Welcome to TV Garth!

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.

Sunday, August 18, 2013

Vacation Reception Reports: The St. Louis Road Trip Sept. 27, 2012 (Part 1)

Greetings TV Garth readers! Last year, I joined up with my pals Mr. A and Miss Mitzy Cream for an awesome road trip to JemCon (a convention devoted to the Truly Outrageous 80's cartoon.) The 2012 JemCon was being held in St. Louis, MO and the journey took us through Michigan, Indiana, and Illinois on the way to Missouri! Thanks to my portable Eviant TV, I got pics of many stations I had never seen before during our trip! So grab a snack and get ready to see a quad-state road trip in true TV Garth fashion! (Most of the channels were new to me, so I'm using PSIP numbers instead of RF frequencies for this recap!) This is Part 1 of 3!

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Sept. 27, 2012

HOME - Markham, ON

I was cranky about being up so early, but enjoyed catching a promo with GMA's Lara Spencer and the fab Ginger Geoffrey on Buffalo, NY's WKBW (RF38.) Not too long after, I would be on the road heading towards the American Midwest!

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MICHIGAN

28-1 WCMZ (PBS) Flint, MI
This PBS affiliate relays WCMU and has visited my home turf a few times!

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66-1 WSMH (FOX) Flint, MI
Flint's FOX affiliate is another station that's been seen in TV Garth territory!

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10-2 WILX-DT2 (WX) Onondaga/Lansing, MI
From here on, everything was new to me, including WILX and their weather subchannel!

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43-1 WZPX (ION) Grand Rapids/Lansing, MI
It was positively entertaining to catch the ION affiliate serving the Grand Rapids area!

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INDIANA

33-1 WISE (NBC) Fort Wayne, IN
Melissa Long and Jason Meyers are the WISE choice for news viewers in Fort Wayne!

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33-2 WISE-FX (FOX) Fort Wayne, IN
I thought of all my page turning pals when I saw this ad for The Bookmark!

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Also of note is that WISE briefly took over the area's FOX affiliation and put it on their subchannel, before rival WFFT won it back.

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6-1 WRTV (ABC) Indianapolis, IN
Everytime I see new channels, I say Gimme More! My travel companions saw my TV obsession in action, but didn't Hold It Against Me!

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6-2 WRTV (HTSN) Indianapolis, IN
I caught a great ID on WRTV's Hometown Sports Network subchannel!

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23-1 WNDY (MyTV) Indianapolis, IN
Survey says that it was great catching Family Feud with Steve Harvey on MyTV affiliate WNDY!

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23-2 WNDY (Cool TV) Indianapolis, IN
I got a little misty eyed when I saw that WNDY still had their Cool TV music subchannel! (Cool TV was dropped in September 2012 from all the stations that carried it in TV Garth territory. They played a great mix of current and classic music videos!)

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40-1 WHMB (LeSEA) Indianapolis, IN
This host's fabulous hair made her look like one of Charlie's Angels, which seems appropriate for a religious station!

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46-1 WALV-CD Indianapolis, IN
WALV-CD airs weather reports and doppler radar from NBC station WTHR!

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47 WBXI-CA (Tr3s) Indianapolis, IN
Network execs weren't horsing around when they dropped the "MTV" from "MTV Tr3s" which is still seen in analog in some markets.

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59-1 WXIN (FOX) Indianapolis, IN
I was pretty animated when I caught The Simpsons on WXIN!

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30-1 WTIU (PBS) Bloomington, IN
Bloomington's PBS station certainly doesn't monkey around with well branded station IDs!

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2-1 WTWO (NBC) Terre Haute, IN
I heart wacky commercials and squealed when WTWO showed an ad for Honest Abe Roofing, complete with an "interview" with Mr. Lincoln! LOVED it!

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I also squealed when I caught some of the WTWO newscast that night! I was thrown for a loop, since their station logo looked much like one used by Buffalo, NY's WGRZ!

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Soon, my pals and I would experience a different Power of the Pink, celebrating the 80s cartoon icons Jem & The Holograms!

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Shelly Shearer had a bloody good time collecting donations in Indiana that day! (Also check out WTWO's graphics, which are a lot like the ones used on Rochester, NY's WHEC!)

