What does FIRST need to be on TV?

[archiver]

Posted by Al Skierkiewicz at 05/01/2001 9:22 AM EST


Engineer on team #111, Wildstang, from Wheeling High & Rolling Meadows High and Motorola.


In Reply to: Ahem....
Posted by Kevin Sevcik on 04/30/2001 9:41 PM EST:



Kevin,
That is really great that a station has started another special about FIRST. If you can get me a copy of the finished show, I will pass it on to producers here.
As to funding from a corporate sponsor, that is done all the time and at high level network type shows. Check out "This Old House" sometime and you will see what I mean. Yes PBS stations are desperate for funding but the only thing that may stand in the way is a station owned and operated by a college as a PBS outlet. That could be a problem in that money can't freely flow through the college and into the station. Many PBS stations are publicly owned, that is the people of the community are the "owners" and representatives of the community act as the board of directors. At the station I work at, corporate sponsors are abundant, Commonwealth Edison, W.W. Grainger, and in the past United Airlines.
As far as commercial stations, they are simply driven by audience. A larger audience means higher revenue for commercial time. If no one knows we are out there, than no audience, and no commercial TV except news filler. As one of our adults commented, "If this was a local high school football team making it to a National Finals competition, the TV crews would be here."
Al

P.S. Good Luck on your special.