The politics stuff is a blast — and no doubt, there’s plenty to talk about locally and nationally. But we’ve months for that, and we don’t want to burn out now, do we?
Since it is vacation season, I want to share something with all of my friends outside of the Chicago TV market (as well as the majority within the Chicago TV market that aren’t public television-watching nerds like me).
Wild Chicago’s Illinois Road Trip.
Wild Chicago was a show on WTTW that went dark a few years ago. The hosts, which over the years included eccentric actor Will Clinger and current Illinois Road Trip host Ben Hollis, traveled, mostly throughout the Chicago area and Illinois (though there was some travel to Indiana, Wisconsin and other Midwestern states – I think they may have also gone to Japan), clueing viewers in on the many oddities that exist in our back yards. Info on that show here and here.
Wild Chicago’s Illinois Road trip is in the same vein, but Hollis takes viewers on a journey throughout our great state, stopping along the way to see an idyllic Japanese Garden in Rockford, on a cruise on the Spirit of Peoria, to the Garden of the Gods in Southern Illinois, and on a number of other adventures in every part of Illinois.
The show has one major sponsor. And in essence, the show’s a half-hour ad for that sponsor. But it is NOT a commercial production. It’s sincere and the host is wonderfully goofy, complete with safari outfit, pith helmet and bad jokes.
I don’t think it shows outside WTTW’s viewing area, but it may (if anyone knows, please chime in). But the web site’s pretty inclusive.
Check it out.
ArchPundit
I used to love Wild Chicago and I saw the Illinois adventures episode a few weeks ago. It was great to see Wild Chicago back on TV.
Time to cut their budget. I’m sure the lovely hard working single moms in Cairo (and everywhere else outside of Chicago) LOVE paying for a fun local Chicago TV show. And you can’t argue it brings in tourism dollars to the state because the show is IN the state. What a horrible, immoral waste of our money.
“And you can’t argue it brings in tourism dollars to the state because the show is IN the state.”
Really? If I decide to vacation in Southern Illinois instead of Kentucky, are my dollars not being spent in Illinois, irrespective of the fact that I already live in Illinois?
And let’s pull up a little on the hyperbole about a (very) low-budget public television show robbing single moms of the opportunity to, as the Genius in Chief would say, put food on their families.
Each minute, MINUTE, we spend nearly $123,000 in our misadventure in Iraq. And there will be no hotel, restaurant, or other tax reciepts coming back on that one.
And THAT is a horrible, immoral waste of money. And no purple fingers will change that fact.
Buck, it is absolutely ridiculous to think that that show is “encouraging” enough Chicagoans to vacation in Illinois rather than somewhere else to justify a very low budget. And lucky for you it would be impossible to measure such an effect. It is ABSOLUTELY WRONG to take anyone’s earned income to pay for a local television show like that.
All those pennies and nickels start adding up, otherwise government wouldn’t have to tax the poor one single penny would they? What possible justification is there to tax poor people? There isn’t any justification, yet stupid spending like this makes sure both the idiot parties continue taxing poor people.
Just because this show doesn’t cost as much as the Iraq War does not make that expenditure of our money the least bit necessary. I happen to agree about Iraq, but that has nothing to do with this unnecessary, feeble, failed attempt at social engineering with our paychecks.
Are you really suggesting that it is a proper role of government and a wise expenditure to try to convince Chicagoans to vacation in Illinois instead of out of the state? When our pensions are the worst underfunded of any state and we are almost $2 billion behind in healthcare payments? Nice try Buck, but there is no justification. Whatever is being spent on that local TV show is going to cost our children 4 times as much when the bills come due. We already have the first generation in American history who won’t be better off than their parents, and spending like this only makes it even worse for them.
In spite of the name, the show is shown throughout Illinois – so it is, in fact a statewide tv show encouraging Illinoisans to vacation in Illinois (as well as Michiganders, Indianans, and Winsonsonites, whose states are reached by WTTW, and those who get other IL public stations in Missouri, Iowa, and Kentucky).
The expressed goal of the Illinois Bureau of Tourism is to promote tourism, is it not? Tourism brings money, close to $25 billion in 2004. Tourism employs people, nearly 300,000, earning $7.7 billion.
The top five states providing tourists to Illinois: (gasp!) Illinois , Wisconsin, Missouri, Indiana and Michigan. I think I’ve seen those states referenced before…
These stats all courtesy of U of I, by the way (http://www.tourism.uiuc.edu/itf/facts.asp).
“Are you really suggesting that it is a proper role of government and a wise expenditure to try to convince Chicagoans to vacation in Illinois instead of out of the state?”
No. In fact, I was, at first, simply pointing out an enjoyable television show that shows off destinations most Illinoisans had no idea their state had to offer.
Now that you’ve taken your obvious beef with Blagojevich, and awkwardly attempted to shoehorn it into a debate over how being a partial sponsor of a public television show that promotes a multi-billion dollar (that’s still “billion” with a “b”) industry that employs hundreds of thousands of Illinoisans is somehow putting us all into squalor, I am saying that the Illinois Board of Tourism, as it has under previous governors, including St. Jim of Charleston, is charged with promoting Tourism (hence the name) and by being a partial sponsor is doing so in a way that is smart and entertaining.
Social engineering? That’s rich.
That is, of course, Wisconsonites.
That is, of course, Wisconsinites.
I never figured on a largely partisan political blog, a post about a goofy TV show would generate such passionate debate.
Who knew. That’s the fun of it, I guess.
Oh well, nothing personal. I’ll be adding your blog to my rounds of visits, though I can’t promise I’ll agree too often…