Ever since I was a kid, I loved antennas and TV reception. It was always a thrill to hook up an antenna and see what stations I could get, and see if I could pick up anything from a far distance. With the transition to digital broadcasting happening, my love for OTA (over the air) reception came back and this blog will focus on what channels I'm able to receive via antenna from my home just outside of Toronto, Canada. Plus there may be occasional commentaries on shows that I see while adjusting my reception.
Greetings TV Garth readers! I’ve been avidly following the current season of RuPaul’s Drag Race and was excited to see that one contestant – Pandora Boxx – hails from Rochester, NY! (One of TV Garth’s favourite cities!)
Pandora is already a fabulous Diva in her own right. (She’s friendly and fabulous, on top of winning kudos from the awesome Alec Mapa with her Carol Channing impersonation!) But the icing on the cake (or the sequins on an already wonderful gown) is that by day she works for WUHF and WROC! WUHF recently profiled Pandora (who is known as Michael Steck out of drag) during their Fox First At Ten newscast. Click here to watch the segment!
The story shows Michael at work editing promos for WUHF! (All screen caps from this story are from the online streaming video, as my Rochester TV reception has disappeared for most of this Winter!)
However, I do have one pic from my actual reception of WUHF from July 2009. The promo below was most likely edited by Michael! (Compare it to the one he’s working on in the pic above!)
Stay tuned to TV Garth for more television treats!
Greetings TV Garth readers! As you are all probably aware, the 2010 Vancouver Olympics are well under way. Both CTV and NBC are offering plenty of coverage, and I’ll report some of my highlights in true TV Garth fashion!
Check out the awesome CTV display for the Olympics, shown below, which I saw in Downtown Toronto.
Buffalo’s WGRZ had a wonderful unique station ID tied to the games!
CFTO featured the standard CTV logo in the shot below.
NBC’s standard issue logo for the games appeared on Erie, PA’s WICU last Summer – but with a unique station ID layered over the bottom of the screen.
Now it’s time for the main event! What TV Garth has learned from the 2010 Winter Olympics (so far):
K.D. Lang managed to give a soaring rendition of a song that’s…er…sore from being overused in practically every TV show in recent history. (It was even used in American Idol this past week!) Lang somehow made Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah seem fresh and powerful again.
Opera Divas with gigantic hair make any event more exciting!
Wayne Gretzky’s torch relay would have been more exciting if his car stopped, Debarge’s The Rhythm Of The Night started blaring out, and the crowd surrounding Gretzky erupted into spontaneous choreography. The camera would pan across the grooving dance mob (including the woman at far left with big hair) and then someone could pop open an ice cold Coke, lift it enthusiastically and then you’d even have the sponsor’s product integrated!
It’s neat to see former Olympic champions Jamie Salé and David Pelletier pop up as guests on the Figure Skating Review seen on WGRZ’s subchannel 2-2 NBC Universal Sports.
Shaun White went from someone I vaguely knew of, to someone who is pretty darn awesome when I saw his snowboarding run earlier this week! To paraphrase Shania Twain, That Does Impress Me Much! (Photo below from a WICU Olympics promo seen last Summer.)
If Drag Racing were an Olympic event, I….er…I mean Anne Tenna would be there!
Greetings TV Garth readers! My local shopping mall recently held a taping of the W Network show How To Look Good Naked Canada. W Network is a cable and satellite channel, which is contrary to what I normally cover on this blog. But the host is handsome, it’s a TV show, and I was there to see it happen – so I deemed it TV Garth worthy!
Below is the “notification of taping” placed in front of the show’s production area at the Markville Shopping Centre. (The show filmed in the mall’s Centre Court, which has seen celebs Ashlee Simpson and Emily Osment among others pass through!)
