Cover photo by Leif Zurmuhlen

Please choose a category: Goods & Services Food & Drink Arts & Entertainment People & Places Note to readers: The Best Of selections were compiled by Metroland staff members; Readers’ Poll results can be found at the end of each section. In addition, the best answers to our free-form Readers’ Poll questions appear under the heading "You Said It."

Best Daily Paper
The Daily Gazette
Schenectady

Sure, everyone (including us) reads the Times Union. But we can’t say enough good things about The Daily Gazette. First and foremost, it’s the only independently owned daily paper in the area. There’s competent and comprehensive reporting on national, regional and local news in every issue, and a Lifestyles section that doesn’t make us cringe every time we open up to it. And unlike the TU, which has decided to segregate our news for us (if you live in Rensselaer County, you get an issue that specializes in Rensselaer County news; if you live in Saratoga, you get Saratoga news, etc.), The Daily Gazette still gives us a little bit of everything, so we can read globally and react locally.

Best Arts Writer
Timothy Cahill
The Times Union

Cahill is a thoughtful and sensitive writer who goes beyond the obvious in his well-crafted feature stories and commentaries focusing primarily, but not exclusively, on the visual arts. Whether he’s training his attention on the latest changes at a local art gallery or on programming decisions by an area arts presenter, he offers knowledgeable, well-reasoned insights.

Best Daily Dispatch From the Urban Wilderness
The Record
Troy

The Times Union and The Daily Gazette may be the alpha papers in our area, in terms of superior coverage of the region in general. But we have got to give props to The Record for opening our eyes to the odd nuances of Rensselaer County politics. No other paper digs into the conflicts, personality quirks and pissing matches that make Rensselaer County our favorite little Wild West frontier masquerading as a 21st-century community.

Best Agitprop for the Left
Hudson River Herald
HUDSON

Someone’s gotta fight the good fight in Hudson. Larger papers, like the Times Union, rarely cover the bizarre relationships and conflicts of interest that mark the business and politics of this Columbia County city. And Hudson’s daily paper, the Register-Star, often acts as little more than a shill for the business interests that want to trample all over the quality of life in the Hudson River Valley. The Hudson River Herald, on the other hand, proudly takes a polar-opposite stance on things, and makes no bones about it. This little broadsheet paper is sassy, cynical, witty and aggressive, and we’re glad it’s there to remind the powers that be that someone’s keeping an eye on them.

Best Agitprop for the Right
The Register-Star
Hudson

Looking for a newspaper that systematically sides with the government? How about a paper that guarantees to represent big business and corporate interests? Then we recommend you check out the Hudson Register-Star. Not once has this paper taken the side of the people in the fight against multinational corporation St. Lawrence Cement, which wants to build a huge coal-burning plant right outside of Hudson. And when vegetarian groups were being snubbed by the Columbia County Fair (organizers refused to let them have a booth, due to their anti-carnivorous take on nutrition), the paper ran editorials blasting the groups for fighting for their First Amendment rights to freedom of speech. Kind of ironic coming from a newspaper, huh?

Best Magazine
Hudson Valley Magazine

Like previous winner Adirondack Life, Hudson Valley is a regional magazine that captures everything wonderful and wooly about its territory (which includes Albany and Rensselaer counties). If you ever need a reason for being here, just turn to this glossy-cover cornucopia of art, culture and recreation. We especially like how the historical-political pieces reflect on current events, as well as the offbeat and enchanting places the staff discovers for day-tripping. Lively writing, superb photography and an environmentalist attitude make HV a worthy addition to any magazine rack.

Best “Why Can’t I Be You?”
The TU’s annual impersonation of the Metroland Best Of issue

We had been doing this for so many years that when the Times Union unveiled its own version a few years back, so similar to ours in design, content and photographic style, that all we could do was . . . smile. You know what they say about imitation. Yes, we’re still flattered.

