I was picking up WROC (RF45) at my house on May 16 - just one day before my trip! Dresden Engle totally mirrored how I looked anticipating the upcoming visit!
May 17, 2013
Mr. A and I arrived late Friday night, just in time for Rick and Steve to take us out to Jay's Diner! I loved the retro styling of the restaurant!
Rick is a filmmaker whose work has been featured at the ImageOut festival and Steve is a teacher and author!
May 18, 2013
As with any of my road trips, there was bound to be some horsing around! (Rochester's Mounted Patrol also showed up in a story I caught on WROC, RF45, exactly one month after my trip!)
Our first stop of the day was the Rochester Public Market, which featured some great shops and lots of fresh foods. We paused to enjoy some of the best croissants I've ever had at the Flower City Bread Company!
Rick left to get ready for his film shoot, so Mr. A and I continued on with Steve to WXXI for the tour he arranged for us!
My eyes popped out when we bumped into Scott Fybush who is a fellow DXer and human encyclopedia of TV and radio trivia. I highly recommend subscribing to his website for weekly Northeast Radio Watch reports and a plethora of other goodies including his stunning photos of broadcast towers! (Also check out Scott during a "DTV Minute" segment I caught on WXXI, RF16, back on May 12, 2009!)
Juan Vazquez (who graciously set up the tour with Steve) was our guide to the massive WXXI complex! (Seriously, the building was so HUGE I wondered if Billy Fuccillo had anything to say about it.) Scott Fybush also joined us for the first portion of our walk through!
The control room monitored all the PBS feeds hitting the airwaves, including the main WXXI programming, alongside their World and Create subchannels.
We began touring some of the sets used for shows filmed at the station! I took a dip into the cool refreshing waters of WXXI while sitting in front of a fabulous city backdrop!
Juan Vazquez and Scott Fybush joined me as I proudly displayed my WXXI branded water! (I love items like this!)
I didn't need a Second Opinion on how great the poster for WXXI's medical show looked!
There were many cool displays promoting events WXXI has been involved with, including the Dialogue on Disability series with the Al Sigl Community of Agencies.
I also found out that the station had recently purchased The Little Theatre, which is an independent movie house in Rochester.
The WXXI building not only houses TV production facilities, but several radio stations too!
Juan and Steve were surrounded by magic mics in one of WXXI's many radio rooms!
I kept sneaking my WXXI water into shots as if I was in charge of product placement!
This jacket had all my station ID requirements covered!
I swear Classical 91.5's slogan should be: "If things aren't baroque, we're here to fix them!"
Mr. A felt like a butterfly in the sky when he came across this poster of Reading Rainbow's LeVar Burton!
This cosy set is just one of the many stages used for WXXI's original productions.
It was a thrill to sit where the FAB Teej Jenkins anchored the show Assignment The World! (Compare with a pic I captured from WXXI, RF16, back on March 23, 2012!) Teej even left a comment on one of my previous blogs!
The talented folks behind Homework Hotline certainly don't phone it in! (That's what their viewers are for!)
Our tour was coming to a close, but before we left Juan gave me an amazing bag of swag! I give a hearty salute and many thanks for Juan's excellent tour through all things WXXI! He ROCs!
About a year after the tour (June 23, 2014 to be exact) I geeked out when I saw Juan on TV promoting the station!
There was a great "GO Public" sign I noticed when we left the building!
As with previous tours, I had to pose at the station entrance with my new bag of goodies!
Check out the awesome array of WXXI items I got to bring home! Forever XXI indeed! The swag was a wonderful surprise and I'm not ashamed to admit I've used the backpack on a few overnight trips!
We turn the corner on this travelogue with a nice view of the Kodak Building!
Later on, we met back up with Rick and got to be extras in his short film Gay Expectations! The ImageOut festival debuted the film later that year!
It was a gorgeous day to film a wedding ceremony and the shoot was filled with great folks and good vibes!
I had heard about Saranac Thursdays for years on Utica, NY's WKTV, so it was neat to finally taste the ale itself!
After seeing so many ads for the Lilac Festival on WROC (RF45) it was surreal to be attending the event in person!
I nearly shrieked when I spotted a booth for Home Comfort Heat at the festival! They had no idea what I was talking about when I started singing, "My energy bill is way too high, I need to know the reason why!" But the Energy Bill Lady will always warm my heart even in the harshest winters!
The Lilac Festival was sponsored by the amazing House of Guitars and featured acts such as The Lone Bellow on stage!
My Lilac Festival visit wouldn't be complete without a visit to the WROC booth! I got to chat with their promotions director about my love of long distance TV and he recognized my hat and shirt from sister Nexstar station WJET in Erie, PA!
I was also excited to get some van-tastic pics of WROC's news truck which was parked beside their booth!
Speaking of WROC, I was flabbergasted when I bumped into Matt Malloy when our group went out for drinks later that night! (Compare with a pic of Matt I captured on WROC back on Sept. 7, 2012!)
Matt was super friendly, super handsome and it was a blast getting to see him! Check out the interview I did with Matt a few years back!
As I partied the night away at the Bachelor Forum I noticed a cool sign promoting the "Queer as a $3 Bill" campaign. Donations were being collected to produce Shoulders To Stand On, a documentary about the history of the LGBT community in Rochester!
I give a very big thanks to ALL the folks who made this trip special! Stay tuned for Part 2 featuring WHAM, Wegman's and Sodus Point!!!
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