The parade will be aired from 11am to 1pm. While NBC is the more prominent network covering the event, HGTV (TWC Channels 1350 and 350) blows NBC’s coverage away year after year. Not only is their commentary about the craft of each float superb, they also show the marching bands for more then 5 seconds each.

Take a look at the Broughton Band during their first pass of the Raleigh Christmas Parade six weeks ago:

gogoRaleigh Bowl Calendar

Changes will also come to WTVD’s family QAM assignment. In order to get WTVD, WTVD HD, WTVD Live Well HD D2, and WTVD Accuweather D3 on a device other than a cable box, one will need to rescan the channels in order to receive these channels.

On Monday, June 20, TWC is adding Tennis Channel HD (1542), Gol TV HD (1819), Sportsman Channel (516). Tennis Channel HD and Sportsman Channel will be available as part of Sports Pass.  Gol TV Channel 819 along with Gol TV HD will be available as part of Sports Pass, Nuestra Tele, and El Paquetazo.

Don’t forget gogoraleigh’s alphabetical channel guide (.PDF) and Google Spreadsheet displaying the channel lineups and packages.

A crowd of around 8,000 was on hand last night at the RBC Center to watch as garnernorthcarolina–native Scotty McCreery was named the American Idol for Season 10. Congratulations to Scotty! I had a chance to be in that crowd and saw the event from an unexpected perspective.

As is evident in the video, the crowd went nuts when Scotty’s name was announced. As you watch the video, however, note the general amount of noise in the room as Ryan is leading up to the pause, then notice the total silence as the Idol monotone sound effect is finally heard. With 8,000 waiting with baited breath, all it took was the “Sss” sound by Ryan Seacrest to send the room into a frenzy. We never even heard “cotty McCreery”. This was a special aspect of the evening that local news outlets have missed. Here are a few other points:

Production

The RBC Center staff welcomed the crowd with a lower level of security than we typically see at NCSU and Hurricanes events. As the crowds filed in ushers guided people sequentially filling each lower level section in order to get the best flying camera shots on the national television production. A few concession stands were open selling basic concessions including beer, however probably 70% of the crowd was under 21 years of age.

With the hockey season over, the RBC Center floor has no ice and the hockey walls have been removed. Therefore we got the unusual view of an empty, gray arena floor that was dotted with a few chairs and a boom camera. Sections 106 thru 117 of seating were completely empty, so the empty seats and empty floor presented some odd acoustical problems for the RBC Center’s presentation on the scoreboard video screens. The audio was loud, but somewhat shrill and echoing, so the sound quality would have been much better in my den. However the crowd on hand cheered at the exact times the crowd in Los Angeles did, so it made the event unexpectedly come to life.

American Idol sent Matt Rogers, a Season 3 Idol contestant, to be the Master of Ceremonies. Matt’s banter with the crowd and crew during commercials was refreshing. One of the biggest responses of the night came when he noted that the cameraman was on the floor of The Pit the night of April 4, 1983.

The highlight of Rogers’ duties came at the end of the night. Swarming with elated fans, Matt was pictured on the video boards holding and kissing a cardboard cutout of Scotty. If only National had time to show that hilarious moment.

Timing

Rogers also alerted the crowd to times that National was possibly going to cut to Raleigh, and kept us apprised of the finale’s timing difficulties. One of the planned acts for the show was to include live interviews from both Lauren’s and Scotty’s home crowds, but these segments were cut due to overruns. During one of the TV show’s acts, the Raleigh crowd was told to be silent as Rogers and the production crew blocked a revised Raleigh cut, however that segment was cut, too.

We can’t understand how a 2 hour production runs so long that acts are cut. There were no free-form blocks in the acts outside of Ryan Seacrest’s introductions. All of the musical performances were preblocked with the lighting crews, and all of the video packages are all a finite length.

As the Raleigh segment was cut, we noticed Ryan Seacrest blowing through the introduction of performances and even wondered if the abbreviated performance of “Dream On” by Steven Tyler was a late change. It seemed to be the only act in the second hour with flexibility, as production crews could not cut Lady Gaga’s song or that dreadful Spiderman performance.

