Erie Road Trip Part 2: Reception And More (April 4-5, 2013)

Greetings TV Garth readers! Here's look back at my road trip to Erie, PA that involved wonderful tours of WJET and WQLN in addition to some awesome tropo action. My pal Mr. A and I were headed to Erie for the annual Drenched Fur convention! So stay tuned for a report that's both TV log and travelogue.

April 4, 2013

My pal Mr. A and I left the big CITY behind as we began our journey to Erie, PA!



29-1 (RF14) WUTV (FOX) Buffalo, NY
Almost as soon as we crossed the border, Mr. A and I pulled over at a NoCo gas station to watch the American Idol results show on my portable Eviant TV.



During the show, a neat promo announced that WGRZ's "2 On Your Side at 10" newscast was moving to FOX 29 from WNYO! (Rumours have gone around for years that WUTV shied away from carrying a 10pm newscast because their large Canadian audience wouldn't care for Buffalo news.)



We weren't Idol for long, as we quickly resumed our trek towards Pennsylvania.



When we got to Erie, I loved what I was able to SEE! I wasn't in court, but I totally wanted to approach the bench!



There's always time for WICU!



April 5, 2013

After settling in and hanging out with some fabulous Drenched Fur folks, I set up my Zenith DTT-900 box and my CM4221HD clone for some Lake Erie reception chasing! We were staying in the Avalon hotel at 16 West 10th Street in downtown Erie. All reception from this point forward was observed from the Avalon hotel. Here's the TV Fool report for this location.

12-1 (RF12) WICU (NBC) Erie, PA
Ed Russo warmed up my temperature during the morning newscast!



26-1 (RF26) WNYB (TCT) Jamestown, NY
WNYB's signal must be blessed, as it covers a wide swath of viewers on both sides of Lake Ontario and Lake Erie!



54-1 (RF50) WQLN (PBS) Erie, PA
Erie's PBS affiliate also tumbled in quite easily that day! (I also got a great tour of the station from Tom New while I was in town!)



23-1 (RF32) WNLO (CW) Buffalo, NY
I was surprised to see WNLO blast through Erie's 3ABN station W32DH which is on the same frequency as Buffalo's CW outlet. (WNLO is a powerhouse, but TV Fool listed my hotel as being only 6 miles away from the Erie station.)



31-1 (RF31) CITY (IND) Woodstock, ON
My first CanCon in the US moment arrived when CITY's Woodstock repeater paid a visit! I got to see a promo with Kat Dennings and watch some of Toronto's #1 morning show Breakfast Television with Kevin Frankish!




35-1 (RF16) WSEE (CBS) Erie, PA
The newsroom was crawling with excitement as Eva Mastomatteo interviewed an animal wrangler during WSEE's noon newscast!



24-1 (RF24) WJET (ABC) Erie, PA
The awesome Linh Truong delivered the day's forecast right before Mr. A and I headed to WJET for our tour!



When we hit the road, I had a lotto fun seeing this JET 24 themed billboard for the Power Ball draw.



I was also impressed that the WICU water tower (near Millcreek Mall) was repainted to reflect their HD status! (Compare with this pic I captured in 2012!)



Mr. A and I arrived at the WJET studios and got an AMAZING tour from the fabulous Jill McCormick and Linh Truong! Click here to read the full recap of the event! We had a blast!



After I saw their commercial back in 2010, I knew I HAD to visit Kali's and spend time with Mr. Fudgie Fudge! I bought four different varieties of their fudge and they were all delicious! Mr. Fudgie Fudge really is the fudge I crave!





It was time for another photo of the WICU clock!



The Erie Playhouse was directly across from our hotel!



24-1 WJET (ABC) Erie, PA
It was fun to watch the news with Jill McCormick, Sean Lafferty and Tom Atkins after going on such an awesome tour of the station earlier that day!



