TV Station Goes Full Steam Ahead
WDSC-Channel 15 reaches for new stars
By ANNE GEGGIS
STAFF WRITER
Despite Alan Goldstein’s 33 years as an auto body pro, playing one on TV isn’t quite as easy as buffing up his latest cream puff.
First off, there’s the problem of how to talk. And we’re not talking about stifling his honking Long Island accent.
‘‘If you were to know me, every other word is a curse word,’’ said the 53-year-old aspiring reality TV star whose New Smyrna Beach auto body shop is called Fender Mender. ‘‘I had to learn a whole new way of talking.’’
Besides that, though, there’s knowing how much to gamble on his aspiration to make the show he co-hosts, ‘‘Muscle Car Workout,’’ a reality.
So far, the former owner of three South Florida auto body shops said he has invested about $100,000 in making the first 13 shows of the series in which he and his crew soup up older, higher-horsepower cars with modern technology. It’s an effort that’s being done in partnership with Daytona Beach’s public television station, WDSC-Channel 15. And, so far, Goldstein said he’s feeling pretty optimistic. The show is slated to begin airing in September.
‘‘It’s already happening — it’s going nationwide,’’ Goldstein predicted.
‘‘Muscle Car Workout’’ is one of three shows locally produced that WDSC’s general manager Bruce Dunn says has the potential to make it to the big leagues, distributed through a network that includes 96 public television stations reaching hundreds of millions of viewers.
And it’s just one of a bumper crop of locally produced shows that Daytona Beach’s public television station is in the process of developing in partnership with people who have the ideas — and the willingness to put in some elbow grease and some cash.
The stakes on this strategy just increased because the area’s largest cable company’s customers with analog televisions will have to make special arrangements to get the station due to a law that allows the cable companies like Bright House to carry only one PBS station for those customers. And locally, Orlando’s PBS station, WMFE-Channel 24, beat out WDSC as Bright House’s choice.
FINDING ITS OWN WAY
This is happening as the Daytona Beach station is taking a sharper turn away from what the Orlando PBS station does. In the past 13 years, WDSC has grown its local offerings from one or two shows to being involved in nearly two dozen of them. Meanwhile, WMFE has cut both of its locally produced shows since October due to budget cuts.
But WDSC’s burgeoning local shows wouldn’t happen without the initiative blossoming in the community from TV newbies or someone with a passion they want to put on TV.
‘‘They’ll go out and try to find a minimum amount of money to jump-start the program — it can be as little as $2,500 and as much as $5,000,’’ said Dunn, who’s been at the station for 13 years, two of them as general manager. ‘‘I evaluate. Is the idea unique enough? And are the dollars coming in the door with it?’’
But at least one TV critic raises a wary eye toward opening public TV time to shows that have more than education as their aim. Goldstein, for example, wants to show people how to upgrade a classy chassis into a modern hot rod, but he said he’s also hoping the show attracts high-end customers to his auto body shop so he can work with top-shelf materials to do the auto restorations to which he aspires.
Though she has not seen the show, Ellen Gray, a TV critic for the past 15 years with the Philadelphia Daily News, said it sounds too much like an infomercial.
‘‘I’m not sure if the public good is served there,’’ she said. ‘‘It sounds to me like they are buying airtime. And those are public airwaves.’’
Dunn said he’s providing local content with local interest, which might have national interest. That some of the shows have the sale of DVDs, or other products built into their business plan doesn’t bother him. ‘‘Everything has something that you can sell tied to it, ‘‘ Dunn said, pointing out that even shows like ‘‘Sesame Street’’ make money by selling merchandise like Tickle Me Elmo dolls. ‘‘Everything is a sales job.’’
What’s undeniable, however, is that in spite of the cold shoulder from Bright House, WDSC has been marking milestone after milestone in reaching out to 3.5 million households in nine counties across the state. Last July, the station started broadcasting 24 hours a day. And went digital at the same time, becoming the first PBS station in Florida to become fully digital around the clock.
TINY PROGRESS
Still, the ratings on WDSC’s programming are so tiny they are barely measurable. And membership at the station has remained largely flat for the past five years. So, generating revenue — and keeping the college subsidy to a minimum — means garnering corporate sponsorships of shows and selling merchandise and licensing rights to WDSC’s original programming.
Suzanne Andrews of Edgewater has been starring every weekday at 10 a.m. in ‘‘Functional Fitness’’ since March 4. She’s made 25 episodes, with WDSC adding its production support, but she’s never received any actual compensation from the station for writing, researching, choreographing and exercising in front of the camera.
Instead, she’s made money from selling more than 500 videos between March and May (she splits the proceeds with the station) and has a chance for a bigger stake if the show lands a sponsor for the show — a likely possibility, she said.
‘‘We’ve got the official go-ahead that it’s going to be airing this fall,’’ said Andrews, a licensed occupational therapy assistant, explaining that the show will go out to the National Educational Telecommunications Association’s 96 member stations.
‘‘Instead of helping people one-on-one, I’m going to have an impact on helping many, many people get empowered to improve their health.’’
That, she insists, is what she’s really after.
Similarly, Karen Wardle of South Daytona hasn’t received a dime for working 35 to 40 hours a week trying to make ‘‘Enviropals’’ a reality as its production and office manager.
Two Volusia County public school teachers — Don Brunning, a TV production teacher at Atlantic High School, and Ray Grimard, who teaches aerospace science at Seabreeze High School — have led an effort that has involved dozens to make the kids’ show focused on what little people can do to help the environment.
So far, one episode out of the 13 required for distribution has been made. And the idea of being seen nationally is what keeps them going.
‘‘Everyone is doing this because they believe in the project and they all think it’s important to teach kids about the environment,’’ Wardle said of the effort she estimates has involved 75 volunteers.
