The Poor Soul of Television
Dirty talk shows, TV parties, Dr. Videovich, and other public access jewels
by Leah Churner
posted Jun 25, 2009
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COMMENTS (1)
I found this article and thought I should issue a few corrections...
As a puppeteer, I've been hosting "Rapid T. Rabbit and Friends" since 1983 on the old Channel C right up to the present day on MNN Channel 56. RTR only occaisionally made guest appearances on "The Vole Show" back then. However from 1980 through 2005 I had been one of the puppeteers on Vole, in fact the one who was the *talking* frog. By the same token, William Hohauser created and appears as Cuppy on the RTR Show all throughout its history.
The Vole Show is no longer on Public Access after William got tired of the way MNN kept shuffling the show's late-night timeslot around in a manner that prevented him from doing it Live anymore. Once in awhile Vole will resurface on Channel 35 (Southern Manhattan) when it fills in for The Grube Tube (which also similarly fled MNN) on Thursday nights that Steve Gruberg takes off from hosting.
Speaking of which, Manhattan Cable TV doubled the price of airtime on the old Channel J after the City of NY in effect gave up any regulatory influence it had over it. This had the effect of forcing most Channel J shows onto Channels C & D sans their sponsors, with the notable exception of the well-financed adult programmers. When 1991 rolled around, a new city cable franchise went into effect that created MNN, QPTV, BronxNet, B-CAT & SICTV to administer the Public Access in their respective boroughs but without any provisions for a Public Lease channel. But at the same time, under the Cable Act, Time Warner Cable (which by then completely absorbed Manhattan Cable) had replaced the former Public Lease Channel J in Manhattan with Commercial Lease Channel 35...essentially same concept but with much more red-tape and legal requirements from the producers.
When Manhattan Cable started offering Live studio facilities in the late 1970's, it was not their own that were available...instead they got a string of private studios to tie feeds into their control room. Jim Chladek's ETC Studios (later renamed Metro-Access Inc.) was the busiest and most "famous" of these but there was also ELA Studios, Vidlo Video, Automation House, and Corporate Video Services. ETC Metro-Access lasted the longest of these and only ceased operations a little over 2 years ago, succumbing to their loss of business to the free (albeit with regulation-heavy red-tape) studios at MNN despite hedging against that by branching out into the low-power UHF broadcasting business.
In a fit of irony, the former literal hole-in-the-ground basement TV facility that ELA Studios was on West 59 Street, is now occupied by a luxury high-rise apartment building next door to MNN's broadcast center.
How quickly the years go by...
Rapid T Rabbit posted 06.08.09
The Poor Soul of Television
I found this article and thought I should issue a few corrections... As a puppeteer, I've been hosting "Rapid T. Rabbit and Friends" since 1983 on the old Channel C right up to the present day on MNN Channel 56. RTR only occaisionally made guest appearances on "The Vole Show" back then. However from 1980 through 2005 I had been one of the puppeteers on Vole, in fact the one who was the *talking* frog. By the same token, William Hohauser created and appears as Cuppy on the RTR Show all throughout its history. The Vole Show is no longer on Public Access after William got tired of the way MNN kept shuffling the show's late-night timeslot around in a manner that prevented him from doing it Live anymore. Once in awhile Vole will resurface on Channel 35 (Southern Manhattan) when it fills in for The Grube Tube (which also similarly fled MNN) on Thursday nights that Steve Gruberg takes off from hosting. Speaking of which, Manhattan Cable TV doubled the price of airtime on the old Channel J after the City of NY in effect gave up any regulatory influence it had over it. This had the effect of forcing most Channel J shows onto Channels C & D sans their sponsors, with the notable exception of the well-financed adult programmers. When 1991 rolled around, a new city cable franchise went into effect that created MNN, QPTV, BronxNet, B-CAT & SICTV to administer the Public Access in their respective boroughs but without any provisions for a Public Lease channel. But at the same time, under the Cable Act, Time Warner Cable (which by then completely absorbed Manhattan Cable) had replaced the former Public Lease Channel J in Manhattan with Commercial Lease Channel 35...essentially same concept but with much more red-tape and legal requirements from the producers. When Manhattan Cable started offering Live studio facilities in the late 1970's, it was not their own that were available...instead they got a string of private studios to tie feeds into their control room. Jim Chladek's ETC Studios (later renamed Metro-Access Inc.) was the busiest and most "famous" of these but there was also ELA Studios, Vidlo Video, Automation House, and Corporate Video Services. ETC Metro-Access lasted the longest of these and only ceased operations a little over 2 years ago, succumbing to their loss of business to the free (albeit with regulation-heavy red-tape) studios at MNN despite hedging against that by branching out into the low-power UHF broadcasting business. In a fit of irony, the former literal hole-in-the-ground basement TV facility that ELA Studios was on West 59 Street, is now occupied by a luxury high-rise apartment building next door to MNN's broadcast center. How quickly the years go by...
Rapid T Rabbit posted 06.08.09