by Ken Ludden for the San Francisco Spectrum

As the LGBT community continues steady progress toward acceptance by the general public, QTV Newsmagazine has been documenting that progress. Starting in 1995, Rahn Fudge and Clarence Swiggins, along with a talented cast and crew of volunteers, have been documenting, and broadcasting, that journey on commercial television. The significance of this accomplishment is not just the constant, high-pressured work of meeting deadlines, producing a show with a competitive high level of production value and staying on top of developments, but they have had to secure and maintain business relationships with advertisers as well.

This all fits neatly into the ‘tall order’ realm, especially for volunteers. Creating television news programming is a daunting task. It begins with identifying the story. This process can take several different forms. At regularly scheduled staff meetings story ideas are pitched, discussed and organized. The ideas may come from the staff, who are constantly reading every information source, ever on the lookout for a story that is pertinent to the LGBT community, or it may come from the outside, in the form of a telephone call or email requesting the QTV cameras to be present. There is a turn-around time between shooting and broadcast, and so this newsmagazine formatted show must be constantly checked for continued relevance. Unlike breaking news, where the cameras record whatever is happening, the newsmagazine must find stories that are important, and will remain important beyond the moment.

This is not to say that the QTV cameras never pick up breaking news. Many times at an event QTV is the only television presence. For example, when Mayor Willie Brown got a pie in his face during a public announcement, QTV cameras were the only ones there. If you have seen a video image of that incident, you saw QTV footage.

Once a story is identified, a crew must be scheduled, transportation organized, advance work done to secure interviews with the appropriate people, permissions to gain entry to buildings or locations must be arranged, and the reporter must do some pre-production planning and research to ascertain just what the best approach for the story is. This all involves many emails and phone calls, plus clear communication between Fudge, who is Executive Producer, and all of the personnel involved in that particular shoot. Meanwhile, Clarence Swiggins, the Technical Director who recently retired as principal cameraman for the outfit, is in constant contact with the technical crew to make sure equipment is readied, batteries charged, blank tape allocated for the shoot, and other logistics.

Once in the field, the reporter and cameraperson navigate the thousand variables that may arise, and get the story shot. There are many frustrations at this point of the process. Electrical outlets may not be available, technical glitches can occur at any moment with any aspect of the sophisticated professional cameras, microphones and lights used. There are times that the crew is denied entry to a building or access to the people they have previously arranged to tape. All regular QTV personnel are issued media badges by the San Francisco Police Department, but even these will not suffice if the names of every crew member do not appear on the proper list.

Assuming all goes well, the story is shot. Equipment and tape is returned to the studio and then the work continues. The reporter is responsible for logging the tape (a process that involves documenting everything on the tape by the time code, which is a tracking number series burned into the tape), developing a script for the segment and submitting the script for review and approval. Once approved and changes incorporated, the story is ‘voiced’, which means any additional words to help tell the story are recorded by the reporter, and then the script and source tapes go to the editor.

The editor then takes these elements and creates a show segment, which is stored with the other show segments for a particular episode. Once all segments are completed, then the show host, which is normally Fudge, must put the episode together and write a script for the hosting. Again a camera crew is gathered, a location arranged, all details coordinated and the hosting takes place. This tape then must also be logged and an edit script for the entire show is developed. Back to the editors, who then compile each sub-section of the show. These sub-sections are the continuous flow of segments between commercial breaks.

The show is then ‘stacked’, or put in the final sequence, by the editors. Every commercial is placed, show logos are inserted, public service announcements are arranged and opening and closing credits created and edited into the whole show. In this process the commercial obligations must be satisfied, with the various placements and frequencies of commercial advertising enacted per the contractual agreement between that company and QTV.

Is the show ready to air? No way. It now must be transferred to tape, then dubbed over into the specific format required by the broadcaster (and they all differ) and delivered to the broadcast house. The delivery must be made within a strict deadline, or the station won’t have time to place the show into their overall lineup of shows.

This, done month after month for the past 8 years by a team of volunteers, explains why you may see the QTV crew out at some public place having a little celebration when it gets on the air. When the clock comes to broadcast time, many eyes are on the screen, there and across the city. Advertisers watch to make sure their contracts are fulfilled, the subjects of stories watch to see themselves and their message on the air, QTV staff watches and breathes a collective sigh of relief when the opening logo actually appears (broadcast stations have their technical problems too), and thousands of Bay Area residents watch.

A few years ago, QTV conducted a field survey to determine just how many people were watching. The statistical process used produced the number of 80,000 people who recognized the brand name, QTV, and 40,000 viewers. That number is statistical, however, based on a sample and then applied forward to the entire subscribership of local cable television.

QTV recently signed a year-long contract with the City Station, which is a step up the ladder of recognition and visibility for the show. The crew is now known widely throughout the city, and throughout the state. As the advancement of human rights for the LGBT community evolves, QTV finds itself covering more and more political events, which are becoming more and more mainstream. At the San Francisco International Film Festival last year, QTV was on the red carpet amazingly close to the front of the line of media stations covering the event. Their reporter, Dear Diva, was right there along with the media big boys. This in itself is a major move forward. And the fact that Dustin Hoffman and Lilly Tomlin both registered delight upon seeing that kind of presence in the mainstream media lineup, they both felt moved to say words of welcome and delight. The LGBT community is becoming a face at the table more and more, and those who fight for social change, like the mega-star actors, know how difficult the road to acceptance is.

Television is not cheap, even if you don’t pay the staff of volunteers. Each segment costs thousands of dollars to produce, but that only accounts for the out of pocket expenditures. Every vehicle is parked and parking paid for, clothing for an operation such as QTV is not donated often by manufacturers as it is for many news programs, and much more. The fact that this group still exists after 8 years is just short of a miracle, and speaks highly for the kind of dedication they have.

At a recent event celebrating the 8 year anniversary on the air, QTV created a new award, the Clarence Swiggins Award, which was presented to senior reporter Dear Diva for her years of service. A Pioneer Award was also presented to Matthew Alexander for his service as senior editor. There was a fun, rainbow-colored, TV-shaped cake, and Clarence Swiggins was given a medal for his years of dedication and service. Veteran reporter and host Liam Mayclem, who is now a reporter for Kron 4, was there to speak about his experience with QTV and how it led to a career on network television.

But something else was happening at the same time. QTVs success represents the success of the entire LGBT community’s movement toward acceptance and recognition. And because the media rarely focuses on the media, most people never understand exactly what goes into the images they watch on their television sets. It is truly remarkable that QTV has reached 8-years of community service and keeps going. Hats off to QTV Newsmagazine.

QTV can be seen on basic cable on Channel 23, and on advanced digital cable Channel 11, the first Tuesday of each month from 9-9:30 pm. The next scheduled airing of the show is December 2, 2003.

GGBA, the first LGBT
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Positive Resource Center, providing employment services and benefits counseling to the SF Bay Area HIV community.

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