Local Chicago reporter does nice piece on No Coaster

Marcus LeShock, a reporter for Chicago's WGN TV, is a coaster enthusiast; he does a series each year for the station named "Coasting The Country".

He was at No Coaster again this year, and filed this report.

Https://www.facebook.com/MarcusLeshock/videos/758944934305679/

Also, he's very handsome.

That is a nice report. Everyone seemed like well-spoken humans for a change.

I used to attend No Coaster faithfully, and I’d always make it a fun, (sometimes bitter cold) long weekend in Chicago. But these days since info seems to come directly into our homes so early and often I finally figured it wasn’t worth the trip. Oh, and I’m not an ACE member anymore, so there’s that.

What did he say attendance was? 150? That’s seems down from the big crowds I used to see, but it’s nice they’re still doing it.
Were there any surprises or new infos we should know?

Cold? In Chicago? In January? What are you even talking about?
:-)

I go to No Coaster to report the event for ACE News. Went once when I wasn't the ACE reporter and was bored.

Yep, 150 attendees. That's consistent with recent years.

Kudos to LeShock; as an enthusiast, he was able to ask intelligent questions while also asking them in such a way that non-enthusiasts could follow what was going on. He actually does a series of reports each year called "Coasting The Country".

Like you say, there was no news; everyone knew what was coming, thanks to the Internet. A lot of the presenters are very entertaining, particularly Winter Prosiapo (?) from Schlitterbahn.

No Coaster used to have enthusiasts doing presentations of different stuff, all unique and fun. In some ways, plenty of that stuff is also on the internet, in addition to the news. There were nerdy games and tons of interesting and unique merchandise. Times have changed and that stuff doesn't have the same appeal, for better or worse.

I went to plenty of No Coasters in the 80s and 90s, but then thing just got... boring. A few visits in the last few years, and even more boring. It's always nice to see friends and acquaintances but I would rather do that (spend my time and money doing that) at an event where there are coasters and rides running.

It's typical to bash Six Flags, I know. But geez the Six Flags Great America presentation that I've seen in the past few years at No Coaster has been so boring and unexciting, it's tough to put words around it. It's a long draw-out power point history of the park. Wrong crowd. But they keep doing it and NCC organizers have it.

Instead of complaining, an alternative would be if I put together my own interesting and fun presentation. But it's easier to just not go. Ho-hum.

I left the room a few years ago (during the SFGAm presentation) and talked with PTC's Tom Rebbie in the hallway. That was fun! He explained to me that The Beast was originally going to have 5 trains. Wow.