WPXN

Channel #3 on the box, #31 over the air
Formerly Pax-TV then i: Independent Television now ion TELEVISION.
They went from religious to odd to rerun central. For a while they had original or at least first-run programming but now it's all about what is profitable. Half of the schedule consists of Paid Programming (half-hour commercials). Four hours of the early morning is dedicated to televised ministries preaching the words of their particular Bible.
They just added Ghost Whisperer to their line-up of Reba, Family Feud, Quantum Leap, M*A*S*H, and NCIS.
Possible new logo as they go through another change, it looks like they're going family-centric.

ion+ TELEVISION Positively Entertaining

History
Started in 1924 on the radio as WNYC it's one of the oldest network signals in the U.S.
When the television portion was developed it carried Municipal Broadcasting System programming and Public Television System(PBS) programs.
By 1995 under Mayor Giuliani this city owned radio and television station was sold to private owners.
By 1996 the station had signed off.
12 hours later it reappeared as Classic Sports Network, WBIS, showing old sporting events.
During the attacks on September 11, 2001 the signal was lost and days later the transmitter was moved to New Jersey becoming very weak until the final move to the Empire State Building.
After several changes in programming and several near deaths it became PAX then i then ion.

Highlights
Ancient Repeats - Occasionally I enjoy an old episode of Quantum Leap or Hangin' with Mr. Cooper. The also bought ER.

Television Movies - Are fun, when they air.

Lowlights
Bad Planning - Once in while they announce a show or exclusive movie but at the last minute the cancel it and show more repeats.

Bankruptcy - They filed once and apparently are filing again. Spending so much to acquire the rerun rights while not advertising is not smart.

Advertising
Like I said previously most of the broadcast is Paid Programming with great names like:

• Relieve Back Pain
• Party Food Ideas!
• Bringing Wall Street to Main Street
• Dance Away Pounds
• Lifestyle Lift
• Ab Circle Pro
• Secrets to Looking Young
• Free Money
• Knife Show
• Foodsaver
• Celebrity Ab Secrets

There are more but after getting free money with your knives while looking young what else can you possibly need. Most of the others ads are religious in nature or self-promoting. The logo is never seen in the corners during Paid Programming or religious shows.

WCBS

Channel #2 on the box
Known for years as the old folks network even if the rating did not show a significantly older demographic. They got this reputation for hanging out with the elderly. Angela Lansbury, Andy Griffith, and Dick Van Dyke all had hit shows on the network for years.
Trying to break the stereotype CBS picked up failed shows from other networks like a Golden Girls spin-off(NBC) and Family Matters(ABC) hoping to attract the faithful viewers. Despite this soap operas like The Young and the Restless and As The World Turns kept the mornings full of youngster and the housebound. The Price is Right became a fixture for decades and only contributed to it's old feel even with Drew Carey as the new host.
It wasn't until Survivor appeared along with The Amazing Race that a new adventurous side started to emerge. Soon new edgy sitcoms, dramas about the supernatural, and crime shows flooded the network. They did a rare thing of revamping their image but what of the elderly. Shouldn't they have their own place on the TV landscape?

History
Started in 1928 on the radio.
In 1937 Guiding Light premiered on radio.
By 1940 a color television signal was being broadcast.
From the 50s to the 80s CBS made ratings history with, "Who Shot J.R.?" and the final M.A.S.H episode.
Due to its antenna location CBS is one of the few stations unaffected on September 11, 2001. They lent their broadcast to UPN channel 9 and many South American networks.
2009 sees the cancellation of Guiding Light due to poor ratings and high costs.

Highlights
Monday night comedies - Granted they quickly become annoying but they are still good for a laugh or two. The Big Bang Theory and Two and a Half Men are among the better.

Forensics - Occasionally I watch a few of the CSI, NCIS, LOL$%$OMG*, etc. Great science but horrible acting.

Friday dramas - Ghost Whisperer and Numb3rs are worth watching yet the constant cast changes are disturbing.

Football - Real American Football games carrying the Giants or Jets with extra games when possible. NY has some ridiculous laws about how many games can be shown at once so often overtime leads to problems.

Lowlights
Reality - I did see the first Survivor and it was okay. Two minutes after watching the second season I realized the contestants were all acting, not scripted but being fake. It stopped being about survival and was an hour long audition tape. Never got into Amazing Race because I don't get the concept, are they running or playing games, and is the whole thing a setup or can you jump borders and dodge bullets?

News - The weakest of all the news providers they replace Dan Rather with Katie Couric. This is the equivalent of replacing a ladder with a pogo-stick. They play down every story and even if 60 Minutes got an interview with Bin Laden live there is good chance I would fall asleep through it.

College Sports - I hate college sports and every year two weeks of regularly scheduled programming gets interrupted for team spirit and athletes that we will never see again.

Advertising
National ads, the logo is not always seen on screen, and few noticeable in show product placements. CBS did start a trend on the soap opera As The World Turns by revolving a storyline around one female lead who was feeling old and decided to get her hair colored with an in-home hair treatment product. It was forced and awkward and I can't fully recall the product so it was also ineffective. During sports event the ads are overwhelming, now with computer generated ads the grass and walls of different events carry commercials only the viewer will see.