Ratings Behemoth

Early numbers are in and it appears that last night’s finale drew 29.3 million viewers, so it will likely be the #2 watched television show of 2011, falling second only to the Super Bowl. For reference, the NCAA National Championship Football and Basketball games drew 15 million and 12 million, respectively. Dancing With The Stars’ Finale drew 21 million.

Garnernorthcarolina

It was an exceptional night for the town of Garnernorthcarolina, as Scotty calls it. The Blue Crew of Scotty’s high school friends completely filled section 119 and did a good job of cheering on the rest of the crowd. The Wave even made an appearance during one of the show’s final commercial breaks.

Choral Directors

One of the great moments of the show was the introduction of Lauren and Scotty’s most influential teachers. Not only did the two get invited to the AI Finals, they were acknowledged on international television and given new Ford cars. Garner High School choral director Meredith Clayton was stunned and elated as one of her greatest moments as a teacher got even better.

I’m here to say that any male at Garner High School who isn’t in that woman’s program is a complete idiot. She is adorable and added to the fantastic presentation of this area. Oh, and she’s probably a pretty good choral teacher; it’s in her pedigree. (Clayton’s mother was Clay Aiken’s choral teacher.)

Something In The Water?

Raleigh native and Broadway star Lauren Kennedy was ecstatic watching the American Idols finale. She even went to Twitter wondering if there is something in the water in North Carolina given, yet another, American Idol impact performer. Clay Aiken, Fantasia Barrino, Chris Daughtry, Kellie Pickler, Bucky Covington, and Anoop Desai were all sensational on the show, but Scotty is the area’s first champion. Kennedy’s point makes one wonder if the area has even more to give in future seasons…

I Saw It Coming

The reason I took my family to the RBC Center last night is because I had a strong inclination that Scotty was going to win. Scotty never gave me “WOW” moments like other contestants did, however winning Idol depends on getting votes, and getting them from the people who vote. A lot more goes into this equation that simply soaring vocals. One of the interesting facets to Dentistry is getting a sense of the buzz in the general population. After the last 5 seasons, I think that American Idol has become something that is largely determined by middle-aged, strong Christian women who would like to lose 20-50 pounds. This demographic has been right on par with who wins in each of the last 5 seasons. The result is a clean-cut, somewhat talented singer who doesn’t show off. Let’s look at those last 5 seasons:

Jordin Sparks vs. Blake Lewis – Jordin Sparks is an All-American type woman with a great voice. Blake Lewis is a good singer, but his beat-boxing, rap-leaning music did not resonate with the demographic. Had Lewis been a more of a smiling pop singer, he could have won.

David Cook vs. David Archuletta – At first one would think that the devout Christianity of Archuletta would excite the demographic, but that isn’t what totally excites them. They actually like rock-leaning pop music over vanilla pop.

Kris Allen vs. Adam Lambert – No one will argue that Adam Lambert doesn’t have a phenomenal voice, however he was too flamboyant and screamed too much to overcome that smile that the demographic loves.

Lee Dewyze vs. Crystal Bowersox – Crystal was the one that blew everyone’s doors off in Season 9. However when it came down to two, the grunginess of Crystal didn’t excite the demographic as much as Lee’s moderate pop and smiling eyes.

Scotty McCreery vs. Lauren “Alaina” – (Lauren’s last name is not Alaina, btw) Season 10 featured an accurate singer with low, but narrow range winning over a beautiful voice that needs more seasoning. That’s not what swayed the vote at all, though. Genre was a wash as both singers exclusively sang Country songs. Scotty has a big smile and never projected a cocky demeanor. That’s difficult to overcome, even for a really good voice. Lauren was my family’s early pick based on who would get the cascading loser votes, however that was based on Scotty finishing around 5th. In the end it appears that Scotty is the only person that Lauren could not beat. Match Lauren against any of the other 11 final contestants, and The Demographic picks her every single time.

The Judges

So, the demographic I mentioned seems to be the set that is most likely to pick the winner, but they are swayable each year, and this was no exception. In each of the last 4 finals, the judges have unofficially anointed the better voice as the winner. However in each of those nights, we’ve seen a huge backlash. This season the backlash was exacerbated by the show’s emphasis on Lauren’s vocal injury in rehearsal.  The result was: people who would have voted for Scotty 10X voted 150X. This is exactly the case with someone I know, and I’ll venture to say those numbers were repeated throughout The Demographic.