How To Look Good Naked Canada is hosted by the attractive Zain Meghji, who has also worked for CTV’s entertainment show eTalk. (Check out his official bio for an impressive list of his accomplishments.) The official W Network blurb about the show states: “Forget the unobtainable bodies you see in the media and forget whatever you’ve been told by anyone who can’t see you as the exquisite individual you are. The only beauty you should be measuring yourself against is your own. Applying these principles, How to Look Good Naked Canada, host Zain Meghji and a team of fashion and lifestyle experts are on a mission to restore body confidence in women everywhere. No surgery required!”
Below is a cavalcade of photos I captured at the January 12th taping, where Zain was showing these two women how to do a proper strut down the runway. Watch the woman at left in the pic below showing off a sassy toss of her hair.
I love that everyone is laughing it up in the photo below, including the production crew!
Zain looks like he realizes he’s created a Runway Diva Monster, as the woman below sashays down the catwalk.
The next day (January 13th) they were filming the full out runway shows with audiences, and I couldn’t resist capturing some more pics. This time Zain was decked out in a suit and the ladies were in sexy attire. (It appears that they were filming parts of several episodes over the two days.)
Check out Zain and the ladies with a cutout of Ellen DeGeneres that reads “I Watch Ellen in THE NUDE!” (Note to self: Make appointment to watch Ellen with Zain….)
Giving Ellen a kiss for luck never hurts!
As if I needed any more reason to like Zain, I found an interview he did with Hardip Johal for the Vancouver Sun where he namechecks three of my favourite Diva icons! Zain said: “Pop culture is saturated with makeovers. The heroine is allowed to be her best self once she's got her hair did and her makeup done. In film, think My Fair Lady. Pretty Woman. Or look to animated series: She-Ra. Jem. Wonder Woman. Diana Prince was hot in her pencil skirt and crisp blouse, but put her in star-spangled panties and a gold-trimmed bustier and she was unstoppable. Besides, nothing completes an outfit like a tiara, red knee-high boots and bulletproof bracelets. Am I right?” Eeeeeee! She-Ra, Jem and Wonder Woman??? Marry me Zain….it’s legal here!
I made a short video about watching the taping which you can view below:
The funny thing is, I made the joke in the video about wondering what he would look like naked before I found an official promotional photo of Zain wearing nothing but a smile and a bright red maple leaf! Oh Canada, indeed! (Photo credit: Andrew McNaughtan / W Network)
Check out the How To Look Good Naked Canada site for more info on the show and to watch full episodes. (Full episodes may not work outside of Canada, but it’s worth a try!) Catch the show on W Network Tuesdays at 10pm!
Stay tuned to TV Garth for more television related treats!
Greetings TV Garth readers! The weather is back to freezing and snowy cold (with no more wild TV reception), but I wanted to do one more post related to the SUPER Tropo Event of Mid-January. This time, it’s a look back at what I learned from the many stations I watched during that legendary weekend. (Click here for a recap of all the reception from that weekend.)
Without further ado, here’s what I learned from the Mid-January burst of long distance TV reception:
Joel Schipper (of South Bend, IN’s WNDU) has done entertainment reports from Toronto and even worked as a freelance correspondent for the show Star! Daily on Canada’s Star! Network.
Recliners make great snowmobiles! (Commercial for Schroeder Furniture seen on South Bend, IN’s WSBT. Click here to download and watch the ad!)
There’s a cool store called Detroit Comicsin Michigan! (I love me some Wonder Woman and Archie!) Seen on Detroit, MI’s WMYD.
CSI Weekends (both NY and Miami) are everywhere in syndication! I saw the same episodes on several channels including Lansing, MI’s WLNS pictured below, as well as South Bend, IN’s WSBT and Cleveland, OH’s WEWS!
A furniture advertisement had a more impressive ball drop than the one seen on Dick Clark’s Rockin’ New Year’s Eve last month. (Furniture Row ad seen on Lansing, MI’s WLNS.)
“Michiana” is the cute nickname for the general area between Michigan and Indiana, using South Bend as the centre point. (Ads for Jobs Michiana and Michiana Guide below seen on South Bend, IN’s WNDU!)
