Long Island Radio & TV Day 2009 April 23, 2009
Posted by Mike C. in Media, Personal, Radio.9 comments
Last Saturday, I made the trek to C.W. Post for the annual Long Island Radio & TV Day at the Tilles Center for the Performing Arts, presented by the Long Island Wireless Historical Society and WCWP. From 10AM to 4PM, exhibits, performances, and events were held in the Tilles Lobby, Atrium, and Patrons Lounge.
I arrived shortly after 12PM and began snapping pictures.
I was greeted by Kip Rosser playing the theremin, the first electronic instrument.
The audience (at the moment I shot this) included Ted David and Maura “Bernie” Bernard. See if you can find them:
Kip between songs:
Here’s what else I found in the Lobby:
WGBB, my home from July 2004 to May 2005:
myWCWP, my home from October 2001 to May 2004, and May 2005 to January 2007:
Though I’m no longer with ‘GBB or WCWP, I’m an alumnus of both forever.
myWCWP’s Alana Leider gave a tour of the Abrams Communication Building every half hour. Meanwhile, at the table, here are Jordan Lauterbach, Jessica Burke, and alumnus John Zoni:
On to the Atrium…
When I was at WGBB, the station shared WNYG’s building. Here is the WNYG table:
And this is the Friends of WCWP and WCWP 88.1 FM table:
Bernie Bernard and Mike Schanzer (aka Mike Hendryx):
In the following picture:
Sitting L to R: Andrea Wiener, Anita Bonita, Keith Allen (WBZO-FM, B-103), Russ DiBello (aka Famous Amos), David Plotkin
Standing L to R: Brian Bannon, Mike Riccio
WCWP alumni: Jeff Kroll, John Zoni, Dan Cox:
John Zoni, Jeff Kroll, Dan Cox:
Mike Riccio, Bill Mozer, Bob Guthenberg (aka Bobby G):
John Zoni, Dan Cox, Bill Mozer:
Bernie Bernard and Kathy Cunningham worked together at WBAB-FM:
Dan Cox being interviewed by Jim Merritt of Newsday:
And to wrap up our look at Long Island Radio & TV 2009, me and Anita Bonita:
If you spot anyone you recognize in the pictures that I didn’t identify, let me know and I’ll edit their names in.
I had my chance to meet Don Tandler and fellow WGBB alum Mitch Lebe, and re-meet Jim Cutler, but there were gone before I could catch up to them. I’m sorry I missed you guys. Having said that, I had a great time. Thank you to Bill Mozer, Dan Cox, and all those that help put together this year’s Long Island Radio & TV Day.
5/3 UPDATE: Here is the Newsday article that Jim Merritt was working on. Thanks to Ted David for bringing this to my attention on the New York Radio Message Board.
5/7 UPDATE: The aforementioned Ted David wrote the following in a separate NYRMB thread entitled “LI Radio and TV Day a success”:
By all lights, Bill Mozer’s production was a smashing success.
If you missed it and missed this past Saturday’s Newsday, here is a shot of some of the folks who attended [picture in the post]:
Sal Giangrasso, Bill Diehl, Mitch Lebe, Bill Mozer and me.
Nice time was had by all. Come on out next time!
td
Sal, Bill D., Mitch, Bill M., and Ted were pictured in Studio 4 at WCWP, the very studio where I began my radio career on October 5, 2001.
10/6 UPDATE: I had to remove the NYRMB links and find a new Newsday link because the original links led (when I clicked on them today) to error messages.
Latest TPiR double showcase winner March 11, 2009
Posted by Mike C. in Game Shows, Media, TV.add a comment
For third time in a month, and the fourth time in three months, a contestant on “The Price is Right” wins both showcases in the Showcase round. Today, the lucky contestant was Lorna Baker.
Lorna was the fourth of the first four contestants to come on down at the top of the show, and the fourth contestant to make it on stage, winning a Traeger Lil’ Pig grill in One Bid. Once on stage, she played Freeze Frame and won Wesley Allen bed with a Laura Ashley mattress.
In the Showcase Showdown, she spun 1.00 on the Big Wheel, winning $1,000, but nothing more in her bonus spin.
