Vacation Reception Reports: The St. Louis Road Trip Oct. 1, 2012 (Part 3)

Greetings TV Garth readers! My road trip adventures continued with my pals Mr. A and Miss Mitzy Cream as we left JemCon in St. Louis and began our long journey home! (Check out Part 1 and Part 2 for the first portions of our trip!) This post resumes the action in the early AM as we checked out of the hotel we stayed at in Fishers, Indiana! Grab a snack and get ready for the final chapter of an Outrageous adventure that took TV Garth to the Midwest and back! (Channels mostly listed by PSIP numbers instead of RF frequencies for this recap!)

October 1, 2012

INDIANA

6-1 WRTV (ABC) Indianapolis, IN
There was a great shot of downtown Indianapolis on WRTV!



6-2 WRTV (HTSN) Indianapolis, IN
I scored a great station ID on WRTV's Hometown Sports and News subchannel!



13-1 WTHR (NBC) Indianapolis, IN
Anne Hathaway dreamed a dream of having a fabulous wedding, though some guests were rumoured to be Miserables.



13-3 WTHR (MeTV) Indianapolis, IN
Marlo Thomas was causing a commotion in the 1960s, prompting folks to ask who's That Girl?



19-1 WDNI (Telemundo) Indianapolis, IN
I've never caught a Telemundo affiliate in my neck of the woods, so it was cool to see WDNI!



20-1 WFYI (PBS) Indianapolis, IN
My Telly was having a nervous breakdown, but at least the WFYI logo was clear in the top left corner!



23-1 WNDY (MyTV) Indianapolis, IN
Matlock didn't need to solve the case of the missing station ID, as it showed up in the bottom corner just in time!



23-2 WNDY (Cool TV) Indianapolis, IN
It was Cool to see Daughtry on my little TV, since the music video network wasn't available at Home anymore!



29-1 WTTK (CW) Kokomo, IN
I was having New Adventures in Indiana with Old Christine on WTTK!



29-2 WTTK (This TV) Kokomo, IN
WTTK's This TV subchannel was running WXIN's newscast with Ray Cortopassi and Angela Ganote!



WXIN featured an AT&T U-verse tech report with Rich DeMuro.



46-1 WALV-CD Indianapolis, IN
Julia Moffitt was anchoring one of the WTHR news briefs seen on WALV-CD!



59-1 WXIN (FOX) Indianapolis, IN
I couldn't put my finger on why Angela Ganote's report disturbed me!



69-1 WDTI (Daystar) Indianapolis, IN
"Now hold on a minute, don't forget about Daystar programming!"



49-3 WIPB-D3 (PBS) Muncie, IN
During my travels I was quite surprised to find a weather subchannel on Muncie's PBS station WIPB!



15-3 WANE-WX (CBS) Fort Wayne, IN
The Olive Garden in Fort Wayne was on our radar, since we would have been Fury-ous if we didn't stop to eat.



21-3 WPTA-WX (ABC) Fort Wayne, IN
I'm not sure if any parents or teachers were associated with WPTA's Pinpoint Vipir radar!



39-4 WFWA (PBS) Fort Wayne, IN
I totally heart WFWA for having a subchannel called PBS4You!



55-1 WFFT (Ind) Fort Wayne, IN
WFFT was in a dispute with FOX and was briefly an independent station during this period before regaining their affiliation.



MICHIGAN

64-3 WLLA-D3 (FamilyNet) Kalamazoo, MI
FamilyNet station WLLA has popped up a few times in TV Garth territory!



41-1 WOTV (ABC) Battle Creek, MI
It wasn't too much of a Battle to catch this station ID for WOTV!



53-1 WLAJ (ABC) Lansing, MI
There's only One Life To Live, so I may as well enjoy capturing over-the-air TV while it lasts!



53-2 WLAJ-SD (CW) Lansing, MI
Meanwhile, it was time to Meet The Browns over on WLAJ's CW Plus subchannel!



23-3 WKAR (PBS Create) East Lansing, MI
It's hard to Create a funny caption for this shot of East Lansing's WKAR, but I'm sure I'll serve up something!



