USA > History > 2006 > Television (I)

Hour After Hour,

One Station Is Devoted

to Pulse of New York

May 22, 2006
The New York Times
By WINNIE HU

For a first look at New York City's hottest bands, there is only one television station that taps into the underground music scene from the East Village to Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

For access to the city's biggest social events, there is again one station that devotes countless hours to the red carpet premieres at the Tribeca Film Festival, the runway shows at Fashion Week and the summer concerts in Central Park.

That station is none other than the city's official television outlet, NYC TV. With an ever-growing roster of programs that delve into previously uncovered slivers of New York culture, this once-overlooked station, whose bread and butter used to be City Hall hearings, has soared in the ratings to 100,000 viewers for its most popular shows, and scored 14 New York Emmys.

So successful is the station's programming that its shows are starting to get picked up by television stations from East Hampton to Los Angeles, while Continental, Delta and South African airlines have featured its programs on their flights. Its signature theme, "Everything New York," even inspired a station in Seoul, South Korea, to reinvent itself as "Everything Seoul."

The comedian Dave Attell, who frequently appears on Comedy Central, is an admitted fan of NYC TV.

"I like shows about New York because that's where I live," he said, adding that he likes the focus on history and things to do. "Good to see somebody's taking care of it."

NYC TV is largely an invention of the Bloomberg administration, which has aggressively applied the latest technology and business practices from the private sector to all levels of city government. Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, who began Bloomberg Television as part of his media empire, knew better than most the value of a city television station, his aides said.

But the station's predecessor, which was known as Crosswalks Television, had languished for years. It did little more than replay City Council meetings and mayoral news conferences on its five channels, which were available only to cable subscribers in the five boroughs.

To build the programming, the administration tapped young people outside government, like Arick Wierson, 34, a former investment banker, who was put in charge of the city television station after working on Mr. Bloomberg's 2001 election campaign. Mr. Wierson teamed up with Seth Unger, 31, a co-founder of Messenger Records, a small label based in New York for singer-songwriters and independent rock artists.

One of their first collaborations was "New York Noise," a groundbreaking show that has attracted a loyal following among musicians. Tommy Ramone was the host of an episode, and bands like Fischerspooner, Animal Collective and the National have all been featured. The show is filmed around the city, from longtime clubs like Irving Plaza to offbeat hangouts like the accordion shop Main Squeeze.

With an array of new shows, NYC TV began in June 2003, and its operation was expanded last year from cable to broadcast, reaching viewers for the first time on Long Island and in Westchester, Connecticut and New Jersey. It accomplished that by merging with a broadcast station that was owned by the Board of Education and passed into the city's hands when Mr. Bloomberg took over the public school system.

This year, NYC TV will move to a new headquarters near City Hall, after a $5 million renovation. Its staff of 76 has been shuttling between offices in Brooklyn, the Bronx and Lower Manhattan. About half the station's annual budget of $4.6 million comes from the city, and the rest from fees paid by independent producers and others leasing time for their own programs.

On this relatively tight budget NYC TV has set itself apart with programming that is part history lesson, part travel guide, part reality television, often packaged with flashy graphics and a pulsing soundtrack. Among its 22 original series, there is "$9.99," for shopping on the cheap, and "Blueprint NYC," which brings the city's landmarks to life.

"If you want to get a good feel for New York, it's the place to tune in," said Jacqueline Gonzalez, executive director of the New York chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. "Here it's the central character, as opposed to being just the backdrop where the action happens."

NYC TV also continues to cover city government. For the 2005 elections, Mr. Bloomberg and other candidates were given free airtime to discuss their views. And during the transit workers' strike, the mayor's news conferences were broadcast live from City Hall.

Councilwoman Gale Brewer, the chairwoman of the Technology in Government Committee, said that NYC TV has strayed too far from its core mission. She has complained about the station's broadcast of fashion shows, only to be told that they are part of city life.

"What are we learning from it?" she said. "They're focusing on tourists and visitors rather than on New Yorkers who need basic services and want to know what their elected officials are doing."

Deputy Mayor Edward Skyler, who oversaw the development of the station, rejects such criticism, saying that NYC TV has struck the right balance between civics and culture. Mr. Skyler himself alternates between watching "City Classics," which replays old mayoral press conferences, and "What's Cooking at Gracie?"

"My idea of cooking is cereal," he said. "But I like to learn. I like to eat food, I just don't know what I'm doing."

The success of NYC TV largely reflects the enduring appeal of the metropolis that it calls home. It is that factor that sets it apart from a station in, say, Syracuse, and what makes shows like "$9.99" marketable even in the affluent Hamptons, where WVVH-TV will begin running NYC TV shows next month.

But NYC TV has also benefited from shrewd marketing and business strategies, several television executives said. By focusing on its own programs, NYC TV does not have to compete for viewers against more established public television stations like WNET and NJN.

"It was smart not to be the 'fifth channel,' " said Dalton Delan, executive vice president of WETA in Washington. "You don't want to be the triple-A team. You want to find a new ballpark where you can be No. 1."

As NYC TV's programs have found an audience, the benefits have flowed to the restaurants, shops and attractions they have featured.

