Create

Pati Jinich at an awards ceremony last year.

For the past several months, I found myself watching PBS offshoot Create, but mostly the cookery shows.  I've caught up on Patis Mexican Table, Americas Test Kitchen, spinoff Cooks Country, Bake Off, Jamie Oliver, Martha Stewart, My Greek Table, Lidias Italy, Nick Stellino and Steven Raichlins Project Smoke and Project Fire.  However, things come up short in my area.  From 10 PM to 6 AM, it simulcasts ARTS which is classical music videos, and new episodes are either only on the main channel or online until last seasons episodes are shown.  While the lovely Pati Jinich is the queen of Mexican cooking, most of it is a challenge for me.  Create has more of an emphasis on the diverse and educational than the commercial and popular on cable, network and first-run syndication.
Not all PBS tiers carry Create, including DC flagship WETA, which produces several of these series, although nearby MPT (which makes a few others) does.

Remember to Rescan

Cable and satellite need not apply.

Remember to Rescan: If you receive digital TV over-the-air with an antenna, you should periodically rescan to update the channels you receive. While some boxes do this automatically, you may need to select 'scan' or 'auto-tune' from the TV or converter box control menu to start the scanning process.

TV in far-flung regions

Not strong enough for the countryside.

There are areas where the closest TV market can be more than fifty miles away, while some like Syracuse and Utica here in CNY, or Baltimore and Washington are within that much distance of each other. Where I used to live in the Mid-Hudson Valley, I was almost eighty miles from Albany and New York City. While much of the area was part of the tri-state viewing area, there was less of a voice for everyone north of Yonkers and south of Catskill. RNN in Kingston provided local news for the region, although they moved operations down the river. WMHT has a translator W42AE in Poughkeepsie which has DCC classes in place of other instructional programming during the day and week. You'd have to have cable or a strong antenna to get anything. Satellite was only starting to have broadcast channels more easily. Only major stories would get any attention.
Other remote areas are dotted throughout the country. Stations can't exist in every city if there aren't enough people to serve.

Replacements for Spectrum

Willimantic, CT office.

The honeymoon's over!  Albany is showing Spectrum the door.  After being slated for not living up to their promise, New York State is looking to get them out.  Another company will have to take over the rights as a whole or portions of the state affected by this move.  There are a number of providers that could reach the northeast:

Comcast (although they've been in the same boat, yet own networks like NBC and USA)
Altice Optimum (much of downstate has this which absorbed Cablevision)
Haefle Cable (for around Cortland and Ithaca as they have rural communities like Virgil)
Atlantic Broadband (the US division of Canadian cable company Cogeco)
Consolidated Fairpoint (more of a Midwestern company)

Spectrum Northwest petition

Thrown together with what I had saved.

Please sign this everyone.
UPDATE: Four month dispute ended in June.

CW 9 WGN

Possible logo configuration

With Tribunes TV division being sold to Sinclair, perhaps they may look into re-establishing the Chicago conglomerates flagships affiliation with the CW, which went to my50 WPWR in Gary as I posted a while ago.  New owners often means new people and new decisions.  It would be like with my38 in Boston.  However, it would cause a seismic shift in the schedule for both stations.  It could take up to a year for Washington to approve and another for operations to be absorbed fully.  The local news might appeal more to the Collar Counties west of town after the sale is complete with Sinclair having a reputation similar to FNC (myNetworks sister station).  I wanted to start a new post instead of just adding onto the old one.  SBC already have CNYcentral near me which includes CW 6.  WGN meanwhile remains a separate animal from sister station WGN America (now NewsNation) which used to have channel 9 outside the Chicago DMA, just as CWs half-sister TBS now have a different agenda to the original channel 17 in Atlanta which remains indie.  In the meantime, WGN 9 is now sister to Newschannel 9 WSYR ABC in Syracuse and CBS 9 WNCT in Greenville, NC.

UPDATE: Even though WGN and the CW are now sister subsidiaries of Nexstar, Weigel flagship WCIU is the affiliate for the Chicagoland DMA today.

UPDATE 2: WGN will return to the CW on 1 September 2024 along with a reshuffling of Nexstar stations that include KLFY 10.2 laFayette Parish, LA and WVBT 43.2 Norfolk, VA, both which have room on their tiers to move down the smaller networks the CW are replacing. Back in Chicago, WCIU will go back to being the U (indie).

TV stars with CNY ties

Vanessa L. Williams in a red carpet-ready red dress!  The L is for local!

There is a plethora of household names that have past personal ties to Central New York as it's too easy to start in a big area.  Been meaning to do this.  Here is a list of ones I know:

Kevin James (attended SUNY Cortland)
Al Roker (attended SUNY Oswego)
Peter Falk* (also attended Hamilton College)

Richard Gere (lived in North Syracuse; appeared on the BBCs MotherFatherSon)
Mike Tirico*

Kevin Michael Richardson*

Bobcat Goldthwait (grew up in East Syracuse)

Tom Kenny (same)
David Muir* (born in Syracuse; formerly on CBS 5; now on ABC)
Jerry Seinfeld (attended SUNY Oswego)
Andrew Daly (attended Ithaca College)

Anne Burrell (grew up in Cazenovia)

Ina Garten*
Ricki Lake (also went to IC)
Ann Coulter (went to Cornell across town)
Keith Olbermann (went to Cornells east campus)
Megyn Kelly* (lived in Syracuse, but later lived in Albany County)
Tom Everett Scott* (does TV occasionally)

Edie McClurg*
Debra Wilson*
Jeff Glor* (formerly of NBC 3 WSTM; originally from WNY)
Bob Costas*

Lindsey Vonn*

Marv Albert*
Ted Koppel*
John Walsh (born in Auburn)
Annette Funicello (born in Utica)
Dick Clark*
Taye Diggs*
Jerry Stiller*
Vanessa L. Williams (pictured; was on Ugly Betty, and is now on Daytime Divas, and is the only local legend on both this and the sister blogs post on CNY)*

*SU alumni