In the Showcase round, Lorna passed the first showcase to the runner-up, Catherine. The first showcase consisted of a Kitty Hawk Kites kiteboarding kit, a Segway scooter, and a Toyota Prius hybrid car. The second showcase contained Broyhill’s Affinity living room collection, Noritake dinnerware, a private chef from Big City Chefs, and a trip to Brussels, Belgium! (Sorry, I morphed into announcer Rich Fields for a second.)
Lorna’s bid for that second showcase was $17,250. The actual retail price…$17,333! With a difference of $83, $4 less than Zachary Newton’s difference two weeks ago, Lorna Baker won both showcases. In all, she won $56,150 in cash and prizes. What a day.
Video of today’s show can be found here. Skip to 16:55 to see One Bid and Freeze Frame, 28:34 for the Showcase Showdown, and 31:23 for the Showcase round.
Another Double Showcase Winner on TPiR! February 19, 2009
Posted by Mike C. in Game Shows, Media, TV.add a comment
Today on “The Price is Right,” Lindsey Marie Kowal won both showcases in the Showcase round! Lindsey Marie – a Cleveland, Ohio, transplant living in Las Vegas – came within $116 of the actual retail price of her showcase, which featured Jo Malone products, a bedroom set (with mattress), and a jet ski. (If a contestant is within $250 or less on their bid, they win both showcases.) She was the first Double Showcase winner since Terry Kneiss, another Vegas resident, won in December. Host Drew Carey exhibited much more enthusiasm than last time, which means there won’t be an uproar from fans on the internet. (I’d be surprised if there is.)
The second showcase was James Bond-themed with a watch, an assortment of “007” movies on blu-ray disc, a home theater system with blu-ray disc player and a 46″ plasma TV, and a trip to Monte Carlo.
In addition to the showcases, Lindsey Marie won snowboarding equipment in One Bid, the game played in contestants’ row.
Video of the full show can be found here. The Showcase round begins at 31:37.
2/24 UPDATE: Today, only three airdates later, “The Price is Right” had another Double Showcase winner! Zachary Newton, the top winner in the Showcase round, came within a mere $87 of the actual retail price of his showcase. The showcase featured a bedroom set (with mattress), snowboarding and skiing equipment, and a snowmobile.
Zachary passed the first showcase, which featured nine iPod Nanos, a monthly home spa party for a year, and a trip to Sweden.
His One Bid prize was a refrigerator/freezer.
Video of the full show can be found here. The Showcase round begins at 32:22.
Defending Drew Carey December 17, 2008
Posted by Mike C. in Game Shows, Media, Radio, TV.add a comment
5/16/19 UPDATE: I wrote a long overdue follow up after watching Perfect Bid: The Contestant Who Knew Too Much.
Yesterday on “The Price is Right” on CBS, a contestant named Terry Kneiss (“niece”) from Las Vegas made a perfect bid in the Showcase round and won both showcases. This was only the second time in the history of the show that a contestant bid perfectly. The other time was in the first season, 1972-1973.
For not being enthusiastic enough in announcing this milestone, host Drew Carey has been roundly criticized, especially on the internet. Other criticisms include: he bungled the situation, he can no longer be defended, he shouldn’t have been the host in the first place, bring back Bob Barker, etc.
I was going to link here to video of yesterday’s Showcase round, so you could just for yourself. But it wouldn’t load properly. Instead, click here for the full episode on CBS.com. Then, scroll ahead to 31:25 for the full round or 37:06 for the stoic reaction that’s infuriated so many people.
I am here to defend Drew. I believe he was simply in stunned disbelief and shock. Not everyone handles that situation by yelling and screaming. Drew has had the yelling, screaming reaction before, but he is far from perfect. If you want Drew to be wildly enthusiastic every time, you’re going to be disappointed. Clearly, many were disappointed by this. If you want to stop watching “The Price is Right” because Drew isn’t enthusiastic enough for your taste, it’s your choice. But there are plenty of people like me that support Drew and will continue to watch. I have been a Drew Carey fan since “The Drew Carey Show,” I became a bigger fan when he started the U.S. version of “Whose Line is it Anyway?,” and I’ve supported him on all projects since.