12-1 WICU (NBC) Erie, PA
I also caught some of WICU's newscast with Rob Wilson, Amanda Post, Kevin MacDowell and Mike Ruzzi!



32-3 (RF32-3) W32DH (3ABN-DD) Erie, PA
I finally caught W32DH and liked the name of their inspirational subchannel, titled "Dare To Dream."



April 6, 2013

During a leisurely stroll in search of food, I came across Erie's famous Warner Theatre!



I almost wanted to ride the E to take in some local flavour, but the hotel was really close by.



There was also the tantalizing Modern Adult store with the awesome slogan, "Taking the inner YOU...to the outer limits!" (One month later I caught a story about the place on WJET during a burst of Erie reception in my neck of the woods!)




Stay tuned to TV Garth for Part 3 of my Erie-tastic adventures!

Erie Road Trip Part 1: The WJET & WQLN Tours! (April 5, 2013)

Greetings TV Garth readers! This past April my pal Mr. A and I took a road trip to Erie, PA for the annual Drenched Fur festivities! I was lucky enough to arrange a tour of WJET with the awesome Jill McCormick, who currently anchors the station's evening newscasts! I've been a fan of Jill's since her days on WICU and her tour ROCKED my socks! I also got a wonderful peek inside the WQLN facilities with Tom New, who was recently named the President and CEO of the longtime PBS station. Stay tuned for a look at all the amazing television mayhem I experienced while visiting Northwest Pennsylvania!

There's a great sign with the WJET and WFXP logos you can see from the road as you approach the station.



Soon enough, Mr. A and I had arrived at the building that houses both WJET and WFXP!



We saw a great American Idol display when we entered, which caused Mr. A to salute his own Idol - Mariah Carey. (A day earlier we pulled over during our drive to Erie to watch the results show live on my portable TV!)



Jill McCormick came out and gave us a really warm greeting before starting our tour! Mr. A and I weren't sure what reaction we'd get when we said we were in town for Drenched Fur, but Jill was totally cool with it! (In fact, she wondered why the station hadn't done a story about the event!) She also gave great suggestions for attractions to check out while we were in Erie.



I didn't quite have the mustache to fill in for Sean Lafferty, but it was a thrill to sit at the news desk with Jill! (Compare with a pic of Jill and Sean seen on the WJET news later that day!)




I also got to meet meteorologist Linh Truong and we posed with as much Authority as we could! (I actually caught some of Linh's noon forecast on my portable digital TV just before our tour!)




All three of us stormed the weather center for a bright and sunny group shot!



The tour continued with a look at some of the control rooms inside the station. Like most TV stations, WJET has a mix of old and new equipment in use, including the vintage sound board below.



There was a cool array of monitors tracking various programming being received at the station. There are satellite feeds for network shows, plus local inserts added before WJET and WFXP hit the airwaves!



The classic WJET logo couldn't resist mugging for the camera!



Jill also showed us some of the videotapes the station has as backups in case the satellite feeds go out. Check out some of the WFXP lineup, including Frasier and Family Feud.



The station walls were lined with great ABC posters, including one for Good Morning America. They have a FAB team, including the hunky Josh Elliot, the openly gay Sam Champion and Robin Roberts, who's a champion in her own right!



We made our way to sports director Craig Smylie's work area, where I spotted an autographed poster of the Erie Bayhawks on the wall!



I was also pretty Smylie when I saw figures of various athletes that I wouldn't mind bobbling...



There was even a Joey Stevens bobblehead in the newsroom, which was quite a sight to SEE!



I loved this mousepad, which featured classic WJET and WFXP logos!



Jill posed at her desk in the newsroom and surprised me with one of the BEST swag bags I've ever received! I actually squealed a bit when she presented it to me!



Here are the contents of the superb swag bag! It was filled with everything I could want from a station, including a hat, scarf, t-shirt, water bottle, mug, pens and more.



Jill also remembered from my previous blogs that I love getting pics of the various news trucks! She took us to the parking lot, where I caught a WFXP vehicle looking pretty FOX-y.