Mattresses are, indeed, manufactured in Lansing, MI! This was revealed in the so-cheesy-it’s-magic faux TV interview shown below for The Mattress Source and Capitol Bedding. (Seen on Lansing, MI’s WLNS!)
Conan O’Brien got royally screwed by NBC (and I still feel to some extent by Jay Leno too, no matter how he or Oprah tries to spin it.) I already knew this, but didn’t make a posting about it until now. TV Garth is proudly on Team Conan.
Jerry Springer is just as trash-tacular as ever no matter what city I’m watching it from. (Seen on Detroit, MI’s WMYD.)
Matlock is still running in syndication, bringing back fond memories of watching it as a kid with my family! (Seen on Cleveland, OH’s WEWS.)
The news graphic below looked slightly inappropriate and confusing until the story explained that the party was intended to raise money for Haiti. (Seen on Lansing, MI’s WLNS.)
Speedy G Bail Bonds will quickly spring your loved ones from jail - for a fee, of course! Check out the Lansing Police Department in the background. (Seen on Lansing, MI’s WLNS.)
Spanish pop Divas lip-synch just as badly as the English ones. She does look fabulous, though. (Seen on Cleveland, OH’s Univision affiliate WQHS.)
K.E.Y.S. Kids on Detroit’s WMYD showed a music video with eerily similar lyrics to the recent American Idol phenomenon Pants On The Ground. (Seriously…they sing something like “You can’t be a man with your pants on the ground!”)
K.E.Y.S. Kids also included singing puppets that began to swirl around on screen with a trippy background.
A woman started talking on screen, while the trippy singing puppets spun around to her left and I started thinking K.E.Y.S. Kids would make more sense if I was intoxicated. (Which totally defeats the purpose of the show’s message….)
The K.E.Y.S. Kids message? “Kids Enjoy Your Selves without drugs.” (I understand it’s a noble effort to produce a show like this, so I snark with love! Honest!)
Communication in marriage apparently involves a lot of pained looks and screaming. (Seen on Kalamazoo, MI’s WLLA.)
Seriously – look at these people! I particularly love the woman on the bottom right, with her exaggerated “shock.”
Willa’s Wild Life is surprisingly not a new VH1 reality show starring Willa Ford. (Seen on South Bend, IN’s WNDU.)
This is what I look like when I’m taking pictures of major tropo events like this. (Seen on South Bend, IN’s WNDU.)
South Bend, Indiana may not be the best place to be an openly gay person. The WNDU weekend news covered a story about an offensive cartoon in the Notre Dame University’s student paper. My TV promptly pixellated in protest! GLAAD also weighed in on the issue. (This blog post from South Bend Equality was also quite depressing. It uses hateful quotes from users of WNDU’s web site to illustrate why “South Bend needs to add protection on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity to its Human Rights Ordinance.”)
On a happier note, if you are into men, Cleveland OH’s WEWS features the attractive forecaster Jason Nicholas!
If you’re into women, Cleveland, OH’s WKYC features the attractive forecaster Hollie Strano!
I actually think it’s pretty clever that rival Cleveland stations compete with attractive weather people of the opposite sexes. I can so imagine that becoming some sort of romantic comedy. Think something like: She was the stormy, mysterious one. He was brooding and cautious, with a cold front that kept love at bay. Yet, one day the rival meteorologists crossed paths, and created a perfect storm of romance! From Showers To Flowers coming this Spring to a theatre near you. Watch to see weather or not they’ll live happily ever after!
That wraps up what I learned during the “Magic Tropo Ride” of Mid-January! Stay tuned to TV Garth for more television related fun!
My name is Garth and I'm a fun loving, pop culture junkie that frequently goes on You Tube binges of nostalgia! I love dance music, comic books, and my major icons are Madonna, Lucille Ball, Wonder Woman, and The Archie Comics gang. If that doesn't spell it out, I prefer the gents!
