After a 5 year hiatus following our cancellation on CBS affiliate WIVB, Nickel City Scene made a brief but triumphant return to the television airwaves in the summer of 2001, this time on Fox affiliate WUTV. Producer Dave Lesinski and Segment Producer Jerry MacKay returned for one more dip into the pool, but with the addition of new Associate Producer and co-host Annmarie Kelschenbach, co-host Rob Cadle, videographer Greg Tuyn and writer Rob Graham, the show was completely re-imagined. It was a much more lively and dynamic program than the previous two seasons, and a heck of a lot more fun. The focus was still bands and musicians from Western New York, but this time we took them out of the studio and wherever we could have the most fun with them. We went bowling with Blue Bullet Skater, stormed Chuck E. Cheese with Mexican Cession, and hit the go-kart track with Rufus Maneuvers. We spotlighted independent musicians like Alison Pipitone, Astronaut Lost and Palomar Sky Survey.
 

Of course we also continued to cover touring national artists, and caught up with the Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Econoline Crush, Ron Hawkins, the Sattalites, Sum 41 and many more bands who visited our fair city that summer. We held our first Nickel City Scene Presents concert, featuring Treble Charger, Universal Honey, oui*73 and Original Skin. We videotaped the live performances and broadcast highlights and interviews on the show. Check out photos and video clips on the Concert page. We also added lots of humor to our final season with our own parodies of popular MTV and VH-1 shows life "Behind the Music" and "100 Most Shocking Moments". Click on the Wayback Machine page for some highlights.

  Nickel City Scene partnered with Radio Station 105.1 the River. Mike Ryan, Rob White and other River DJs were guest-featured on every show interviewing bands and reporting from popular concert events like Buffalo's Thursday In the Square. We poured our hearts and souls into the show and it looked great. We even won a Communicator Award for Excellence in Regional Television. (Yeah, I never heard of it either, but it looks cool, and it would make a good weapon in an emergency.)
 

So what happened?

Unfotunately, it all came down to money. We hoped that producing a first-rate show would attract sponsors, but they never came. Fox 29 was happy to give us the airtime and a 50/50 split of the commercial revenue. But all our efforts to find sponsors came up empty. Maybe Buffalo is just too small a city to support an independent music show like Nickel City Scene, or maybe we just didn't have the right sales people. Everyone who worked on the show volunteered their time and talent. It was truly a labor of love. But after three one hour monthly specials and no income, we were forced to pull the plug. Will Nickel City Scene return someday? Perhaps. In the meantime, we've collected some highlights from our final season on these pages. Take a look around, enjoy, and don't forget to go out and listen to some local music.