Lauren’s Future

We did some digging and found where Lauren Alaina lives. It’s at the dead end of a country road near Chattanooga. Sounds like the beginning of a country song, doesn’t it. Lauren’s family has obviously struggled financially and it is great to see Lauren get this chance. She has been gifted with an excellent voice and has noticeably improved as a performer over the last 3 months. Lauren had serious confidence issues in the first half of the competition, and learning more about her background helped to explain this. She still needs to perform past the first two rows of the auditorium and she still needs to work on hitting the climax of a song correctly. I have complete confidence this will come with more training and maturity, and fully see Lauren Alaina having an excellent career in Nashville along the lines of Lee Ann Womack or LeAnn Rimes.

Scotty’s Future

The one overriding question in the American Idol aftermath is whether Scotty can overcome the Idol Curse. Of the nine Idols, only Kelly Clarkson and Carrie Underwood have been able to advance their career’s beyond “Idol Winner” status. Scotty has a very decent chance of being the third, not because of his talents per se, but rather because of the market.

Country music used to be only popular in rural areas and the South. However since Garth Brooks’ breakthrough, the genre has steadily seen growth in other areas of the country and social strata. With Rock being as dead as it has ever been and stations like G105 forcing Lady Gaga and Kanye West into pop radio, a very serious backlash is about to occur. Teens are quickly turning toward Country music in droves, and there really is no end in sight.

Scotty’s new single, “I Love You This Big” was released this morning, and the producers have done a sensational job of capturing the powerful portions of his voice. The song will be a hit this Summer in Country radio. Scotty is hitting the wave at the perfect time, as there aren’t any big teen country singers right now. Paired with good songs (and that has been a problem for so many Idols), Scotty can be the next Idol to break through.

The Others

This year’s show produced an extremely good group of finalist. James Durbin is quite likely to have success in the dormant Rock realm, Pia is likely to be a hit in Adult Contemporary, and the sky is the limit for Casey and Haley. Casey is enormously talented and keeping him focused will be a key while Haley showed with her version of Adele’s “Rolling In The Deep” that she doesn’t have to shout to be outstanding. Paul McDonald and Jacob Lusk are a couple of others who, if matched with the right songwriters, could also see good careers. We’ll see.

* * *

It’s crazy that we are even talking about this. Two months ago many of us thought we had an versatile, typical young country voice on our hands. Now here we are talking about Scotty McCreery being the next in a long list of Springtime major, national successes in the Triangle area. The Idols tour comes to the RBC Center on July 27, and you can expect one of the longest ovations in that building’s impressive history when McCreery takes the stage.

Doors will open at 6:30 p.m. While admission is free, parking is $10. So, baby, lock them doors and go out to the RBC Center to pull for Scotty!

Calendar Note: For some reason the Google Calendar plug-in in the right margin is showing this week’s American Idol events as being on Wed and Thur, though the actual Google Calendar from which the data is copied shows the correct days of Tue and Wed. Please make a note of this. Gogoraleigh apologizes for any confusion this may have created.

For those planning on participating in all of the events, be sure to be at the park BY NOON. All parking will be at Bryan Farm (1832 New Bethel Church Road – map it), and no pets, tents, or coolers will be allowed. Be sure to show your consideration of others by using ponchos and raincoats instead of umbrellas.

Here is the schedule for Saturday’s rain-or-shine events:

• 10am – 5pm: Shuttles will run from Bryan Farm
• 10am – 7pm: Buffaloe Road closed to thru traffic
• 11am – 4pm: Entertainment, crafts, and inflatables
• Noon: Parade Lineup on Buffaloe Rd.
• 2pm – 3pm: Parade
• 3pm – 4pm: Concert

Congratulations, Scotty!

Over the past 50 years, the area has had a local competitor in a large-scale national event during 36 of the past 50 Springs, and 22 of the past 24. The only down years since 1962 have been 1962*, 1965, 1970, 1971, 1973, 1975, 1976, 1979, 1980, 1984, 1985, 1987, 1996, and 2007.