There was also a van-tastic JET 24 Action News vehicle.



We even got to take a look at one of the JET 24 vans in storage, which is used for live satellite shots on location! I was still beaming over my swag bag!



Back inside, I got to meet reporter Jessica Starr who I had seen earlier that day on Good Morning Erie!




Mitt Romney had a binder full of women, but I was quite happy to find a binder full of station logos!



Jill also found a cool "Friday Night Lights" vest with the classic JET 24 logo for me to model. I struck a pose with one of the station's promo editors!



This photo of Jill was twice as much fun to take! (Another really cool thing I learned during our tour is that her father is Canadian!)



I became a bit animated when I saw this Simpsons poster with a great FOX 66 station ID!



Before leaving, I sailed back onto the news set for a picture with the "tall ships" backdrop!



Jill really went above and beyond to give us a FABULOUS tour and the experience was awesome! She was incredibly fun, personable and went out of her way to welcome us!



Mr. A and I were heading back to our car when Jill came out and told us that sports director Craig Smylie had just arrived! She brought us back inside to get some pics and chat with him! Later that night, I got to see him reporting live during the 6pm newscast!




I was still giddy after the WJET tour, so I decided to try my luck with Erie's PBS station WQLN!



WQLN is one of the "dual nation" PBS stations, having a large Canadian support base in Southwestern Ontario. (In fact, there was much controversy when Rogers Cable tried to drop the channel back in 2009.)




WQLN wants visitors to make their programming a habit instead of cigarettes, as evidenced by this sign.



I approached WQLN's receptionist, told her about my blog and to my surprise she arranged for Tom New to show us around! (I dug through my TV G'Archives and New I'd seen him during a pledge drive back on Sept. 2, 2010!)




WQLN's programming is now fully automated with streams delivering the main station plus "Create" and "World" subchannels to over-the-air viewers. (Tom mentioned that they might be looking to add another subchannel in the future. I suggested MHz Worldview, which I've seen on some of the Ohio PBS affiliates.)



There was a great station logo on one of the older control panels in the building!



Even though food was banned, I found a tasty assortment of TV and Radio station decals on a door that we passed!



Mr. A made an appointment to check up on WQLN's original series Meet The Doctors. Judging from the equipment on set, they'll be dealing with some weighty matters in future episodes!




I wanted to raise a toast to the golden branding on this mug. Cheers to WQLN!



I was also in good spirits when I drank in this intoxicating poster for Pennsylvania Wineries!



We met one of WQLN's editors, hard at work on an episode of the LECOM Healthy Living Kitchen with Mary Mulard.



I was surprised to learn the LECOM Healthy Living Kitchen with Mary Mulard is the first cooking show filmed in HD in northwestern Pennsylvania. Check it out here on WQLN's You Tube channel!



There was a wonderful portrait of the many talented folks that work for WQLN hanging in the lobby!



I also spotted a really sweet layout of candy dishes spelling out the WQLN call letters at the front desk!



As with many PBS affiliates, WQLN also houses a radio station. In addition to regular programming, live concert performances are held right there in the station lobby.



WQLN was founded in 1967 and there was a great plaque commemorating the expansion of their facilities in the early 1970s!



I pledged my support for WQLN by slipping a small donation into this nicely branded jar before leaving!



A HUGE thank you to Jill McCormick and Tom New for the wonderful tours of WJET and WQLN respectively! Check out these links for more information:

WJET/WFXP - http://www.yourerie.com / Facebook

Jill McCormick - Your Erie Bio / Facebook

Linh Truong - Your Erie Bio / Facebook

Jessica Starr - Your Erie Bio / Facebook

Craig Smylie - Your Erie Bio / Facebook

WQLN - http://www.wqln.org/ / Facebook

Stay tuned for Part 2 of this amazing visit to Erie covering the sights, the reception and Mr. Fudgie Fudge!