by Judy Frank
posted July 17, 2008
) Photo by Wes Schultz Judy Matthews of Antique Roadshow and appraiser Rafael Eledge |
Ever since he got to Chattanooga, WTCI general manager Paul Grove has been trying to entice PBS’ wildly popular Antiques Roadshow to come to town and film some episodes.
This year, for the first time ever, they said yes.
On Saturday, 6,800 area residents are expected to line up at the Chattanooga Convention Center, where appraisals will get underway at 8 a.m.
Of the total of 17,000 people who applied for tickets to the appraisal show, 3,400 lucky winners were selected at random, according to Roadshow publicist Judy Matthews.
Each of those 3,400 men and women received two tickets, so a whopping 6,800 people are expected to attend on Saturday.
The tickets tell their holders what time during the day they are to come to the show. Some received early-morning time slots, while hundreds of others aren’t scheduled to arrive until late afternoon.
And since each of those 6,800 people are invited to bring two items to be appraised, Antiques Roadshow crew members fully expect Saturday to be a very full day.
Fans who didn’t manage to get tickets can still enjoy the three episodes filmed in Chattanooga, which are expected to air early in Spring 2009.
Antiques Roadshow originates out of WGBH public TV station in Boston, where a variety of shows seen on PBS are produced. But its crew traveled here yesterday from Wichita, Kansas, another of the six cities on the show’s summer’s tour.
Their next stop will be in Grand Rapids, Mich., Ms. Matthews noted.
Preparations for the Saturday appraisals in Chattanooga are already underway. Early Thursday morning Antiques Roadshow host Mark Walberg and executive producer Marsha Bemco rode the city’s 113-year-old Incline to a small reception where Chattanooga Mayor Ron Littlefield and Hamilton County Mayor Claude Ramsey read a joint proclamation welcoming the show to town.
“I was afraid they were going to introduce us as two of our local antiques,” Mayor Littlefield joked.
“Speak for yourself,” County Mayor Ramsey responded with a grin.
Chattanooga was selected as one of the six cities the show will visit this season for a variety of reasons, Ms. Matthews said. Primary among them, she noted, was the fact that it has a convention center with the 100,000 square feet of space Antique Roadshow needs to put on its production.
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