Click after the break for the detailed events per year since 1962

• 1962: *Wake Forest in Final Four (6-yrs after their move from the town of Wake Forest)
• 1963: Duke in the Final Four
• 1964: Duke in the Final Four
• 1966: Duke in the Final Four
• 1967: UNC in the Final Four
• 1968: UNC in the Final Four
• 1969: UNC in the Final Four
• 1972: UNC in the Final Four
• 1974: NCSU National Champions
• 1977: UNC in Championship Game
• 1978: Duke in Championship Game
• 1981: UNC in Championship Game
• 1982: UNC National Champions
• 1983: NCSU National Champions
• 1986: Duke in Final Four
• 1988: Duke in the Final Four
• 1989: Duke in the Final Four
• 1990: Duke in Championship Game
• 1991: UNC and Duke in the Final Four, Duke National Champions
• 1992: Duke National Champions
• 1993: UNC National Champions
• 1994: Duke in Championship Game, UNC Women National Champions
• 1995: UNC in the Final Four
• 1997: UNC in the Final Four
• 1998: UNC in the Final Four
• 1999: Duke in Championship Game
• 2000: UNC in the Final Four
• 2001: Duke National Champions
• 2002: Carolina Hurricanes in the Stanley Cup Finals
• 2003: Clay Aiken in American Idol Finals
• 2004: Duke in the Final Four, High Point’s Fantasia Barrino wins American Idol
• 2005: UNC National Champions
• 2006: Carolina Hurricanes Stanley Cup Champions
• 2008: UNC in Final Four, Kristi Yamaguchi wins Dancing With The Stars
• 2009: UNC National Champions, Carolina Hurricanes in Stanley Cup Final Four
• 2010: Duke National Champions
• 2011: Scotty McCreery in American Idol Semifinals

Was this a move to try to get her from cutesy/perky realm to FoxNews Hot? If so, that isn’t what Debra Morgan is about. She’s too good for this.

Sweet relief is here now with the alphabetical Time Warner Cable channel guide from gogoraleigh. Print the PDF as a 2-sided document, fold it in half, and you have a neat little half-page alphabetical listing of the more than 350 networks included in Time Warner’s service. Remember that SD channels are those under 1000 and HD channels are 1000 and above.

Gogoraleigh’s Alphabetical Channel Guide (PDF)

Let’s revisit this list, however, with the tournament schedules in mind. The list appears in the order in which each coach’s team will play over the next four nights.

Format: Name (school) – Sagarin Computer Ranking, Tourney Seed, Air Time (Network)

Season Over (No Bid or Tourney Loss)

• Fred Hoiberg (Iowa St) – #87
• Ron Everhart (Duquense) – #75
• Randy Bennett (St. Marys-Cal) – #43, NIT 2-seed. 11p (ESPN2) – Lost by 1 in 1st round

Wednesday

• Gregg Marshall (Wichita St) – #64, NIT 4-seed. 7p (ESPN2)
• Tad Boyle (Colorado) – #49, NIT 1-seed. 9p (ESPN3.com)
• Ken Bone (Wash. St) – #55, NIT 2-seed. 10p (ESPNU)

Thursday

• Blaine Taylor (ODU) – #39, NCAA 9-seed. 12:40p (truTV)
• Chris Mooney (Richmond) – #36, NCAA 12-seed. 4:10p (TBS)

Friday

• Mark Turgeon (Texas A&M) – #33, NCAA 7-seed. 4:10p (TBS)
• Chris Mack (Xavier) – #35, NCAA 6-seed. 7:27p (truTV)
• Mark Fox (Georgia) – #52, NCAA 10-seed. 9:45p (CBS)

Advancing, Next Game TBA

• Cuonzo Martin (Missouri St) – #73, NIT 3-seed. 8p (ESPN3.com)

If you would like to add these events to your Google Calendar, simply follow the link below.

With the Canes making a push to the playoffs and with Duke and Carolina entering the NCAA tournament in the top 8, and with McCreery’s showing thus far, it looks like we may have a busy Spring in Raleigh.

Idol airs Wednesday at 8pm.