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38-1 WAWV (ABC) Terre Haute, IN
I caught a nice ID for WAWV around the time we stopped to get gas at a jaw dropping truck stop. They had a sign highlighting an "Asian Massage" area upstairs, while you could grab free religious comics about people going to hell downstairs. Because that's how they roll in Indiana...

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ILLINOIS

8-1 WUSI (PBS) Olney, IL
Aretha Franklin has lots of Respect for PBS and so should you!

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15-1 WICD (ABC) Champaign/Urbana, IL
I saw WICD long enough to notice we were entering the Central Time Zone, though other stations I was catching (like WTWO) still displayed Eastern Standard Time.

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17-1 WAND (NBC) Decatur/Champaign, IL
I waved my antenna like a WAND and conjured up scattered reception of weatherman J.C. Fultz! I also saw anchors Sean Streaty, Dawn Sterling and a Matt who certainly shouldn't be Loveless!

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55-1 WRSP (FOX) Springfield/Decatur, IL
Everybody Loves FOX 55/27 in the Central Illinois viewing area!

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3-1 WSIL (ABC) Harrisburg, IL
We were still on the road when late night shows like Jimmy Kimmel started showed up!

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MISSOURI

St. Louis stations began popping up as we got closer to our destination! The following shots of the city's main lineup come from both the road and after we arrived!

2-1 KTVI (FOX) St. Louis, MO
Brian Amon talked about the recovery of an inflatable rhino named Rico that was stolen from Michael's Flooring Outlets. The thieves tried to sweep the evidence under the rug, but it was too late...

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4-1 KMOV (CBS) St. Louis, MO
There were a few holes in KMOV's story about South St. Louis!

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I couldn't predict it at the time, but KMOV's Larry Conners would become quite the controversial figure in 2013!

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5-1 KSDK (NBC) St. Louis, MO
I loved that I could still catch Kathie Lee & Hoda during my trip!

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7-1 KTPN-LD (HSN) St. Louis, MO
Viewers give a lot of credit to the Home Shopping Network, seen via KTPN! No, really...they have to give credit to pay for their purchases!

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9-1 KETC (PBS) St. Louis, MO
Some folks think that PBS is for the birds, but it's also for many other animals depending on the episode of Nature being shown.

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9-3 KETC (PBS World) St. Louis, MO
Like many PBS stations, KETC runs a World of programming on their subchannels!

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11-1 KPLR (CW) St. Louis, MO
Later that weekend, I'd become the King of Queens when I dressed up as Jem for the convention!

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I found it hilarious that I could still find ads for Value City furniture in the Midwest! (I see these all the time on Buffalo stations, where people dance wildly to imitations of 90s dance hits...usually beside couches!)

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11-2 KPLR (This TV) St. Louis, MO
This would be a good time to note that MGM's movie network is a subchannel on KPLR!

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16-1 KDTL-LD (RTV) St. Louis, MO
I found some CanCon In The US with RTV affiliate KDTL-LD airing Cold Squad!

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24-1 KNLC (IND) St. Louis, MO
KNLC appears to be an independent religious channel.

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30-1 KDNL (ABC) St. Louis, MO
Leave it to KDNL to 30 Rock my world with a nice "ABC 30" logo in the bottom corner of the screen!

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33 K33GU (TBN) St. Louis, MO
Trinity Broadcasting Network makes their analog home on channel 33.

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46-1 WRBU (MyTV) St. Louis, MO
I turned on WRBU just in time for a trashy episode of Scrubs!

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51-1 KUMO-LD (Daystar) St. Louis, MO
KUMO-LD brought me some Table Talk courtesy of Daystar!

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This recap is Only The Beginning of my St. Louis mayhem! Stay tuned for Part 2, which features a brief encounter with KMOV, a trip to the famous Arch of St. Louis and Outrageous fun with Jem!

2 comments:

  1. Have picked up WXIN, WISE and WALV from Toronto once before during a morning of great tropo conditions.

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    1. Hey Goldielover! How are you? I remember my jaw dropping when I saw you report those on Digital Home last year! (Haha...I was just as jealous as you are of WHEC/WHAM, which have actually been much more scarce for me this year!) I find this year overall to be pretty uneven compared to 2012. Though this past week there's been some nice reception coming in!

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