Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, July 20, 1994 TAG: 9407280002
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MEGAN SCHNABEL STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Ditto for fans of home-grown documentaries on why cats are smarter than people.
With the valley's youngest cable television station settling into its new digs at the Jefferson Center, it's high time to debunk the myth that Cox Cable's Channel 3, RVTV, is a public-access station of the type immortalized in the movie Wayne's World.
In fact, Channel 3 technically isn't public access at all, but rather government and educational access. So much for basement talk shows.
"Everything on Channel 3 must originate with the government or the schools," said Angela McPeak, general manager of the station, which is supervised by the Roanoke Valley Regional Cable Television Committee.
For the past two and a half years, while the station was headquartered in office space at Patrick Henry High School, most of its airtime had been devoted to running loops of announcements about government and school programs and airing daily reruns of the WBRA programs City Manager's Report and Roanoke County Today.
Now, thanks to a $480,000 grant from Cox Cable Roanoke, Channel 3 is expanding its programming and its office space. The grant, part of the cable company's 1991 franchise renewal agreement, allowed RVTV to relocate early in June to the more spacious and up-to-date Jefferson Center, where it has its own 950-square-foot studio and production facilities.
The station's general operating expenses, although not covered by the grant, will not come out of county or city tax dollars, said former committee member Howard Musser. Each participating government - Roanoke County, Roanoke City and Vinton - will contribute approximately 1 percent of the franchise fee it receives from Cox. Although the local school systems also have members on the committee and have access to the station, they will not contribute funds toward its upkeep because they receive no franchise fees.
The station should be ready to receive the public by the time its Aug. 11 open house rolls around, McPeak said, but for now equipment bids are still out and everything is in the hazy "over-here" stage: The set will go over here, the cameras will stand over here, the editing boards will be hooked up over here.
Even after the cameras and cables and lights are in place, much of the station's work will be done in the field, McPeak said. Direct links will be established at 21 municipal and school buildings throughout the area to allow live transmissions from council meetings and school events.
Live coverage may have an interesting effect on government meetings, Musser said.
"Oh, you'll see some showboating, I'm sure," he said with a laugh.
Despite the emphasis on live reports, the new studio will not stand idle, McPeak said. Channel 3 will take over production of the two WBRA programs as soon as the studio is equipped, she said. And although producing original programming - even monthly shows - is a complex task, McPeak already has begun compiling a wish list in anticipation of the day when RVTV has the resources to create its own shows.
"One thing I really want to do is start some educational series," she said. In three or four years, she would like to see several hours of educational programming a day, both pre-produced and in-house. Distance learning, which allows teachers to instruct students at far-flung sites via television hook-ups, also will be a possibility, she said. To help produce these and other series - and to give prospective producers behind-the-scenes experience - the station plans to hire interns from area high schools, she said.
Building up a substantial stock of evening programs will be a challenge, McPeak said. But short videos on subjects including the county's Spring Hollow Reservoir and 911 system are already on file and may be extended into full programs.
"You have to look at your resources and reality," McPeak said. People aren't going to be watching Channel 3 on Friday and Saturday nights; the station is going to focus instead on building up strong weekday and weeknight schedules, she said.
At the same time, RVTV should not be seen as a competitor by local television stations, McPeak said.
"We're not in the news-delivery business; we're not going to have any flashy nighttime programs," she said.
Once in-house production begins, Channel 3 plans to offer tapes of the City Manager's Report and Roanoke County Today free of charge to WBRA, she said. And she hopes other local stations will be willing to pool footage from time to time as well.
Musser, for more than a decade a proponent of an access station for the Roanoke Valley, said Channel 3 has been too long in coming but will be good for the public now that it's finally here.
"It's something that's finally come of age," said Musser, who last week retired from the committee. "I'd waited so long, I never thought I'd see it happen."
by CNB