18-1 WHTV (MyTV) Jackson, MI
WHTV tore through my screen with a vigorous P90X workout!



25-1 WEYI (NBC) Saginaw, MI
The heavily hyped Katie sizzled over on Saginaw's WEYI!



25-2 WEYI-CW (CW) Saginaw, MI
I caught a nice NBC 25 station ID on WEYI's CW subchannel!



19-1 WDCQ (PBS) Bad Axe, MI
WDCQ is another station that has appeared in my area a few times!



ONTARIO

28-1 TVO Kitchener, ON
A little while after crossing the border, I picked up Kitchener's TV Ontario repeater!



5-1 CBLT (CBC) Toronto, ON
I was surprised to catch Toronto's CBLT while we were still in Southwestern Ontario.



Our crew made one last stop at a McDonald's in Kitchener before arriving at our respective homes.



HOME - Markham, ON

After throwing down my luggage, I was happy to see some of my "local" long distance stations coming in. Rochester, NY's WXXI (RF16) was there to welcome me back!



I Capitol-ized on my Rochester reception long enough to Report seeing Kevin Doran on WUHF (RF28.)



Rochester's WROC (RF45) also arrived with John Kucko, Stacey Pensgen, Kevin Doran and Maureen McGuire on the 11pm newscast!




My recap wouldn't be complete without showing some of the goodies I picked up! More or less in order of appearance are The Flint Journal, Detroit Free Press, The News-Banner (Bluffton, IN), Tribstar TV (Terre Haute Tribune Star), TV Week (The Indianapolis Star), Polly Pocket as Wonder Woman, JemCon souvenirs, TV Guide and the awesome Will Meugniot Sketch Book 2012!



Thanks to Mr. A, Miss Mitzy Cream and the fabulous folks of JemCon for an amazing trip! Stay tuned to TV Garth for more adventures in the future!

Vacation Reception Reports: The St. Louis Road Trip Sept. 28-30, 2012 (Part 2)

Greetings TV Garth readers! After a long drive to St. Louis me, Mr. A and Miss Mitzy Cream were ready for JemCon, which celebrates 80's cartoon Jem & The Holograms! (Check out Part 1 for the first portion of our journey!) Since the 2012 JemCon was being held in St. Louis, we checked out the Gateway Arch and stumbled across KMOV! Throughout the trip, my portable Eviant TV helped me track the St. Louis locals along with tons of other stations while we traveled! So grab a snack and get ready for an Outrageous look back at a TV Garth adventure in the Midwest and beyond! (Channels listed by PSIP numbers instead of RF frequencies for this recap!) This is Part 2 of 3!

Sept. 28, 2012

MISSOURI

Mr. A and I got up bright and early to check out the Gateway Arch and I nearly screamed when I saw a KMOV van next to us in traffic!



The old adage may be "size doesn't matter," but the Gateway Arch is stunning to see because it's gigantic!



Our trip reached new highs as we got into tiny pods to ride to the top. (They warn you about claustrophobia before you get in!)



We were able to take some amazing pictures from the top of the Arch and the KMOV studios immediately caught my eye! (Mr. A noted that only I could discover a TV station while being that high up in the air.)



Once we left the Arch, I dragged Mr. A with me to get pics in front of the KMOV building!



Thankfully, Mr. A was all 4 my photo session that day, since my passion for television Never Stops!



All in all, we had a fabulous time taking in the St. Louis flavour!



Back at hotel, I pulled out my Eviant TV to do some over-the-air channel surfing! I found Canada's own Steven & Chris making an appearance on KMOV's Live Well Network subchannel.



I was also able to catch a good sampling of St. Louis newscasts! Mandy Murphey and Elliot Weiler were anchoring the FOX 2 broadcast on KTVI!



John delivered a story about gang colors very Knicely over on CBS affiliate KMOV.



Viewers ground to a halt when they heard Stephen Patterson report about traffic troubles on NBC outlet KSDK! (If people were smart, they'd get out of their cars, break into choreography and call it the "traffic jam!")



Interestingly, St. Louis' ABC station KDNL has their newscasts produced by KDSK. STL Now had reporter Casey Nolen covering the day's events!



