See ya in a few!

[BrettVW]

Hey everyone,

Just wanted to drop a quick note. I'm off to NYC to go see a taping of "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" at NBC Studios tomorrow. I will be back at some point Wednesday or Thursday. So, early Happy Thanksgiving everyone, and if anyone is inclined to stay up half the night, ya never know if you will see us. It should be Tuesday night/early Wednesday mornings episode. We have the "Allegheny College Loves Conan" T-Shirts in the 1/1,000 chance they show us.

Thanks again Scott for the help!

[Deleted]

Happy Thanksgiving to you too Brett!

So you will be back THIS wednesday or Thursday, or next Wednesday or Thursday?

Have fun and do some more sightseeing while you are there. I would love to go back to NYC now that I am about 14 years older, I think I would enjoy it a lot more.

I actually don't have an NBC affiliate, with a set top antenna I have I get CBS, Fox(barely and the station is like 2 miles from me) and ABC, Directv doesn't offer our local channels and the Designated NBC affiliate here won't relent and let me get the distance broadcasting one Directv offers for people who can't.

[Scott Lakefield]

Have fun, Brett...and you're welcome for the help!

[BrettVW]

Back already! I will post a little 'trip report' on here in the next day or two. Craziest last 36 hours of my life, but it was an awesome trip!! Was 10 feet away from Conan O'Brien! NYC was crazy. Didn't get to listen to any radio, but have a picture of a JACK-FM bus billboard.

[BrettVW]

Hey everyone.

Well after a LOT of sleep last night, and Thanksgiving dinner come and gone, I am "with it" enough to write out a bit about my trip. I know in no way is it related to music or AT40, but it was such a great time I just want to share it. If you don’t feel like reading about a trip to New York City – that’s your warning.

For years, in addition to being a huge fan of Casey Kasem radio shows, I have also been equally as obsessed with "Late Night with Conan O'Brien." I just find Conan's humor hilarious...and now with a college schedule, I am usually able to stay awake and watch it at 12:35am. I have also met some good friends who love Conan as well. I have always called the number to get studio audience tickets, and have always been greeted with "we are not booking tickets." I almost was at the point of just assuming they never actually booked tickets and the audiences came from somewhere else. However, on October 3rd, on a hunch, I called and was greeted with "To Book Tickets Press 0". After getting tickets for this past Tuesday, we got excited and I immediately knew who would be accompanying me on the trip. So we started planning and figuring out how on earth we were going to do this.

Fastforward to this week. As 4 poor college students who had to be in class on Monday, in New York City on Tuesday and home for Thanksgiving on Wednesday, so Overnight Greyhound bus rides here we came! We started off on Monday night driving from Meadville to Pittsburgh to catch an 11:15pm Greyhound into NYC. Our one friend lives in the area, so we all dropped our cars off at his house (we all drove seperate so we could all leave for home when we returned) and his dad drove us to the Greyhound station. 11:15 passed.....no bus....11:45 passed....no bus...12:15 passed....no bus. We finally left at 12:45. Once underway, the drive was uneventful and I slept on and off most of the way. We rolled into NYC around 9am, only an hour late.

Now, mind you, we had nothing except the clothes on our back, the toothbrushes in our pockets, some spending money, and our Conan tickets. Since we couldn't have backpacks at Conan, we had to sacrifice any sort of packing whatsoever since we had no hotel or place to stay.

We got off the bus and walked down the street a bit and got some breakfast at a Burger King. It was pouring rain, freezing cold, and we were exhausted from the bus going "what the heck did we just get ourselves into?" But we gathered ourselves and walked over to NBC Studios and Rockefeller Center. We walked around for a bit, checked everything out, saw them wrapping up “The Today Show” and got tickets for a tour later that afternoon.

Afterwards we headed out and saw them putting up the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree, which was quite a sight to see. We then walked up the street, saw Trump Tower and Playboy Enterprises. The rain at this point got quite heavy and we were pretty soaked – so we went into FAO Schwartz (which was not as grand as I thought, but was still amazing) and marveled at the insane prices. It is also of note that at this point it was about 10:30am, and the rain had just soaked our socks - which would remain wet until I returned home around 24 and a half hours later. Since the store had no objection, I snapped several pictures of the ridiculous price tags. After FAO we headed back to NBC for our tour.

The NBC tour was awesome – we got to see the sets for Saturday Night Live, NBC Nightly News, and NBC Sports. No celebrity sightings, but we were gearing up for Conan! We were all very impressed with the NBC tour. The thing that got me was how small the studios are in person.

After the tour we got some lunch at Rockefeller Center and got in line for Late Night. We were group # 7, got our wristbands and waited for 4:15. At 4:15, they took us into the security check point, which was on par with an airport. Understandable though, as we were going to a TV taping with celebrities.

We were seated for the taping and then a comedian came out and warmed up the audience for a good 15 minutes. Then Conan came out and talked to us for a bit – which was an absolute thrill for me. Then the final prep work began and the show started!!! Guests included Usher, Colin Quinn, and musical guest Pink Martini. For any Conan fans out there, he did “In The Year 2000” which is one of my favorite skits, and it was just incredible to see live.

After the comedy bits, Usher, Colin and Pink Martini all did their thing, and as quickly as it started it was all over. Conan came up and thanked us all, shook a few hands (unfortunately not us) and that was that!!

We then headed to a Sbarro, got some pizza, and then headed to do a bit of nighttime sightseeing. We saw the Rockefeller Center ice skating rink – then headed to Times Square. Went inside the ENORMOUS Toys R US and spent a good hour in the Virgin Megastore – I want one of those in Cleveland..wow. A music and movie lovers dream. What got me was how much vinyl was still available for purchase, even the new stuff like Green Day’s American Idiot.

We then walked through Macy’s, saw the Empire State Building, watched a bit of the Thanksgiving Day Parade rehearsal, then headed back to the bus station, passing Madison Square Garden on the way.

The bus back left early, however at some point during the day I had lost my return bus ticket – and of course had to purchase another one. If I find it I can get a refund, but my guess is it is just like Kevin McCallister in Home Alone 2 – “Lost in New York.” We rolled in around 7am Wednesday, and we all bid farewell and headed our separate ways for Thanksgiving.

All in all – it was extremely exhausting and thrilling! We had such a blast, and accomplished way more than we ever thought!! NYC is an incredible place. I would love to spend more time and see everything – including more TV tapings!! I have a ton of pictures if anyone is interested. It was a great trip!!

[Hervard]

^ Look for this at your nearest bookstore sometime in 2006!

[Deleted]

Glad you had fun Brett. There is no way I could have pulled that off.

It is amazing how small the studios all look compared to what you think they are when you see them for so long on TV. I remember in Jax I got to visit a couple of news stations there when I was in school and basically all the programming sets where in one big room that resembled a soundstage and there were like 2 cameras for each set.