Full Text:

(feature on Charter Communications' local cable access station, 2/14/97)

Access To Local Cable Could Make You A Star (But Not A Fortune)

(with photos)

BY SHANNON HICKS

It sounds almost too good to be true, but it is possible for just about anyone

to walk in off the street and produce a television program to be aired on

cable television. Young or old, male or female, any person with some time for

editing and the imagination to come up with something original, can take

advantage of this opportunity. With few exceptions, programs can cover just

about anything.

The program is local cable access, and it means just what it sounds like:

Access to a cable station's studios, to create programs to go on the air, by

people in the local area.

Greg Van Antwerp is the senior access coordinator at Charter Communications on

Commerce Road, which serves 14 towns in the region. It is his job to conduct

workshops for the community to attend.

Proximity to the studio has made it most convenient for Newtown residents to

take advantage of Charter's offerings, but the studio and its programs are

open to everyone.

"I can't think of anyone who wouldn't want to take advantage of this, once

they realize the opportunity that is right here," Greg said a few weeks ago in

the Newtown studio. "It's such an information base."

The two-hour, two-session workshops, held periodically at Charter's Newtown

and New Milford studios, give basic instruction on how to run cameras, film

programs, and then edit them so they are ready to be broadcast on Channel 21,

Charter's Community Access Channel.

Greg, who lives in New Milford, graduated from Buffalo State College in 1986

with a degree in broadcasting. With diploma in hand, he began looking for work

in the film and video field.

He worked as a projectionist at the Danbury Drive-In (now closed) while he was

going to college. And he worked weekends for 13 years at Danbury's North

Street Cine, which has also closed. He spent some time working for a business

called Video Yesteryear, which transfers films to videotape.

During this time, Greg was also freelancing for Comcast Cable and Housatonic

Valley Cablevision. Formerly headquartered in New Milford, Housatonic is now

Charter Cable. Around 1991, he says, he was offered a job as local cable

access coordinator with Housatonic.

"It was a natural step up for me," Greg said recently. "My part-time job at

that point was airing the programming that people had produced on the local

access channel."

"I was in a very neat position because I was now with a company - which

certainly still holds true today - that decided it really wanted to do local

access, it really wanted to take part in this community venture," he said.

While Greg has a degree in broadcasting, it is not necessary for everyone else

to have one in order to produce a program suitable for broadcast. What Greg's

degree does provide, however, is a lot of knowledge on his part to help those

who attend Charter's workshops.

One of the first things he tells prospective producers is to always think of

their audience.

"Think of what would visually keep their interest," he said, while also

reminding people to keep their shows unsophisticated.

"Keep your sets simple," he encourages. Equipment and special effects can

personalize programs.

Greg's background allows people to feel comfortable approaching him - or

anyone in the public access department at Charter - with their ideas. He

serves as a guide through the technical thicket of programming. Charter has a

control room ("It doubles as the `editing suite,'" said Greg), a fairly

spacious studio and three cameras available for use.

A Mandated Enterprise

All cable systems are required to provide local access. Each system is

different in the amount of access it provides, or in the amount of time and

money it spends in getting the message across that this is something everyone

in the community has available. Charter Communications covers 14 towns (53,000

subscribers), with Crown Cable - Charter's parent company - still very "pro

access," says Greg.

"Once Charter offered me this position, I saw a real good career opportunity,"

he said. "From there I've been able to sink my teeth into it."

Charter has the numbers to back up Greg's enthusiasm. In fact, according to

the 1996 Report on Local Access Activity compiled by Greg, 303 programs were

produced in 1996, a substantial jump over the 249 produced in 1995 (and a

staggering increase over the 160 Charter produced in 1994).

There was also an increased use of the studio and its editing facilities by

access users. Last year saw 365 editing sessions, up from 321 in 1995 and 217

in 1994. Even the number of workshop participants has increased, with 94

people signed up for 1996 workshops, 14 more than the number who turned out

for workshops a year earlier.

All of these increasing numbers are certainly in part due to the numerous

on-air commercials urging viewers to call Charter's offices to find out about

the workshops. Another part - the most important form of advertising for any

business - is word-of-mouth feedback between those who have already taken the

workshops, whether they have produced their own shows, worked behind the

cameras on someone else's shows or have yet to produce their own shows but

have already taken the workshops.

Audrey Petschek took the Charter workshop last fall. Currently she is hard at

work putting together her show, "Wild About Animals," which she hopes to have

ready for March airings.

"I thought [the workshop] was a wonderful overview," she said. "Because so

many people that take the workshop don't pursue [making a program], it's good

to have just an overview, and not anything too much more in-depth.

"I think it would be something where I would have preferred more in-depth, but

[for those who weren't going to pursue the programming] it would have been a

waste of their time."

Audrey took the workshop after having worked with Susan Defrancesco, who

produces the local access show "Animal Talk." Audrey was a guest on "Animal

Talk" just before Christmas 1995, and then returned a few shows later, again

as a guest. When Ms Defrancesco became pregnant, she turned to Audrey to fill

in for her as a guest host for a few shows.

While Audrey started out doing a few on-site shows with Ms Defrancesco, she

eventually became more involved with the technical aspects of "Animal Talk,"

working in the studio filming introductions and interviews, or editing behind

the scenes.