NY1

Before I start I'll explain my setup. I have a regular non-HDTV set it has a Scientific Atlantic: Explorer 1850 cable box with remote. This box is not the most advanced and limits the amount of channels I can get because it is not capable of interactivity. There are certain video game, house buying, and other channels that are blocked because they are too advanced.
Cablevision is the cable company under the name of Optimum and I have the iO Gold package. This package includes nearly all of their alleged 385 channels for a final price of about $105 (it changes all the time and I'm always late paying). I think it's a bargain since the internet access is great. Plus they just started a Wi-Fi access point in the neighborhood.

NY1

Channel # 1 on the box.
This is a 24-hour local news channel. Unlike CNN or the others this station tones down the hype and pundit speculating and just report the news. They do lots of local stories, obviously, and many interviews of residents. The slant is very much towards New York residents meaning officials, businesses, and the authority can seem a bit cold and uncaring. Still they are very fair with their handling of important stories.

History
Started in 1991 it uses the "half-hour news wheel" format and relies heavily on digital video technology. Currently located in the Chelsea Market building it took over the studio seen in Oz.

Highlights
NY1 Minute - A 60 second rundown of the top stories and upcoming segments every half hour.

Weather on the Ones - Every ten minutes from the ones of the hour (:01, :11, ..., :51) the devote a few seconds to give the 24 hour and 7 day forecast. It's very accurate and one of the best around.

In The Papers - Done every morning the anchor grabs about 6 or 7 local papers and goes through the stories he/she finds interesting. Most are headline stories and occasionally odd news, here the anchor is quick to give their opinion of the value of each print story.

In Transit - A 15 minute segment every weekend that tells us the status of the public transit system. Half of it consist of what train or bus lines is not working.

On Stage - An hour weekend show highlight the latest in theater news. Interviews with celebrities are great since they always stick to the art of acting and whatever play they are in.

The World Beyond New York - This segment reminds New Yorkers that news exist outside NY. State news, national news, and international news is rounded up for a minute long rundown, just enough to keep us watching before we yawn.

Other things that make this one of my favorite channels is that they follow up. Often you here of some person getting into an accident or keeping a tiger and two alligators in their apartment and after the "incident" nothing else is known. NY1 will keep following up for years.
Also during events they have insight to shut up. During a news conference they just let the entire thing play out and wait until it is over to talk. For New Year's celebrations or other holiday events they stay quiet during the high points even if you just hear crowd noise.
Since they are a 24-hour local station they also have the privilege of allowing a breaking story or council meeting to play completely through. Sure at time it's dull but you see the entire thing uninterrupted and without the clipping that often brings about media bias.
No running crawl at the bottom of the screen unless it's an emergency like blizzards, steam pipe explosions, strikes, etc.

Advertising
Most of the commercials are local, lots of public health ads. The best is no pop-up ads during the shows or news. Any sponsored segments are mentioned up front.

What's new?

Finally done with all my finals and when it came to formulas and computer programming I did well. As for writing I also did well but it took me twice as long to write a paragraph then it did to make a force, moment, and torque diagram.

So I'm making a pledge to write something on each blog I have everyday. With little to watch on TV for the next few months I will blog the TV channels that I have on my cable. Hopefully this will improve my writing skills.

What have I been watching?
Glee: Pilot
A typical Fox show with young kids played by young adults who don't quite fit in but find a home in the Glee club. The main character is the teacher who put together the club but the most interesting is Rachel Berry, played by Lea Michele.

Berry is an overachiever with two dads and a hate for everyone but the popular boy. She is picked on in the most vicious ways and is on the verge of a breakdown. Michele plays this stereotype with a mixture of Tracy Flick and every character Andrea Nemeth ever played. The show does have a Boston Public feel without the heavy drama.

The music is great but Journey makes every show great. They are packaging the show with American Idol which is just wrong since after Kelly Clarkson there has not been any other true American Idol, country does not count. With the cancellation of The Sarah Conner Chronicles and a shorten season of Dollhouse expected next year Glee will make a great alternative.



News: Every Station
I have no idea why the rest of the country cares about Idol, pageants, or anything "reality" based. In NYC the top stories have been constant H1N1 virus(swine flu) news with Mayor Bloomberg speaking in fine English and the worst Spanish since I last tried speaking Spanish. Still he gets an A for effort.
They even broke into the breaking news of the flu report to mention a group of Muslims tried to blow stuff up in and around NY.
Another big story is any time a job fair is announced a line of 2,000 people deep encircle the place until everyone gets rejected interviewed.

This is Why They Make TV

Scrubs: My Finale

Damn good!

TV Installation

The installation of Timothy Dolan as Archbishop of the New York Catholic Church took over the airwaves. This is news because this ceremony has not been done in NY for decades because all other transitions have happened when the former Archbishops died in office.

