By Philip Sean Curran, Staff Writer
It’s a little before 8 p.m. on Friday, and Princeton Community Television is about to go live with “Breezin with Bierman,” a 60-minute show co-hosted by two childhood buddies from Princeton.
”Guys, we’re 10 minutes to show time,” said director Lawrence Greenberg, seated in front of the control panel at the public access station for the two towns.
Each week, shows like this get made and then televised to the community and the broader public on the Internet. The station is Channel 30 on Comcast and Channel 45 on Verizon Fios.
A range of novices to professionals work every aspect of producing a TV show, all to create local programming that runs the gamut from a Bible study to a panel discussion about movies.
”I think it’s fair to say that the station strives to have a balance of content that you may not be able to find someplace else,” said Diane Ciccone, chairwoman of the station’s board. “That’s kind of like the mission is to give a voice to the voiceless and to have alternative content that you’re not going to be able to get on mainstream media or cable.”
Ms. Ciccone is seated across a table from George McCollough, the station’s executive director for the past seven years. He has a long background in public access TV, having worked previously in Philadelphia before coming to Princeton. To him, the station serves a critical function as “the soapbox in the town square.”
”Access television is a different breed than regular television,” he said in an interview last week. “You don’t have to worry about audience numbers (or) advertisers. People can do what it is what they want to do.”
The station does mostly public affairs shows, including televising the English version of Al Jazeera, the Arab news network. About a third of the programming is locally produced, although there is waiting list for people to start making programs, he said.
”If it’s a local producer, I usually give them at least three broadcasts a week,” Mr. McCollough said.
”We try not to turn anyone away. We don’t judge on content,” he continued. “And a lot of times, you go by the seat of your pants. Just throw them in on the cameras in the television studio and say go.”
On this Friday night, Adam Bierman and co-host Kurt Tazelaar are waiting before their show is due to go live. It’s TV’s equivalent of the high-wire act without a net.
Here there are no expensive wardrobes for the two men to wear or high-paid staff to make sure things run smoothly. Rather, Mssrs. Bierman and Tazelaar rely on four volunteers to help them pull it off. Mr. Bierman, the host of another show on the station, has been involved with Princeton TV for the past 12 years.
”People hear the word TV, they think, ‘Wow, the big time.’ This is amateaur TV. It’s for the fun of it,” said Mr. Tazelaar dressed in a pair of shorts and a shirt.
The station, today run out of offices in the old Valley Road School building on Witherspoon Street, plans to move to a different location. One option is Princeton Borough Hall, although nothing is definite.
The transition comes at an important time. Mr. McCollough sees potential for growing the station beyond the two Princetons. With the demise of the New Jersey Network last year, he said Princeton Community TV is the largest producer of local content in the state.
”One of the things we would like to do is develop an audience throughout New Jersey,” he said. “We’ve already started to develop programs that have a New Jersey focus, not just a Princeton focus.”
Making Princeton TV bigger would take more money. The station has a budget this year of a just under $250,000, money that comes from cable subscriber fees and other sources. Ms. Ciccone said one of the things the board will be working on is to develop more funding sources.
Aside from the providing local programming, the station also has a teaching component. There are classes people can take to learn the ins and outs of the business. There’s also cameras and editing software available.
”I think that’s what so important in why this is such a gem, because you can literally in walk off the street and say I have an idea and you can get the support from a to z,” Ms. Ciccone said.
