Entertainment

On the Air: Getting spooky on cable just silly

With Halloween on the horizon, let’s review one of those cable shows where they travel the globe to find real-life monsters.

I can’t remember the name of the program, but the one I saw had a team visit the Philippines to locate a legendary snake monster that reportedly resided in a large lake there.

Animated footage of a mean-looking snakey thing was run repeatedly during the program, but that was as close as we got to ever seeing the creature.

That didn’t stop the TV crew from exacting drama around every bend. Not content with daily life, reality shows apparently have moved into the monster realm.

As the search unfolds, wide-eyed wonder morphs into haunted-house jumpiness. "Did you hear something?" one of the searchers will ask as the camera moves in tight on a look of grave concern.

While the television audience waits for some sign of life anywhere, the crew carries on with militaristic zeal, employing sound equipment and video gear but to no avail: Not even a ripple.

The best the scuba divers who descended into murky waters come up with is, "Something went right past me. It might have been a fish." For all we know, it might have been Charlie the tuna.

After striking out in the lake’s depths, the search team decides to canvass the shore, picking up a local villager to serve as guide. He immediately shakes the team up with news that gun-toting rebels roam the jungles around the lake.

Now we have one more thing to watch for in this tedious travelogue but, of course, we don’t see them, either.

The search of the lake’s perimeter is conducted at 2 a.m. and after a nerve-racking exploration in the dark that’s sparked by comments like "What was that?" or "I think I heard something," the crew flees back to New York, apparently relieved to return to big-city dangers that can actually be seen.

I’m sure there are strange creatures in this world but you won’t see them on shows like this where the focus is on phony drama, served up documentary-style. TV is bound and determined to solve all the mysteries of the world – right after this message.

TV notes

This just in from Bill Kauzlarich, our Farmington correspondent, on WEEK-TV, Channel 25: "The next ‘You Gotta Eat’ will be Eric Shangraw and Mark DeSantis dining at the Fort Wayne, Ind., Applebee’s."

Speaking of WEEK, GM DeSantis confirmed that NBC is pulling out of the Weather Plus station, a WEEK digital channel for the last couple of years.

"It is expected that the network side of the partnership will cease by the end of the year. However, it is our goal that WEEK will continue to offer a (digital) channel utilizing the power of our local weather and news operation that it is as seamless with the current operation as possible," he said.

In other words, another station probably will be cranked out of the Fort Wayne control center.

Radio notes

Mark Johlke of Peoria misses WOAM-AM 1350 with its easy-listening music. He points to WAIK-AM 1590 in Galesburg as an option for adult-standards fans. He also likes Bloomington’s WGLT-FM 89.1/103.5 and WMT-AM 600 out of Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

AM radio is old technology, we all know that, but here’s an item from this month’s Radio Journal:

"So you say AM radio is dying? Don’t tell that to the broadcasters of Las Vegas. The city has seen three new additions to the AM dial in the last couple of years."

Steve Tarter can be reached at 686-3260 or moc.ratsjpnull@retrats.