At one point Ms Defrancesco asked Audrey to edit an entire show for her, but

without having taken the local access workshop, Audrey was not allowed to do

editing without Ms Defrancesco in the studio with her.

That was the impetus Ms Petschek needed, and at the suggestion of Ms

Defrancesco, Ms Petschek is working on her own show as well these days.

"The idea of doing my own [show] was a fun idea for me," said Audrey.

"Even if you go in with no prior knowledge, [the workshop] was a very good

introduction. For me, it was an overview of what I had done over the last

year. They couldn't be nicer there. They're extremely helpful, very

informative, and very nice.

"You're given a lot of freedom."

Anyone who has a pre-produced program can also submit their program for

viewing on local access, provided they meet some fairly simple criteria.

Audrey is planning on going into the studio with most of her footage filmed

outside, so she can concentrate on spending a few hours editing. Others,

including Ms Defrancesco, prefer to handle filming and editing within the

walls of the studio.

Time Vs Money:

Contributing Factors

Gary Fetzer has been producing "Dateline Newtown" for three years, having gone

into Charter Communications with what he calls "a little background in video"

before he took Charter's local access workshop. "Dateline Newtown" is a

30-minute interview-style program where issues that concern the town of

Newtown are brought up and discussed.

Previous episodes have covered everything from Garner Correctional Facility to

the ongoing library renovation and the library's temporary relocation to the

campus of Fairfield Hills, or the NAACP and its relevance to the town to a

discussion with town historian Dan Cruson.

"Basically any topic I want to learn about, I bring onto the show," Mr Fetzer

said. Future episodes are planned on living wills, McLaughlin Vineyard in

Sandy Hook, and Newtown doctor/part-time sailplane pilot Linda DeMarco.

"The workshop is a very good foundation," Mr Fetzer, a town selectman, said

recently. "It's a good soup-to-nuts setup, and it helps with camera running,

how to use the studio's lighting...

"With a little time and energy, you can really take it from there," he said,

which brings up a point Ms Petschek also touched upon: The time factor.

While local cable access is virtually dirt cheap to produce, and is not meant

to make money for anyone involved with the production, it can cost a lot of

time to come up with a good-looking program.

"One of the biggest problems was I did not want it to look [poorly done]," Mr

Fetzer expressed. "I tried to pattern it after The Charlie Rose Show, which I

have always liked. It would be difficult to do an intricate set; we would have

to set it up, then disassemble it every time."

Ms Petschek concurred the time factor.

"It does take a considerable amount of time," she said. "Just to go to the

studio with a guest - there's two hours of your time, minimum...

"But it's worth it, too," she admitted. "It's fun. You can be very creative.

There is a lot of access to effects at the studio, so your show doesn't have

to look run-of-the-mill.

"It's all very interesting. And Charter stands behind its studio producers,"

she said.

Something many potential producers may not know: People who participate in

local access do not need to be subscribers.

"Local access is free to all members of the community," Mr Van Antwerp

explained. "There is the workshop you need to take, and upon passing that

workshop you then have the right to utilize the local access facilities to

produce your program."

The field is wide open for program subjects.

"It's almost a free forum, an exchange of ideas, opinions and thoughts on

anything," says Greg.

Detective Bob Tvardzik, a Newtown police officer, took the local access

workshop series two years ago. After completing the "very informative"

workshop, as he describes them, Detective Tvardzik created a series based on

various law enforcement topics the Newtown Police Department had dealt with,

called "Police Beat." After that series, he also helped produce 14 segments of

a self-help program, "Self Discovery," working with Dr John Rhinehart, which

continues to air.

"[The workshop] was very easy and enjoyable," Detective Tvardzik said. "They

were a lot of fun, while allowing anyone to obtain information they need in

order to produce these programs."

Taking Money

Out Of The Picture

One of the few stipulations of local access is that it is entirely

non-commercial, something many people have a hard time understanding after

growing up in an age where television and its commercialism have become so

rampant. Local cable access is not meant to profit or make gain for any

individual, participant or subject it comes across.

"When you take money out of the picture, out of someone's television

production, it makes it another challenge," Greg said. "It's almost a

re-education as to what is and what is not a commercial.

"And that's a challenge. It isn't something you could have a blanket policy

for, to say `This is, and this isn't commercialism.' It just depends on the

exact show, because certainly, exposure to 53,000 subscribers is a certain

degree of commercialism, but it's in how you perceive the information."

For that reasoning, local access coordinators look for programs that are

educational/informative or entertaining, even newsworthy - anything away from

where a monetary transaction will take place.

"The people I work with are different every day, and it's usually a very

positive challenge to work with so many different people in trying to help

them achieve this common goal, which is just the completion of a program. That

makes it a really good, neat job.

"I'm kind of like this person at the end of the rainbow with a pot of gold

that people come up and find... It's really a unique opportunity to be in

charge of a department that provides something so positive."

"The neat thing about local access is that video can represent almost anything

in the community - any profession, any success, any failure - anything,

really. That's what makes the job so fascinating."

Local access workshops will be held later this month at Charter's New Milford

studio, and in March in the Newtown studio. For information on signing up for

the workshop, which runs two hours at a time, for two weeks, call 270-8665,

extension 4048.

Charter's local access channel is Channel 21; programming is presented Monday

through Friday. Call 270-8665, extension 5, for daily updates and programming

schedules.