If you’re a fellow Drew Carey fan/supporter, you’re welcome to leave a comment. I look forward to hearing from you.
And congratulations to Terry. You wrote a second chapter for the history books.
12/18 UPDATE: TMZ – I can’t believe I’m linking to them – has audio of an interview with 93.1 The Party in Las Vegas.
And Paul Walsh of The Minneapolis Star-Tribune has a report on Terry’s win and the “internet buzz” that followed it (and, of course, Drew Carey’s stoic reaction).
Cablevision adds CNBC HD, but not FBN. December 5, 2008
Posted by Mike C. in Media, Personal, Sports, TV.2 comments
On Tuesday, Cablevision added four more HD channels to their lineup. The key add among them was CNBC HD. This flies in the face of customers like me that have been lobbying for the Fox Business Network to be added. I’ve been as vocal as I can be since a week before FBN debuted in SD (standard definition) and HD (high definition) on October 15, 2007.
Originally, I was going to say more, but I decided to hold back.
The other channels added were also under the NBC Universal umbrella: Bravo HD, SCI FI HD, and USA HD. This means that next year, I’ll be able to watch early rounds of the tennis U.S. Open in HD.
From the press release linked above:
Bravo HD (iO TV channel 745) offers Bravo’s critically acclaimed arts and entertainment programming devoted to the food, fashion, design, beauty and pop culture genres including critically acclaimed series “Top Chef 5,” “Top Design 2,” Shear Genius 2,” “Tim Gunn’s Guide to Style 2” and “The Real Housewives of New York City 2.” CNBC HD+ (channel 771) has become the essential service for the investor, providing all the elements of CNBC with greater levels of information equipping the viewer with more tools necessary to make investment decisions. SCI FI HD (channel 748 ) continues to fuel the imagination of viewers with original series and events, blockbuster movies, and classic science fiction and fantasy programming including “Sanctuary,” “Stargate Atlantis,” “Battlestar Galactica,” “Ghost Hunters” and “Eureka.” USA HD (channel 738 ) is the #1-rated television network in all of basic cable for the past three years. USA offers hit original series and feature movies, sports and entertainment events, off-net television shows and blockbuster theatrical films. Hit original series include: Emmy-winning “Monk;” Friday night comedy “Psych; #1-rated cable show of summer, “Burn Notice;” the #1-rated new show of the summer “In Plain Sight;” and the Emmy-winning series “The Starter Wife.”
2/13/09 UPDATE: After getting a comment to this post, I noticed that the “8” and “)” became a sunglasses emoticon: 8)
I’ve added a space between the two characters to fix that problem.
11/19/09 UPDATE: FBN has finally come to Cablevision!
Finally, a new post! November 16, 2008
Posted by Mike C. in Audiobooks, Books, Bowling, Jazz, Media, Personal, Technology, TV, Video Games.3 comments
I have not posted anything to my blog in a week and a half. So, let’s get a few things out of the way:
1. Last Saturday afternoon, I went to the Barnes & Noble in Carle Place for a book signing and discussion event. The author was Steve Doocy, co-host of “Fox & Friends,” the Fox News Channel’s daily morning show. The book is “Tales from the Dad Side.” I had purchased the unabridged audiobook on Amazon a few weeks earlier, but I bought the book itself before I went up to the discussion area.
When it was my turn to have my book signed, a female employee was nice enough to take a picture of Steve and me:
It was a pleasure to meet him in person. Thank you very much, Steve.
2. Last Saturday night, I bowled another 200+ game playing Wii Sports’ Bowling for Nintendo Wii. You may remember back on August 31, I bowled a 257. On this night, I wasn’t able to match that score, but I did come close: 219. Here’s the final scorecard, as seen from a picture of the TV taken after the game:
3. Though I had said in early June that my computer was working and “back to normal,” nothing could have been further from the truth. The blue screens of death (BSODs) continued, becoming a matter-of-fact occurrence. I would get at least one per day. On some days, I would get up to four BSoDs! I mistakenly believed they were the result of my NVIDIA nForce Serial ATA drivers not working with Windows Vista Home Premium Service Pack 1. Then, in mid-October, it finally hit me: it’s faulty memory causing the BSoDs. That’s what I get for buying four discounted 1 GB (gigabyte) memory DIMMs in late May. I replaced two of them with Dell DIMMs after ordering them from the Dell website. They were made exclusively for my computer, a Dell Dimension E521, based on my Service Tag. I have not had a blue screen since installing them (knock on wood).