Best TV News
Newschannel 13 (WNYT)

Right down the line, the on-air personalities at Newschannel 13 get the job done with a minimum of the kind of fluffy chatter and sound-bite superficiality that makes other local news shows annoying. Even the stories that could easily veer into human-interest vapidity—John Gray’s touchy-feely vignettes of spending time with local youths, Benita Zahn’s health reports about things like the heart-transplant program at Albany Med—go down smoothly because they’re edited down to the bare essentials. We dig that Newschannel 13’s staff respects the time we invest in watching their shows.

Best TV-News Anchor
Ed Dague
Newschannel 13 (WNYT)

If only for the vivacious arguments he gets into with pugnacious pundit Alan Chartock, Ed Dague still gets our vote as the smartest presence on the local-news scene. Even within the fast- moving confines of a half-hour broadcast, he manages to put across a sense that he’s engaged by the stories he’s reporting, without drowning the news in fake emotionalism or smart-alecky delivery. Plus, as Newschannel 13’s managing editor, he steers the station’s reliable, no-nonsense reporting.

Best Public Affairs Programming
WMHT (Channel 17)

When we’re sick of the surface treatment we get from most local newscasts, and we would rather rip our fingernails out than watch another minute of the insipid network- newsmagazine blather of 48 Hours or 20/20 Downtown, we turn to WMHT. Our region’s PBS affiliate offers us national and local public-affairs programming that is compelling, provocative and smart. We enjoy catching such shows as the BBC World News and the Newshour With Jim Lehrer (and sometimes, we must admit, we even tune in to watch Clifford the Big Red Dog), but we especially love the locally produced Upstate Edition and New York Week in Review. Thank you, WMHT, for making local TV tolerable.

Best TV Weather Coverage
Newschannel 13 (WNYT)

Forecasting the weather is always a crapshoot, and Newschannel 13 has probably made as many bad calls as each of its competitors. But we keep going back to 13, mostly because of chief weather guy Bob Kovachick, whose forceful, fun delivery gives it to us straight without unnecessary wonkery or gags. Paul Caiano, Howard Altschule and Lee Copson round out this likeable, reliable team.

Best DIY TV
Schenectady Access Cable Channel 16

Year in and year out, the hardworking people behind the region’s predominant public-access station prove that there’s more to television than Friends and Survivor (thank God). Whether it’s the in-your-face irreverence of The Howard Plum Show, the lively community-oriented discourse of Schenectady Today, the hipster freakiness of Late Night Hype, or any other of the off-
the-beaten-path flavors served up by Channel 16 on a daily basis, we value every opportunity to see real people doing real things—to say nothing of real weird people doing real weird things.

Best “When Fox Reporters Attack”
Dan Bazile, WXXA Fox 23 News

We like to call it “Crazy Like Fox News.” Intrepid reporter Dan Bazile heads out to find the perpetrators of government corruption, waste and financial ineptitude, pins them to a wall and proceeds to go ballistic on them. We’re still not sure if we love or hate to watch it, but we know that when he does it, he puts that “Mad Minute with Wayne Perry” guy to shame.

Best “When Fox Reporters Attack Metroland”
WXXA Fox 23 News

Week in, week out, it seems, our local Fox News affiliate finds some way to harp on the fact that a prostitute has been busted for advertising her trade in the adult personals section of Metroland. Zippety doo da, guys. Has it been a terribly slow news year? Metroland is not the only paper that runs adult ads (ever take a look at the Times Union? They’ve got ’em, too), but you’d think we were, judging by the newscasts that show up to three or four shots of Metroland on the newsstands (our favorite was when they pointed to the issue with Alan Chartock on the cover and bleated about how prostitutes could be found inside). And not once did a Fox News reporter contact us to find out what we had to say about the matter. The most ironic thing about it is, by publicly declaring that Metroland is where illegal sex is advertised, Fox News probably did more to encourage prostitutes to ply their trade in our personals section than to help curb the trend. Thanks for nothing, guys.

