June 14, 2014
I had four-ocious fun with Steve, Mr. A and Rick at the Rochester Public Market!
There was a great van for Sticky Lips BBQ with some fantastic retro artwork on it! (Compare with an ad I saw on WUHF, RF28, back on July 14, 2012!)
While perusing the market, I bought a funnel cake from a guy who looked like the American doppelganger of someone I was trying to get over back home.
Thankfully I was able to drown my sorrows with my pals at Black Button Distilling shortly after! They have a wonderful selection of locally made libations to sample and take home!
Our adventures in the Park Avenue area were a cut above thanks to the appearance of Hairzoo! (Compare with the awesomely quirky ad I saw on WUHF, RF28, back on Nov. 5, 2011!)
We also passed by Chester Cab Pizza which I remembered from the cute animated mascot I saw on WROC (RF45) back on July 3, 2011!
Our group eventually ended up at Boulder Coffee Co. which is a really cool, artsy space serving up drinks and live musical performances.
I really liked their wall of art a latte.
They also won we over with a prominently displayed poster for Rochester Pride!
In the evening we ordered take out from Sticky Lips BBQ and enjoyed it at Rick and Steve's place. I had the chicken and waffles!
After our meal, we found ourselves doing publicity pics for our new TV show Guyz On The Town! I'm kidding, but we did have fun at the Bachelor Forum!
June 15, 2014
Although Mr. A and I had high expectations of our journey to DeWitt, NY, we had no idea Exscape would pop up along the way! (Compare with the ad I saw on WHAM, RF13, back on April 6, 2012!)
Tootie and Natalie bought similar glassware to store jelly beans and root beer in a classic Facts of Life episode!
During our drive I spotted some CanCon In The US as we passed a Kitchener Rangers tour bus! (Compare with a report on Kitchener's CKCO, RF13, back in the analog days from March 18, 2009!)
I recognized the Bill Rapp Superstore from ads I've seen on WSTQ (RF24-2) and my previous trip to Syracuse!
We soon arrived at ShoppingTown Mall in DeWitt, to meet up with our pal Tivia and her husband Paul for a rousing game of laser tag at The Fun Junction!
I remembered ShoppingTown Mall (and their theatre) from a story I saw back in 2009 on Syracuse's WSYR (RF17) covering a Harry Potter premiere!
The laser tag adventures were a real blast and we closed out the evening with a wonderful dinner at Chili's! (Also check out Tiviachick Loves Laser Tag which is an amazing resource and celebration of the sport!)
June 16, 2014
Mr. A and I were up bright and early for our tour of WHEC! The station isn't too far from The Little, an independent theatre that was purchased by Rochester's PBS outlet WXXI! (Compare with WXXI's promotion of a Neil Simon night at The Little from April 6, 2014!)
It was through WXXI's annual auction that I won the chance to visit WHEC and "shadow" one of my favourite anchors, Rebecca Leclair, during the morning and noon broadcasts at the station.
We arrived in time to watch the last half hour of the morning newscast.
After getting buzzed in, some friendly folks helped us tiptoe onto the set where we saw Rebecca Leclair and Nikki Rudd delivering the news!
During a break, we got to visit the control room which monitors different camera angles for the newscasts, as well as various network feeds.
When I looked closer, I noticed the monitor labeled "Net 1" was a raw feed of NBC! You could see the Today Show crew prepping for their upcoming broadcast!
News Producer Susan Connors, Director Eric Johnson and Engineer Todd Graham were all on hand to keep the show running smoothly!
Nikki Rudd had to leave right at 7am to go to her radio gig at WARM 101.3 (I found out they have a backup radio booth at the station she can use if she doesn't make it to WARM!) But Mr. A and I were happy to head back on set and pose with Rich Caniglia!
Rich is a great meteorologist and it was awesome getting to sit at the desk with him!
I also love that my city Markham appears on the station's doppler radar quite frequently!
Rebecca Leclair is just as fabulous and friendly in person as she is on air! I was geeking out when I posed at the desk with her and Rich!
It's always good to have some R and R in the morning!
Next up was a trip through the newsroom and it was cool to see Rebecca updating stories at her workstation! Meanwhile, I posed with the wall of TVs that monitored all the competing local stations!