While Time Warner Cable’s demonstration of Samsung’s active-shutter 3D technology was impressive, it was the presence of the Samsung SMT-H3272 (.PDF) that was most exciting. The device is a tru2way multi-room DVR that will allow customers to share recorded content among all TV’s in the house. The unit has 500GB of storage, which is about 4X to 6X the storage of the currently deployed DVRs by TWC.

Users will likely be excited, too, by the group functionality of the SMT-H3272. If a second unit is added to the house, the cumulative amount of shared storage and tuners goes to 1 TB GB and 4, respectively. As many as 8 of these devices can be used for a total of 4TB GB (1,000 hours of HD, 4,000 hours of SD) and 16 simultaneous tuners (watch/record 16 channels at the same time).

Users will not have to add tuners and storage to extend the experience throughout the house, however. A more inexpensive thin client will also be available, offering simple extension of recorded TV. (Tuner support in the clients was not mentioned, however I surmise that each will have 1 tuner, much like a current standard cable box).

Because the entire system works on MOCA technology, no additional wiring is needed. It works with existing coax cabling (that black wire connected to your TV).

The system will not support 30 second commercial skipping or offloading of content, but will support OnDemand services, Look Back, Caller ID, and other existing features.

The Whole-House DVR system is currently available as part of the SignatureHome package, stand-alone rollout is anticipated in mid February. Pricing is not available, but nobody will be sad to see the phase-out of the Scientific Atlanta 8300HDC, the worst consumer electronics device ever brought to market.

• Comedy Central HD – Channel 1304
• MTV HD – Channel 1450
• BET HD – Channel 1308
• VH1 HD – Channel 1454
• The Hub HD – Channel 1211
• 5 StarMax HD – Channel 1725
• Showtime Beyond HD – Channel 1736
• ESPN Buzzer Beater HD (seasonal replacement for ESPN Goal Line) – Channel 1540

“On or about” January 19, we’ll see Jewelry TV (374), Nickelodeon HD (1205), Spike HD (1310), CMT HD (1460), Disney XD HD (1202), Showtime Next HD (1738), Showtime Women HD (1740).

Russia TV will be coming to channel 183 at a later date.

Nowell went on to work in his family’s modern furniture business in Cary and has been a strong supporter of the area’s fascinating Modernist Architecture movement. Unfortunately he was diagnosed with Multiple Myeloma earlier this year. His approach to this diagnosis is the subject of Today’s episode of “My Carolina Today” on NBC17. The show airs at 11am.

Here is the press release:

October 30, 2010 (RALEIGH, NC) – Jerry Nowell, a man who normally prefers to remain in the background running his award-winning store Nowell’s Contemporary Furniture in Cary, is going before the cameras next week to discuss his battle with multiple myeloma, a form of blood cancer, and the fundraiser he’ll launch in November to benefit Multiple Myeloma Cancer Research at Duke Medicine.

Nowell will be a featured guest on NBC 17’s “My Carolina Today” show on Monday, November 1, at 11 a.m. Joining him will be Dr. Cristina Gasparetto, a specialist in laboratory and clinical research in the field of multiple myeloma at Duke Medicine.

Multiple myeloma is cancer of the plasma cells in bone marrow.

Nowell, 49, was diagnosed in May after a routine check up. Since then, he’s been sharing his progress on Facebook and planning “Nowell’s Fund To Fight Multiple Myeloma” in association with the Duke Comprehensive Cancer Center.

The furniture store has been sponsoring holiday-season charitable fundraisers for several years. Nowell’s decision to make cancer research at Duke the recipient of this year’s fundraiser was obviously personal.

“While there is currently no cure for multiple myeloma, on-going research raises great hope that emerging therapies may turn it into a manageable disease and, ultimately, lead to a cure,” he said.

Dr. Gasparetto will discuss some of those advances when the show airs.

Kickoff is at 7:30pm, and all traffic in the western half of Wake County will be extremely heavy. If at all possible, avoid I-40 and the Starplex (Stadium/Arena Complex) area if you are not attending the game!

