Why I can't give up my NY1

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I love NY1. I have always loved NY1. I love it like I loved Cosmos, the diner that was kitty corner to my childhood apartment (but is now gone, remodeled and thereby reduced). I love NY1 for still being here into my adulthood. Many things I’ve loved about this city I’ve lost along the way, but NY1 is my loyal friend. It’s not just with me in my house either; where I go, NY1 goes too.

Sometimes I go to the theatre and I see Roma Torre there, and I giggle like a schoolgirl.

Once I watched the NY marathon and I saw John Schiumo run by, sweaty and tired, like a regular person. I cheered him on:  “Go, John Schiumo!” He flashed me a thumbs up.

I saw Pat Kiernan outside the Barnes and Noble at Lincoln Center once (RIP), and he was surprisingly tall. In my mind, I pictured him Michael J. Fox sized. This was before he was pop-culture-famous and before he moved to Williamsburg.

Once I saw Roger Clark in my neighborhood Brooklyn dive bar (Magnetic Fields, RIP). He was on a date and started making out with his lady friend. So awkward! So real!

Walking through Chelsea Market during rush hour, on my way to pick up some meat at Dickson’s, I saw Lewis Dodley headed home. His mustache is just as interesting up close. THESE PEOPLE ARE REAL PEOPLE.

I mean, when I passed Barbara Walters in Central Park, it was like watching the Queen of England walk on gilded tiptoes through the neighborhood dump. She had shellacked hair and six inches of make-up. She was wearing a wool Chanel Suit and stockings and heels, and it was 98 degrees out. NOT REAL.

On NY1 there doesn’t seem to be anyone in charge of what the online personalities wear. Cheryl Wills’ hair gets bigger and bigger and bigger. Once, it went up out of the top of the frame. Also she’s been rocking false eyelashes lately and they are super glam, totally inappropriate, and completely sublime. Sometimes Kristin Shaughnessy wears necklaces so big and chunky I become transfixed and stop listening to the news.

The graphics continue to be done by an intern, I am positive. I love this.

I started watching NY1 my senior year of high school when it first came on the air. Actually it was my father (one more NYC icon I miss and mourn every day) who started, turning it on in the AM and leaving it on as we all got ready for work and school. Those newscasters with their strange ethnicities, Borough accents, lisps, and cross-eyes became my tribe.

When the first plane hit the World Trade Center, I was watching NY1 and it was only when I realized that their small camera perched on Chelsea Market could not get close enough to the devastation unfolding that I reluctantly changed the channel. Who could tell me the story of my city under siege better than these regular people, the heartbeat of my city?

Sometimes my cable stops working for no reason. My brother, a numbers guy, points out that Fios has better service than Time Warner, is cheaper and you get more. I remind him that with Fios you might get more of some things but there’s one thing you cannot get any of, not even a little: NY1. He laughs and shakes his head. As if “In the Papers” and “Weather on the 1s” mean NOTHING to him. As if he could walk away from OUR VERY CHILDHOOD ITSELF. “They have weather online, you know,” he says with his rational-guy face on.