A visit to the audio booth sounded like a good idea and that's where Engineer Keith Williams keeps the levels in check! He demonstrated musical cues for the newscasts and also observed that the Today Show audio from NBC was "running hot" at times!
After the main morning newscast, Rich and Rebecca were on hand to provide the local inserts at the end of each Today Show half hour.
I also got to see Rich on the green screen recording the updates for the weather subchannel WHEC provides on 10-3!
Look closely and you can see that Rebecca is controlling the teleprompter during the Today Show inserts!
For the next portion of our tour, Engineer Dana Tyler took us through different areas of the station and provided some interesting backstories along the way!
When I first started dabbling in DTV reception, I loved NBC's Weather Plus subchannels, so it was neat to see the program used to run WHEC's local version on 10-3!
Speaking of subchannels, WHEC broadcasts MeTV on 10-2 and I loved seeing Lucy on the studio monitors! (When I became a Lucy fan in the early 90s I couldn't have imagined a future with digital TV signals carrying classic television networks alongside the main stations!)
We passed through another control room before making our way to some news vehicles outside!
Dana explained that this humongous WHEC satellite truck was formerly used for live reports! (It even made it to Canada during coverage of Rochester sports teams on the road!) The truck comes with a lot of production equipment, but is less essential now that mobile devices can transmit video. (Mobile transmission, I learned, carries a slight "delay" depending on network data transfer speeds.)
Mr. A struck a truly outrageous pose with one of WHEC's news vans!
This vehicle featured some of the newer WHEC branding compared to the previous ones!
Dana also explained that multiple satellite dishes are used to pick up both the C-Band and Ku-Band NBC network feeds. During bad weather, the C-Band feed is used as back up because Ku-Band reception is more easily disrupted.
We breezed back on set in time to visit with Rich Caniglia in the weather center!
Rich was also very friendly with us and we talked a bit about my hobby and how Canadians watch American stations from across the lake! (He mentioned that the station hears from Belleville, Ontario viewers sometimes!)
We got to accompany Rebecca Leclair to the wonderfully retro Spot Coffee during her break! She graciously treated us to breakfast and we had a great chat about the local news industry. As a TV news geek, it was a thrill and I also appreciated Rebecca taking interest in what Mr. A and I were up to in our own careers!
After our break, Rebecca introduced us to Assistant Chief Engineer Howard Cohen who surprised us with a fantastic booklet detailing the history of the station! The booklet was produced to commemorate the 60th Anniversary of WHEC!
We also reached new highs upon meeting Photographer and Editor Gretchen Cannan as she selected images to accompany a story about medical marijuana! It was neat to see her call up footage from the NBC archives and edit different clips to illustrate various stories that were slated for the Noon newscast.
Brian Lechliter is a Producer at the station and has created many of the promos that I've enjoyed seeing! He's part of The 191 Group which also produces commercials for local area businesses.
Darryl Marshall is an Art Director at WHEC and is also part of The 191 Group! He worked on the new graphics for the station's newscasts and showed us some computer modelling that looked pretty sharp.
Mr. A and I got to watch the full Noon broadcast and I got to meet Pat Taney (who I had previously watched on Buffalo's WKBW) just before we left.
Rebecca Leclair gave Mr. A and I a wonderful experience at Channel 10 and I greatly appreciate her kindness and warmth in making us a part of her day at the station.
I loved the front desk with the prominent station logo! We chatted for a bit the with the receptionist about heading back to Canada and joked about all the cross border shopping between our countries!
I brought home a TV Guide, CITY newspaper, a copy of The Empty Closet and some really cool items from WHEC! (I can't express how much I heart the "History of WHEC" guidebook!)
But the most surreal thing was seeing WHEC briefly pop up on my TV in Markham the same night after coming home from my trip!
Rebecca also tweeted out this awesome message shortly after!
@arrikj Hi Garth! Hope you had a nice trip home! Real nice to meet you and your friend! Come back to #ROC any time!
— Rebecca Leclair (@whec_rleclair) June 24, 2014Special thanks to Rebecca Leclair, News Director Chris Ford, Station Manager Derek Dalton and all of the friendly and talented folks at WHEC who provided a unique and memorable day at Channel 10! Stay tuned to TV Garth for more adventures with television!
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