4. Since my last pre-order update, I’ve ordered a few more CDs:
Tom Scott, “Desire” (Wounded Bird; re-release)
David Benoit, “Jazz For Peanuts” (Peak)
Kim Waters, “I Want You: Love In The Spirit Of Marvin” (Shanachie)
Saxophonist Tom Scott’s “Desire” was originally released in 1982 on Elektra, but was re-released on October 14. The tracks on the album are: the title track (re-recorded on “Them Changes” in 1990), “Sure Enough,” “The Only One,” “Stride,” “Johnny B. Badd,” “Meet Somebody,” “Maybe I’m Amazed,” and “Chunk O’ Funk.” I’m hooked on “Stride,” and also like “Chunk O’ Funk” and “Johnny B. Badd.”
“Jazz For Peanuts” was released on October 29. Six of the tracks were newly recorded by David Benoit:
- “You’re in Love, Charlie Brown” (Vince Guaraldi); This track features horn player Christian Scott on trumpet.
- “The Great Pumpkin Waltz” (Vince Guaraldi)
- “Wild Kids” (re-recording of track from “Urban Daydreams” in 1989); This track features pianist Taylor Eigsti. 2:16 into the song, David and Taylor kick into a lively improv section. Like Tom Scott’s “Stride,” I’m hooked on this section.
- “Be My Valentine” (Vince Guaraldi)
- “Rollerblading”; This track also features Christian Scott.
- “Re-Run’s Theme”
The non-Benoit tracks were:
- Wynton Marsalis Septet – “The Buggy Ride” (unreleased, recorded for “This is America, Charlie Brown: The Wright Brothers at Kitty Hawk”)
- Dave Brubeck – “Benjamin” (from “Happy Anniversary, Charlie Brown!” in 1989; recorded for “This is America, Charlie Brown: The NASA Space Station”)
- Kenny G – “Breadline Blues” (from “Happy Anniversary, Charlie Brown!” in 1989; recorded for “This is America, Charlie Brown: The Smithsonian and the Presidency”)
- Vince Guaraldi [Trio] – “Linus and Lucy” (from “A Charlie Brown Christmas” in 1965)
Kim Waters’ “I Want You: Love In The Spirit Of Marvin” was also released on October 29. I just got this in the mail today. So, it’s too soon for me to review it. But I like the instrumental tracks I’ve heard so far. The “Marvin” is the late, great Marvin Gaye.
5. Tomorrow, I turn 27 years old (or young).
I think that covers everything that needs to be covered for now. Hopefully, it won’t be another week and a half until the next post.
Slightly good news: Cablevision adds more HD channels. October 16, 2008
Posted by Mike C. in Media, Personal, Sports, TV.add a comment
I went to the Cablevision About page to see if there was any new news and maybe a certain business channel added. Nope. That would be silly, of course. But five more HD channels were added this week:
BETHPAGE, NY, October 14, 2008 — Cablevision Systems Corp. (NYSE: CVC) today announced the addition of five new free high-definition channels to the iO TV digital cable lineup, which now offers customers 65 HD channels across Cablevision’s entire service area. The new channels, MTV HD, VH1 HD, CMT HD, Fuse HD and NHL Network HD, present leading music, pop culture and sports programming and will launch over a three day period from October 14-16.
Well, I had wanted NHL Network HD. So, at least I get that. Meanwhile, still no Fox Business Network. It doesn’t matter how many times Neil Cavuto says of FBN, “If you’re not getting it, demand it.” Cablevision doesn’t seem to care. Or does it? Toward the end of that link:
Sources close to negotiations indicate that FBN is closing in on a deal with one of three main holdouts: Dish Network, Cablevision and Cox.