For instance, after the Pan Latin Cafe in Battery Park City appeared in "$9.99," customers came from as far as the Poconos to sample its fresh-baked pan de queso.

"Certainly they spent more than $9.99," said Sandy Kraehling, the owner and chef.

NYC TV has also helped improve tourism at Snug Harbor, a sprawling cultural center and park on Staten Island, to more than 450,000 visitors a year from 350,000.

"They say all the time, 'We saw this on channel 25,' " said Adele Sammarco, the marketing and public relations director for Snug Harbor. "It's an education. People think that all Staten Island has to offer is the ferry."

Mr. Skyler said that NYC TV is proving that it is possible to have a format where New Yorkers can learn more about their government as well as the place where they live without being bored.

"Clearly by the ratings, people are watching," he said. "It's free advertising for New York City."

    Hour After Hour, One Station Is Devoted to Pulse of New York, NYT, 22.5.2006, http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/22/nyregion/22nyctv.html

The TV Watch

Psychic TV:

Employing the Dead

to Connect the Living

April 5, 2006
The New York Times
By ALESSANDRA STANLEY

It's not enough that television psychics talk to the dead. Now they have to disturb the living.

That line, best left uncrossed, is the gambit of "Cross Country," John Edward's new show on WE, the Women's Entertainment network. Mr. Edward, a stage medium who used to channel spirits in the safety of a TV studio on his syndicated show "Crossing Over," is now adding the pathos of shows like "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" by traveling to remote areas to commune with the survivors. ("Closure has no map," he says.) Mr. Edward is so intent on sprucing up relations between the departed and their loved ones that his series could also be titled "Queer Eye for the Dead Guy."

And "Cross Country" is the classy version. There are at least two other series that showcase psychic road trips. In March, cable's Sci Fi Channel showed the debut of an even more down-market new series, "Psychic at Large," in which Char Margolis, a self-described "spiritual-intuitive," roams around in her car, using her special powers for fun and high jinks. Ms. Margolis may have an inside advantage: she looks a bit like Agnes Moorehead in her "Bewitched" days. She haggles for a used car by demanding $1,000 off the list price for every relative of the car lot manager she can intuit correctly. "Apple?" Ms. Margolis ventures. "Akbah. Very close!" the woman replies. Ms. Margolis also does some psychic readings on a trip to Palm Springs for a book signing of a work she self-published — which must be a little like sending oneself flowers the day after a night alone in bed.

Amazingly, "Dead Famous: Ghostly Encounters" is beginning its third installment on the Biography Channel with the hosts Gail Porter, a Scottish-born celebrity/skeptic, and Chris Fleming, an even less famous "sensitive." The skeptic and the sensitive travel the country trying to make contact with dead celebrities like Bing Crosby and Rita Hayworth, but mostly turn breathless in dark basements while being filmed by an infrared camera. It's basically an E! channel exercise with a very weak link to the spirit world: ESP! channel. The spookiest element, however, is Ms. Porter, a former television presenter and nude model for men's magazines, who serves as a harbinger of celebrity derailed: drug abuse and eating disorders ravaged her health, and she now wears a head scarf because alopecia left her bald.

It used to be that the closest thing to a psychic on television was Carlton the Doorman on "Rhoda." Now, of course, they are everywhere, from cable shows like "Psychic Detectives" to network dramas like "Medium" and "Ghost Whisperer" in which mysteries are solved by second sight, not evidence (paranormal, dear Watson). Mr. Edward's last series, which was seen on broadcast stations and Sci Fi, ended in 2004. He returns to television having received a message from the other side of the ratings. Viewers are growing accustomed to seeing miracles happen on location.

Mr. Edward's style remains unchanged, but he has added a new element of travel and family drama. The episode begins in a theater, where Mr. Edward peppers his audience with word associations until one sticks. In the first episode, mention of a sudden death and the name "Nicky or Nicholas" bring Audrey to her feet. She explains that she lost a son, Adam, in a fire and that his half-brother, Nicky, died in the same fire. Mr. Edward, who was raised on Long Island, has an engaging manner, defusing his spooky insights with prosaic, rapid-fire guesses (he sounds more like an auctioneer than a mystic) and humor. And there is always a promise of consolation: he assures the grieving, guilt-ridden mother that her son is not angry with her.

Then comes the "have hunch, will travel" segment. Mr. Edward takes to the road to help surviving relatives connect with one another. It turns out that Audrey's daughter survived the fire and lives in Providence, R.I. Mr. Edward stops at Audrey's house in Orlando, Fla. "This is just another aspect of honoring their journey," Mr. Edward tells the camera as he steps out of his car. "And giving you guys the behind-the-scenes scoop about what actually took place." Mostly, however, the behind-the-scenes segment allows Mr. Edward to reunite a tearful mother and daughter on camera, as well as persuade the daughter to return to the site of the fire for the first time since it took place 10 years before. It's a reality show makeover for the emotions: the deceased serves as the catalyst for a poignant television moment between the living.

Mediums are painful to watch because they play with trusting people at their most vulnerable. "Cross Country" takes the channeling right to people's doorsteps: a psychic reading with home visits.

    Psychic TV: Employing the Dead to Connect the Living, NYT, 5.4.2006, http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/05/arts/television/05watc.html?8dpc