SYRACUSE -- Central New Yorkers who love to hunt down travel deals and help public broadcasting may be pleased to learn WCNY-TV's annual TravelAuc is adding a sixth night this year. The on-air auction of vacation packages will air 6pm to midnight this Thursday, Friday and Saturday, and it continues the same three evenings next week.
The PBS affiliate says it has more than 1,000 trips ready to be auctioned off. Destinations run the gamut from local and regional weekend getaways to full vacations in warmer places like Mexico and the Caribbean. The station says there will be offerings catering to a variety of budgets. Bidding on each package begins at 1/3 of the regular price, and all the proceeds benefit WCNY programming and services.
Current WCNY members can use their existing member number to place bids. Non-members must register for a bidder number before they can place bids; the fee to register is $25. More details about TravelAuc are on the WCNY website.
I'd complain about this, since it disrupts the regular schedule worse than the fund drives do, but I'm just trying to think of the last time I looked at anything on WCNY and I'm drawing a blank.
Actually though this isn't as bad, you just don't watch your shows for a week, as opposed to the fund drive where they spend 10, 20 minutes crying pleading begging for money and throw the whole schedule off or go into the show in progress, which totally defeats the purpose and actually makes me less likely to give them money, especially if it's a show I can just buy a DVD set at some point anyways.