The NBA rosters are an interesting read every year. There are so many surprises in the rolls, including the coaching staffs, I put together a master spreadsheet of all NBA players for readers to enjoy. In order to best utilize the data, log in to your Google account, and then select File | Make a Copy…, and save the spreadsheet into your own account. Users can then sort the list by Team, Salary, Age, etc. to best comprehend the current rosters.

There are several players from the area in the league. Quin Snyder, Bob Bender, Gene Banks, Chip Engelland, Phil Weber, Nate McMillan, Vinnie Del Negro, Joe Wolf, Bob McAdoo, Pat Sullivan, John Kuester, George Karl, Larry Brown, Dave Hanners, and Phil Ford are all among the coaching ranks. Raleigh natives Chris Wilcox and John Wall are preparing for big seasons as players in the league. Additionally there are also several former local college players in the league, and Duke currently holds the lead. Those players are:

Duke (13)

• Shane Battier (Houston)
• Carlos Boozer (Chicago)
• Elton Brand (Philadelphia)
• Luol Deng (Chicago)
• Chris Duhon (Orlando)
• Mike Dunleavy (Indiana)
• Gerald Henderson (Charlotte)
• Grant Hill (Phoenix)
• Dahntay Jones (Indiana)
• Corey Maggette (Milwaukee)
• Josh McRoberts (Indiana)
• J.J. Redick (Orlando)
• Shelden Williams (Denver)

UNC (11)

• Vince Carter (Orlando)
• Wayne Ellington (Minnesota)
• Raymond Felton (New York)
• Tyler Hansbrough (Indiana)
• Brendan Haywood (Dallas)
• Antawn Jamison (Cleveland)
• Ty Lawson (Denver)
• Jerry Stackhouse (Miami)
• Jawad Williams (Cleveland)
• Marvin Williams (Atlanta)
• Brandan Wright (Golden State)

NCSU (2)

• J.J. Hickson (Cleveland)
• Josh Powell (Atlanta)

Wake Forest (8)

• Al-Farouq Aminu (LA Clippers)
• Tim Duncan (San Antonio)
• Josh Howard (Washington)
• James Johnson (Chicago)
• Chris Paul (New Orleans)
• Ishmael Smith (Houston)
• Darius Songaila (Philadelphia)
• Jeff Teague (Atlanta)

We’ll see if others such as Rashad McCants, Sean May, John Scheyer, and Danny Green can find there ways onto the list…

On 10/20:

• Wize Buys (376) will be replaced by Liquidation
• Art & Coin Network Channel 377 will be replaced by Black Shopping Channel
• Cornerstone TV Channel 380 will be replaced by Shop Zeal 3

To be added 11/4:

• WEPX HD (1155)
• Comedy Central HD (1304)
• Hallmark Channel HD (1218)
• MTV HD (1450)
• Nickelodeon HD (1205)
• Spike TV HD (1310)
• Nat Geo Wild HD (1254)
• DIY HD (1356)
• NHL Network HD (1526)
• Showtime On Demand HD (1762)

On 11/10:

• Primetime HD On Demand Channel 1195 will be available as a Free On Demand service.  Also, on this date, programming from CBS and NBC will move from HD Showcase On Demand to Primetime HD On Demand.

To Be Added 11/23:

• HSN HD (1371)
• QVC HD (1370)
• BET HD (1308)
• VH1 HD (1454)
• The Hub HD (1211)
• Cooking Channel HD (1353)
• Disney XD HD (1202)
• Fox Soccer Plus HD (1536)
• Smithsonian On Demand HD (TBD)

Gogoraleigh’s TWC Channel Guide

Of course, Time Warner has an html channel guide as well as a printable channel guide (.pdf), but they didn’t fill my needs. Instead I created a Google Spreadsheet with the channel lineups. From this I can select channels to skip and see more per page than TWC’s. It is a powerful tool for setting up a Windows Media Center, TiVo, or Sage setup with Raleigh’s Time Warner Cable service (and believe me, bringing your own hardware to the table is essential to making Time Warner’s service enjoyable)

As a bonus NBC has posted Superchunk’s off-the-air performance of “Precision Auto” from the (awesome) 1993 “On The Mouth” CD.

The game will be televised in HD on ESPN, but unfortunately will not be in 3D. The 3D game of the week is Clemson vs. Auburn (Sat., 7pm).