I watched the ABC coverage because they had a color commentator dropping little facts such as:

• There are 23 branches of Catholicism under the Pope
• Each branch is distinguished by the bishops hats (gold, black,...)
• Eastern Orthodox Catholics are represented but do not follow this Pope
• The Popes letter of appointment must be read in ceremony to be official
• Parts of the ceremony were in Spanish without translation
• Prayers were read in a dozen languages
• No one but bishops are aloud to sit in the cool gold seat on the altar
• Dolan has precided over an outdoor homily briefly with a Green Bay Cheesehead hat
  

Other curiosities include today is Tax Day, which did not escape the church officials as they made some jokes of it. Also it's still Passover and while many Jewish officials are there in support they can not greet him on the altar. The longest applaud was when Dolan recertified the church's position on the sanctity of life. It is still Easter by the way.

To interrupt 3 1/2 hours of programs for a religious ceremony is unique among New Yorkers. In Los Angeles TV is often interrupted by car chases and nationwide only for grand disasters but rarely for church ceremonies. Often I said the real heartland of America is NYC, it's why we are constant targets form all sides. Seeing such a unique thing reminds me why TV is still relevent because checking some news sites on the internet does not even mention this in the top 10 news stories of the day. Local news can be silly but occasionaly they do pull off stories without the ignorance or arrogance that pundits and internet trolls often bring.

Penn State

Kal Penn was the best part of House lately. His sudden exit was shocking in a time when TV shows rarely shock. I was just complaining about the lack of suicidal storylines on dramas and then poor Kutner had to prove me wrong. And yes that was Penn playing his own bloody corpse.

Penn is now part of the Obama White House and should make a fine…liaison? Whatever he will do it at least we know he’ll still be acting.

Seen here with Jenna von Oÿ for no particular reason.

The End is Nigh

ER: And In The End...
A hour long clip show featuring only the fake doctors talking and none of the fake nurses which seemed wrong. Still there were some great memories and touching scenes.


The episode was a regular stint at the ER with mothers in peril and ignorant kids who party too hard. Many of the the original cast came back and they were all awkward. The only shining star of the night was Alexis Bledel as the never before seen Dr. Wise. She was scared and did not act as if she was so cool that all the misery around her was just background for her own drama.

John Stamos played George Clooney, Scott Grimes played Anthony Edwards, Linda Cardellini played Julianna Margulies, as a homage to Michael Crichton. They showed Dr. Green's daughter all grown up and ready to join the ER and probably tragically die or get viciously assaulted, but that is for an unseen future.

All in all it wrapped up nicely, no grand explosions or nuclear bombs.

Life on Mars(US): Life is a Rock
I saw the first episode and new this would end bad. No surprise as it did. American network producers, writers, and execs always do things out of fear. They never take a real chance because they may offend someone. This is a trend since All in the Family transformed into Archie Bunker's Place.
Back to the ending it turns out the entire show was a lie. The year is 2035 and the main characters have just spent years in stasis with a Dollhouse type program running in their heads. Sam chose to be a cop in NYC in 2008 but a glitch threw the time off by 25 years. Once they woke up they ignored their dreams and stepped onto the Martian soil.

Seeing the UK version with its great ending I can't help but be disappointed that the US took the title literally. In Life on Mars(UK) he woke up from a coma and realized his coma world is better than the real world and decides to jump off the roof to go back. Suicide may be a downer but it fit perfectly.

This is Not Spring

Andy Hallet was great as the thin green Lorne on Angel and wondered why he never worked much. Apparently he got sick shortly after the final episode and after years of struggle died this past week. This is sad and one of a number of tragedies to follow the cast and crew of Angel.

The guy was 33, seriously messed up. If your wondering no I don't believe in the jinx or on set curses.


Another loss is the oldest soap opera ever has been canceled.
Guiding Light has been going on for 72 years, that is before TV for you young ones.
Starting as a 15 minutes serial on radio in 1937 it made the successful switch to TV in 1952 but alas the internet will not see graceful transition. The hour of TV is now free for some awful talk show or daytime reality crap.
Not that I can ever recall seeing any episodes I will watch it sign off on September 18, 2009.

43 Not the Ultimate Answer

43 hours dedicated to watching Kyle XY and the last episode resolves nothing.

By now I assume everyone who cares about the ABC Family tween sci-fi drama has seen the episode. Kyle has an evil half brother and his mom may also be evil. The clone wars have begun. Plus he's in love with two girls, granted if he is a super genius he can find a way to have both. Everyone else well their storylines were just left semi-resolved.


They did it to Surface and will do it to every sci-fi family show. If I had something better to do I would invest my time in something better like reading, oh wait the Dark Tower series ended worse than the Sopranos finale.

Okay then I'll listen to some radio, OH NO they changed my favorite, my default, and the best part of over-the-air music from KROCK to a top 40 crapfest. The same station that changed from Rock to Talk and then back to Rock is know full of the worst Top 40 songs a person will not remember in 5 years.

Science is Great

No time to explain how showing a Kung Fu Panda short cartoon instead of a sitcom on primetime is horribly wrong so instead here are some cool r-evolutionary discoveries.

Courtesy of Wired.com

Now back to the books.