There was a great shot of downtown St. Louis featured on KMOV!



KSDK anchor Art Holliday should totally have station promos with the tagline "Everyone loves a Holliday!"



I also think KMOV meteorologist Steve Templeton needs a quirky catchphrase like "Templeton Knows The Temps!"



A bold 69 was highlighted during Cindy Preszler's weather report on KSDK!



Unfortunately, a 69 didn't feature as prominently during Steve Templeton and John Knicely's newscast on KMOV...



The Taste of St. Louis was taking place and KMOV grilled Mack Bradley for a sizzling rundown of the festival's events!



Sept. 28-29, 2012 - JemCon

Then came JemCon! Click here for an overview of the 2012 event! Also check out Mr. A's full set of pictures from JemCon in this Flickr Gallery! All of the guests were gracious, friendly and made sure to give us fans an Outrageously great time!

We met the incredibly talented artist Will Munigot, who did storyboards for many of the iconic music videos seen on Jem!



Another highlight was getting pics with the awesome Patricia Alice Albrecht dressed up as her cartoon alter ego Pizzazz!



Musician, singer and voice actress Désirée Goyette-Bogas made us pirouette with glee when she arrived dressed up as Danse!



There was also a surprise appearance from Louise Dorsey who voiced the "sax-y and she knows it" Jetta from the Misfits!



JemCon was a blast, with tons of great people making it a memorable experience. It was so fun we almost couldn't bear to leave!



Sept. 30, 2012

Back on the road, I re-joined my quad state DTV tour already in progress!

ILLINOIS

3-1 WCIA (CBS) Champaign/Decatur, IL
After a thorough investigation, I felt pretty bubbly watching Champaign, IL's WCIA!



3-2 WCIX (MyTV) Champaign/Decatur, IL
This MyTV affiliate pours its signal across a big swath of Central Illinois!



51-1 WEIU (PBS) Charleston, IL
I would definitely give some great support to the alumni on the right...



INDIANA

10-1 WTHI (CBS) Terre Haute, IN
When you're this Big they call you...er...a different name, since this is The Good Wife, not Sex and the City!



WTHI ran an ad for Pilson Auto that claims, "We'll Do Whatever It Takes To Earn Your Business!" Cue shirtless mechanics popping out as seductive music plays...



10-2 WTHI (FOX) Terre Haute, IN
I caught a brief glimpse of WTHI's My FOX 10 news before the signal went wonky!



38-1 WAWV (ABC) Terre Haute, IN
Ads for local car dealers like Terre Haute Chevrolet always get my motor going! Sorry, that was Terre-able...



29-1 WTTK (CW) Kokomo, IN
WTTK actually scraped into my neck of the woods one time during the historic tropo event of January 2010!



29-2 WTTK (This TV) Kokomo, IN
This looks to be a very serious situation taking place!



6-1 WRTV (ABC) Indianapolis, IN
WRTV reported on the presidential debate and being flamingly liberal, you can guess who I was rooting for!



Drew Smith and Kevin Gregory anchored the news that evening on WRTV!




8-1 WISH (CBS) Indianapolis, IN
I WISH to see more of Daniel Miller, Karen Hensel and Amanda Maynard in the future!





8-2 WISH (LWS) Indianapolis, IN
Pamela Gardner makes a WISH for great weather on the subchannel of Indianapolis' CBS affiliate!



42-1 WCLJ (TBN) Indianapolis, IN
Seeing over-the-air TV on the road while traveling really made me want to sing!



59-1 WXIN (FOX) Indianapolis, IN
Meanwhile, Aishah Hasnie was anchoring the FOX 59 newscast on WXIN!



My travel companions and I eventually stopped in Fishers, Indiana where we decided to stay the night. After checking into a hotel, we visited a nearby Steak 'n Shake for some AMAZING milkshakes and fabulous diner ambiance! (LOVE me a good diner and also remember seeing Steak 'n Shake advertised on Cleveland and Erie stations!)




Before hitting the hay, I snapped a pic of the hotel's channel guide!



Stay tuned to TV Garth for the final leg of my massive Midwest road trip!