Greetings, y'all! I, the Scarecrow, am back in print once more. For all those who thought I was just something I was getting out of my system in the last few columns, ha! I'm just getting started! Before I get into the meat of this column, I would like to start with a quote from an article from the previous Dag:

"Scarecrow is a nut but he runs a good show."

- Brad Goertz

Thank you, Brad! This is the kind of high praise I work for!! You don't have any tact, class, or simple manners, but you have good taste.

Recently, on October 30th, I had the honor of accompanying our editor into the City of Edmonton for a day of excellent adventures. We were to spend the morning touring The A Channel, Edmonton's newest TV station. The afternoon was spent at 100.3 the Bear, those guys we are always re-broadcasting on CLCR. Our adventure started at 9 in the morning, when our editor swung by the dorm to pick me up. Our editor started questioning his logic in bringing me along about 45 minutes into our trip, when I named his car "Amy". But, soon I was drafted into being photographer extrordanare, snapping pictures all over the places we went.

Upon our arrival at The A Channel, we walked right into the lobby like we owned the place, and I was immediately in awe. As you walk in, on your left is this huge glass garage door that lets you peer in on the studio where they film such shows as The Big Breakfast and Wired. A real TV studio! I was dumbstruck! Of course, there were nothing but chubby camera operators and technicians setting up for some stuff to be filmed later in the day, but I was blown away. They even had a pool table set up for people to shoot a round when things get slow. At this point we met our tour guide, Barry Close, promotions manager. He let us into this studio, and as he and our editor talked about the basics, I was free to wander the studio, clicking my pictures.

From here, Mr. Close led us into the newsroom, the heart of any good TV station. Things weren't very active, but Mr. Close things start getting nuts around 4 o'clock, when they start gearing up for live at five. I started wandering around, once again flashing my flashbulb, when our editor waved me back. Mr. Close had introduced our editor to the A Channel's news director, at which I was waved over to meet him too. After the news director left, our editor leaned over to me and said "You know, we set that up as a photo op." D'oh! So much for my first day as a photographer. But, the next photo op was not wasted, and I got my picture took with one of their on-air personalities.

Tho one cool thing about being in the newsroom was catching a glimpse of Janice Mackey. I looked at her and thought "Wow! I'm in the same room with her!" I started out watching her on YTV News, and now she's here! My heart was racing, my throat tightened up in sheer respect and admiration for this truly famous person. I wish I at least got a picture of her. But, I digress. Let's save the hero worship for another day.

From the newsroom, we went on to master control, where the magic happens. Lots of buttons, lots of monitors, lots of people pushing buttons and watching monitors. So that's how TV works. There were reel to reel tape players, VCRs, and lots of technical stuff I had no clue was used for. And, our tour guide was more than happy to point out that the A Channel is the only TV station in Edmonton that is 100% digital. They are very much a TV station for the 21^st Century.

From here, it was upstairs. Offices, offices, and the film vault! I saw the video tapes of every Star Trek: The Next Generation episode ever made. Our poor editor, though. Even after he talked to the program director, he still does not have a straight answer on why no one shows Transformers anymore. After the tour of the upstairs offices, Mr. Close was more than happy to answer any questions we had. Our editor asked all the questions, while I sat there with a dumbfounded look on my face. The only question I had was, if you've ever seen any TV from Toronto, you will notice that The A Channel looks a lot like City TV. So, I asked if City TV were used as a model. Mr. Close's answer was that yes, they did ger some advice from City TV, but they hope to appeal to a much broader audience than City does. The only question I had, and I must say I was rather pleased with the answer.

On the way out, though, my editor did do something that embarrassed me slightly. He is trying to get a picture of Dr. Claw's face from Inspector Gadget off of the Internet. But, the only way you con see it is to answer a challenging trivia question. As we were walking out, our editor noticed that the Inspector Gadget episode playing was the exact scene in the exact episode that he needed to get his answer. He got all excited, and the receptionist there in the lobby turned up the sound on the TV, and our editor got his answer (and I would like to see that picture of Dr. Claw, too). So, we laughed about this, and then went off to lunch.

Ahhh. Greasy burgers before the Bear. It was at this point I was starting to feel a little insecure about our trip. Rather than a smart, sophisticated college student, I felt I was coming across as Gomer from the sticks. Throughout the whole experience at The A Channel, I was walking around all wide-eyed and just in awe of this place. But, it was time to put that out of my head and move on. Many a wise person has said to me "Scarecrow, QUIT OBSESSING ALREADY!!"

[Note to editor: If pressed for space, cut it off here, and I'll do a two parter. If you're not pressed for space, remember to delete this note so we don't seem like morons]

[Editor's Note: Well we ARE pressed for space, so does that mean I'm supposed to leave the note in?]

Note to the web-surfers: I hope to eventually post some pictures of me at the A-Channel. I just have to beg and plead my friend with the scanner.

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