My pessimism indicates that one of three is actually one of the two: Dish Network and Cox. I really hope I’m wrong.
11/19/09 UPDATE: FBN has finally come to Cablevision!
Summer pre-order update #2 August 27, 2008
Posted by Mike C. in Audiobooks, Books, Media, Personal, TV.add a comment
For the first time in the 3 1/2-month history of these pre-order posts, I’m reporting that I’ve pre-ordered something other than a music CD. I have pre-ordered a nonfiction book and unabridged audiobook (CD):
Bill O’Reilly, “A Bold Fresh Piece of Humanity: A Memoir” (9/23)
Courtesy Amazon.com
Here is the book synopsis:
In 1957, in the heart of the Eisenhower years, in the third grade classroom of Sister Mary Lurana in Saint Brigid’s parochial school in Westbury, Long Island, was a mouthy, obstreperous kid by the name of William O’Reilly. Quite a handful he was, and so one day Sister Lurana bent over him in exasperation in response to some piece of mischief and told him to his face, “William, you are a bold fresh piece of humanity.” Little did she know that she was, early in his career as a troublemaker, defining the essence of Bill O’Reilly and providing him with the title of his brash and entertaining issues-based memoir.
In his most intimate book yet, O’Reilly goes back in time to examine the people, places, and experiences that launched him on his journey from being a working-class kid to an immensely influential television personality and bestselling author. Readers will learn how his traditional outlook was formed in the crucible of his family, his neighborhood, his church, and his schools, and how his views on America’s proper role in the world emerged from covering four wars on five continents over three-plus decades as a news correspondent. What will delight his many fans and surprise many others is the humor and self-deprecation with which he handles one of his core subjects: himself, and just how O’Reilly became O’Reilly.
The Crusaders on the DNC P.A. today; Jeff Lorber again August 26, 2008
Posted by Mike C. in Jazz, Media, Personal, Politics, TV.add a comment
Once again, I have “Your World with Neil Cavuto” on. And once again, contemporary jazz is playing on the Pepsi Center’s public address system in the moments before today’s DNC festivities begin. At this moment, 4:37 PM Eastern, “Shotgun House Groove” by The Crusaders is playing. The song is from their 2003 album “Rural Renewal.” What is it with 2003 music at the DNC?
There’s 20 minutes to go. If I hear anymore songs, I’ll list them.
4:52 PM UPDATE: “Under Wraps” by Jeff Lorber again; second day in a row. The music hasn’t been as loud today. So, it’s been hard to identify.
4:58 PM UPDATE: I give up.
Spyro Gyra at the DNC? Jeff Lorber, too! August 25, 2008
Posted by Mike C. in Jazz, Media, Personal, Politics, TV.add a comment
This hour (4PM Eastern Time), I’ve had on “Your World with Neil Cavuto” on Fox News Channel. The show is airing from the Pepsi Center in Denver, Colorado, the site of this year’s Democratic National Convention.
As I listened closely to the background noise, I couldn’t believe what I heard blaring over the public address system. Spyro Gyra! Whoever is in charge of the P.A. has their 2003 “Original Cinema” album playing on shuffle. So far, I’ve heard in order: “Extrovertical,” “Big Dance Number,” “Funky Tina,” and “Getaway.”
There’s another 10 minutes in the hour. If I hear anything else, I’ll provide updates.
4:51 PM UPDATE: Neil commented that the music is so loud he can hardly hear himself.
4:53 PM UPDATE: Now, we’ve switched to Jeff Lorber! “Under Wraps” is playing, from “Philly Style” in 2003.
4:54 PM UPDATE: “Gigabyte”
4:55 PM UPDATE: Neil, tossing to a commercial: “The formal kickoff with Howard Dean and this shindig really gets started, and the music really gets loud, after this.”
4:58 PM UPDATE: “Philly Style,” the title track
5:01 PM UPDATE: The music has faded out and the convention is underway. But it’s always great when contemporary jazz gets played at a mainstream venue, even if it’s just a P.A. warmup for the main event.
MikeChimeri.com 