So, considering that my Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Florida (in Gainesville) College of Journalism & Communications was in Broadcast News — not print journalism — I guess you could say that it’s taken me long enough to finally start working on what I’ve dreamed of doing since I earned that diploma more than 30 years ago.
One of my top goals back then, and even when I first moved back to Florida in 1993, was to one day own and create original programming for my own TV station.
But, in the “good old days” of even cable TV’s infancy, in order to own a TV station/network, you had to have at least about a million dollars to be able to purchase your Federal Communications Commission (FCC) license, the equipment and personnel you need to keep it on the air.
Today, anyone can shoot better footage with their mobile phones than was even possible with top-level equipment in the 80s or even the 90s. And, if you have the ability to write and produce any type of programming — from news and public affairs to sitcoms and drama series — the internet provides a way for you to find an audience — even if you’re not on the cable or satellite TV lineups of BrightHouse or DirecTV.
Whether you have your own website, a Youtube channel or both, if enough people see it, like it and return to see what else you can do, you can build an audience and even make a living doing something most people in my generation could only dream of doing.
I had my own advertising agency from the mid-1980s until 1995-96, and I did produce a few TV commercials and wrote “treatments” of a few TV pilot ideas, but despite personal auditions for/interviews with the likes of ESPN, NBC-TV, HBO and the Disney Channel before moving here in 1993, I set aside my dreams of creating programming to focus on a certain local news publication.
Two years ago, I wrote and co-anchored a video segment previewing the last Taste of New Tampa, but our website (NTNeighborhoodNews.com) was really in its infancy and I wasn’t happy with the production itself. The end result: very few people saw it, even though I know the idea of web-based video news focused specifically on New Tampa and Wesley Chapel was certainly valid, especially if I had the right people working with me.
And, after being part of one local commercial production last year, which was directed and produced by Craig Miller, the owner of Full Throttle Intermedia (FTIntermedia.com, a local multimedia advertising agency and video production company), I knew who I really wanted to work with on my project…if I could afford him.
Well, at about the same time as my Taste project, Craig, who also is an Ambassador for the Greater Wesley Chapel Chamber of Commerce (WCCC) and a Board member of the New Tampa Rotary Club, also had spoken with WCCC CEO (she was just the “executive director” at the time) Hope Allen about doing a webcast for the Chamber. But, both admit they “got busy” and set the idea aside.
Then, about four months ago, Craig approached Hope about reviving the idea and she told him I had already come to her with my own concept and that we should probably all work together on it — especially if Craig was the production guy involved.
Although I’ve teased it in a couple of previous issues, the end result of those discussions is just about ready to rock and roll. I was hoping to be able to announce in this issue who our “Studio Sponsor” will be, but nothing was finalized at our press time.
Even so, Craig and I are partnering with the WCCC to present “WCNT-tv” — the fun and informative web-based video magazine show, written and co-hosted by yours truly, which will be all about Wesley Chapel (WC) and New Tampa (NT) and have its own Youtube channel.
And, it is launching soon — we hope to begin recording episodes this month. WCNT-tv will be promoted in full-page ads in every issue of my two publications, on the WCCC’s website and, hopefully, on the websites of every Wesley Chapel Chamber member business.
When it launches, WCNT-tv will be a bi-weekly news magazine show that will include a 1.5-2-minute local news segment, a 60-90-second WCCC “Featured Business of the Week” and a 60-90-second “Neighborhood Dining News” segment that will take me (and, I believe, thousands of my closest friends) inside a different restaurant from all over the Tampa Bay area — since we all know that those of us who live and work in and around New Tampa and Wesley Chapel have too-few local, non-chain fine dining options.
Best of all, based on some of the incredible numbers our website has done recently (as reported in previous issues on this page) — without any video coverage — and the feedback we’ve gotten so far, we’re all confident that WCNT-tv will become a truly local phenomenon.
For WCNT-tv sponsorship information, or to have us play the pilot episode for you, call our office at 910-2575. For a short clip, check out our previous post on the show HERE.
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