left Carmella's, I noticed the NBT Bank across the street. Once again, I remembered seeing it on WKTV! Check out my pic of when I saw it on WKTV July 15, 2010 followed by what I saw in person!
I also squealed when I saw
Big Apple Music when we were back on the road. The first pic is when I saw them on WKTV Aug. 30, 2010 followed by the shot taken when we were driving!
Price Chopper also popped up as we drove. There's a Canadian Price Chopper (which is unrelated) but I didn't know there was a US chain with the same name until seeing a story on WKTV in Nov. 2009. Here's the pic of the grocery store, followed by a Utica Monday Nite ad (seen July 25, 2010 on WKTV) showing their logo.
We ended up in Manchester late that night, and by the next day (Sept. 24) we were ready to be Truly Outrageous for
JemCon! I started to geek out all over again when I got to meet and take pics with BOTH women who brought Jem to life. On the left is
Britta Phillips who did the singing voice of Jem and on the right is
Samantha Newark who did the speaking voice of Jem/Jerrica!
Click here for the full Flickr set of JemCon photos!
In the hotel I noticed that most of the TV stations were from Boston, MA. The funny thing is - even though it doesn't count as reception - I'm familiar with Boston's stations via satellite. Although I'm a big advocate for over-the-air television, my family subscribes to the Bell TV satellite service. (It is nice to have as back up when over-the-air reception gets flaky.) Bell TV uses Boston channels for their East Coast US affiliates, and Seattle for the West Coast. Pictured below is WHDH as seen at our hotel.
I couldn't leave the hotel without getting a pic of their channel guide!
JemCon ran from Sept. 23-25, and when we were leaving on the Sunday (the 25th) we stopped by the New Hampshire shopping mall before heading home. I noticed they had ads promoting the new Fall shows on the Boston Fox station WFXT. (Note the FOX 25 logo in the ad!) Too bad viewers haven't been that Wilde about the show. (However, I totally heart the punny title!)
I'm not sure if this was in New Hampshire or Massachusetts, but we stopped at a supermarket because I wanted to grab a few cases of Diet Cherry Pepsi to take home. Across from the market was
Cartridge World! Guess where I had seen that place advertised? "U" got it - I saw it on Utica's WUTR on July 27, 2010. (After glancing at their website, I noticed they even have them in Canada too!)
About half way home we stopped to eat at a Denny's in Syracuse! I was really excited because I was able to snag a copy of the Sunday
Post-Standard which featured their
TV Week magazine! Whoo!
Another CanCon in the US alert! There was a Tim Horton's in Syracuse right across from the Denny's we'd eaten at! (The second pic shows one of the US Tim Horton's ads as seen July 5, 2010 on Rochester, NY's WUHF, RF28.)
I also posed with the Syracuse
Post-Standard newspaper box!
Back on the road, I squealed again when I realized a news vehicle from Rochester, NY's WROC was in front of us! I therefore dubbed it the W-CAR-OC! I hope we didn't scare the hell out of whoever was driving, but I screamed at Mr. A to hurry and take pics because his camera captures better night shots! (I edited the license plate out for privacy reasons.)
A close up of the W-CAR-OC logos! Check out the prominent placement of the
rochesterhomepage.net web address!
Compare the above pics of the W-CAR-OC branding with the News 8 Now logo as seen last year on WROC (RF45) April 24, 2009.
Mr. A tried to get a pic of the side of the car as we passed, but it was too dark. (Though you can still see the "8" stand out!)
One of the last stops on the way home was in Ontario - not Ontario, Canada, but Ontario
County which is southeast of Rochester! I took a few pics at the rest stop, including this beautiful painting called "Canandaigua Lake" by Nathan Farb.
I was disappointed that the Sunday edition of the
Democrat & Chronicle was sold out. However, I loved the paper's tagline "Clearly Rochester" as I Clearly love seeing Rochester stations when I'm at home!
I also saw a New York history placard with some background on Seneca Indian Country.
I captured a shot of this Ontario Gifts sign, which reminded me of ads I had seen at home for
Ontario Honda via Rochester's WHAM (RF13) back on July 18, 2010.
And that covers the big trip from Upstate New York to New Hampshire and back again!
Click here for the full set of road trip pics. Also,
click here for the outrageous JemCon pics! Stay tuned to TV Garth for more TV related fun!