Best Online Music Resource
C.R.U.M.B.S.
www.crumbs.net

It’s where to go when you need local-music information, with links to band Web sites, area venues, a local-music calendar, recording studios—basically anything you want to know about making, recording, viewing, listening to and buying music is included. There’s also a kiosk where you can post whatever your heart desires—within certain parameters—and C.R.U.M.B.S. also has produced a couple of CDs worth of music that you can buy from the site.

Best Gay Radio With the Worst Gay Music
Homo Radio
WRPI (91.5 FM)

OK, Homo Radio, we love to tune in on Sundays at noon to listen to the best (and perhaps only) LGBT news show around. But can you please, please, please stop playing the same tired, old folk ballads and pop tunes just because they’re written/sung/performed by gay artists? Just because we’re either gay or gay-friendly does not mean we enjoy hearing the Indigo Girls and Phranc between every other segment.

Best On-Air Music Resource
Sounding Board
Time Warner Cable Channel 9

Given that no other show has gone as far to showcase the variety of this area’s musical offerings, the folks at Sounding Board could win this category without trying. But try they have: After ripping through a fifth season that showcased a spiffy new set, fab sound and wildly eclectic offerings, the show’s staffers went above and beyond the call of duty by putting out a CD of series highlights and by reuniting ’80s faves Fear of Strangers for the season finale. Wow!

Best Bad TV Commercial
The Point (100.9 FM)

Two vapid model-type women are sitting in a DJ booth, but the voices coming out of them belong to male jocks J.J. and Terry of the Point (100.9 FM). When the real J.J. and Terry appear in the commercial, the babes giggle and say something along the lines of, “Sorry guys—you’re too ugly for TV!” Yuck. This by far wins as this year’s best bad TV commercial.

Best Commercial Radio Station
WDST (100.1 FM)

Readers in the southernmost fringes of Metroland’s distribution area are blessed with regular opportunities for listening to WDST, which for years has stood as the ultimate example of all things good and just and true in the increasingly strip-malled commercial radio world. Smart, free-form programming, social consciousness, good taste. . . . What more could you want? Other than a transmitter in Albany, we mean.

Best Evidence That Radio Can Be Anything It Wants to Be
WRPI (91.5 FM)

Dispatches from the front lines of progressive journalism (Democracy Now, Radio Nation, Pacifica Network News). Specialty music shows from hiphop to jazz to folk to Arabic to the soothing voice of Kevin Roberts presenting his lovingly researched weekly Tribute. And let’s not forget Homo Radio. All this, and college hockey too. What more could a politically left-of-center, musically eclectic, gay-friendly, obsessive RPI hockey fan ask for from one radio station? Free tickets to the Spectrum? WRPI offers those too.

Best Public Affairs Radio Programming/Public Radio Monopoly
WAMC (90.3 FM)

Is there any real competition for the house that Alan built? WAMC has The Roundtable and Vox Pop (both airing every weekday), plus The Environment Show, The Law Show, The Best of Our Knowledge, 51 Percent, Me and Mario, The Media Project, The Capital Connection and The Legislative Gazette. Did we miss any? Topical issues range from politics to garden pests to dealing with unruly pets. None of it’s too sacred or profane for the crew at WAMC to touch upon in its various and sundry call-in, newsmagazine and commentary programs.

Best Weather Forecast for Meteorological Nerds
Mike Landin
WAMC (90.3 FM)

Most of us wouldn’t know a heating degree-day from a cooling degree-day if our lives depended on it, but that doesn’t matter, because Mike Landin does. WAMC’s meteorologist, from the esteemed Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at UAlbany, is a weather wonk’s dream date. His twice-daily detailed forecasts cover the weather basics and so much more. Need to know when the sun will rise? When it will set? He’s got it covered and then some. And if, like us, you can’t start your day without knowing the visibility on Mount Washington, then Landin’s your man.

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