CTv fires it's director
I told youse there was controversy a-brewing!...here's my take:
Hopefully, the next one will live on S.I.!!! Really, I personally had nothing against the dude they fired. BUT-his choices sucked. The direction he took the channel sucked. What he did to the staff's morale sucked. His tech guy sucked bigtime.
Many have said to me: "Ed,put in for the position"...no way. Although I would surely turn the channel around and increase status, new productions and viewership...I would just be a "figure-head" director, being the puppet of the board's whims. Which answers to the B.P.'s union-busting whims...
The best man for the job is the guy, Luke, whom they fired last year.
It cracks me up when I hear things from the head of the board like:
"we want to encourage less ego-driven programs"....honey, open you eyes-look at MNN's schedule. We are merely a microcosm (and a very small one-at that) of the manhattan network.
Well, at least we did get mentioned in the advance article sunday-"...industrialTELEVISION-which has been criticized for explicit violence & nudity."...after reading that what would YOU want to check out?.....
coment: What the hell are the politics over there? Not to belittle it, but it is a public access channel. I would think it would be a creative, fun atmosphere but over the years I've been reading bits in the paper (especially Letters to the Editor) and it sounds like the place is suckhole where power corrupts and a select few lord over a fiefdom. Can you try breaking down what the power struggle is? I'm just curious now.
...it started about 5 years ago-
The old director was pushed out by the board. But first, a little background on the CTV board...in order to get on the board, you must have political brown-nosing skills, a relationship with Jimmy (molinaro) and wealth. Lawyers, priests, politicians, doctors, etc....All members are in "Jimmy's pocket." He forced the channel to hire a new producer whose only function is to shoot Jimmy's events. (and at a higher pay scale than regular CTV employees) He has called the program director and had opponent's show's pulled. He (and the board) are fighting tooth & nail the unionization of the channel's staff. (...of course, then they would have to pay real wages!)...racking up legal fees that are depleting the channel's budget. Hence, the union inflatable rat in front of borough hall last week.
The fired director of CTV (Tibor-a NJ resident!) was very unpopular from day one. Draconian rules were put into effect. The staff bailed one by one, the number of new producers/productions dropped, and general ill-will reinged at the station. Even long-time producers stopped going there.
Funny, how the reason he was let go was his refusal to get bids from other companies for maintenence & equipment-purchase contracts. I smelled this two years ago while arguing with "jerry", the tech dude appointed by Tibor. I believe he was from the same country (serbia) as the director. The tech dude installed wrong equipment configurations, refused to replace broken equipment, refused to use other sources for purchasing, and even bragged about taking home 3 VCRs from the station. (these professional decks cost about 6 to 10 thousand each)...let me stop - I feel chest pains coming on...
BUT....I think the problem lies not in whomever is appointed director for the channel, but with the BP & board itself. In manhattan, the board members include filmmakers, video artists, media teachers, and other artistic types. On CTV's board there are none. (what do you expect a politician and priest to think of industrialTELEVISION?)
Hopefully, the next one will live on S.I.!!! Really, I personally had nothing against the dude they fired. BUT-his choices sucked. The direction he took the channel sucked. What he did to the staff's morale sucked. His tech guy sucked bigtime.
Many have said to me: "Ed,put in for the position"...no way. Although I would surely turn the channel around and increase status, new productions and viewership...I would just be a "figure-head" director, being the puppet of the board's whims. Which answers to the B.P.'s union-busting whims...
The best man for the job is the guy, Luke, whom they fired last year.
It cracks me up when I hear things from the head of the board like:
"we want to encourage less ego-driven programs"....honey, open you eyes-look at MNN's schedule. We are merely a microcosm (and a very small one-at that) of the manhattan network.
Well, at least we did get mentioned in the advance article sunday-"...industrialTELEVISION-which has been criticized for explicit violence & nudity."...after reading that what would YOU want to check out?.....
coment: What the hell are the politics over there? Not to belittle it, but it is a public access channel. I would think it would be a creative, fun atmosphere but over the years I've been reading bits in the paper (especially Letters to the Editor) and it sounds like the place is suckhole where power corrupts and a select few lord over a fiefdom. Can you try breaking down what the power struggle is? I'm just curious now.
...it started about 5 years ago-
The old director was pushed out by the board. But first, a little background on the CTV board...in order to get on the board, you must have political brown-nosing skills, a relationship with Jimmy (molinaro) and wealth. Lawyers, priests, politicians, doctors, etc....All members are in "Jimmy's pocket." He forced the channel to hire a new producer whose only function is to shoot Jimmy's events. (and at a higher pay scale than regular CTV employees) He has called the program director and had opponent's show's pulled. He (and the board) are fighting tooth & nail the unionization of the channel's staff. (...of course, then they would have to pay real wages!)...racking up legal fees that are depleting the channel's budget. Hence, the union inflatable rat in front of borough hall last week.
The fired director of CTV (Tibor-a NJ resident!) was very unpopular from day one. Draconian rules were put into effect. The staff bailed one by one, the number of new producers/productions dropped, and general ill-will reinged at the station. Even long-time producers stopped going there.
Funny, how the reason he was let go was his refusal to get bids from other companies for maintenence & equipment-purchase contracts. I smelled this two years ago while arguing with "jerry", the tech dude appointed by Tibor. I believe he was from the same country (serbia) as the director. The tech dude installed wrong equipment configurations, refused to replace broken equipment, refused to use other sources for purchasing, and even bragged about taking home 3 VCRs from the station. (these professional decks cost about 6 to 10 thousand each)...let me stop - I feel chest pains coming on...
BUT....I think the problem lies not in whomever is appointed director for the channel, but with the BP & board itself. In manhattan, the board members include filmmakers, video artists, media teachers, and other artistic types. On CTV's board there are none. (what do you expect a politician and priest to think of industrialTELEVISION?)
posted by edroogie at 1:40 AM
4 Comments:
What the hell are the politics over there? Not to belittle it, but it is a public access channel. I would think it would be a creative, fun atmosphere but over the years I've been reading bits in the paper (especially Letters to the Editor) and it sounds like the place is suckhole where power corrupts and a select few lord over a fiefdom. Can you try breaking down what the power struggle is? I'm just curious now.
Thanks for the response - let me see if I have this straight.
JM (the BP) stacks the Board with friends. The favors could be two-fold, BP gets to control the content on C-TV (does this include Channel 76, SI NewsNow where unfavorable news about SI government and friends of BP are squashed??? like friends who are builders?) and the Board members could be receiving favors from BP (this could be as mundane as having him attend private events to higher end stuff). Now, the Board hires people, either as favors amongst themselves or for BP to hire fulltime staff who might not be the best qualified for the job. They, in turn, turn out more favors with contracts to others that might not be best qualified. The structure is built on favors nevermind best interest. This leads to the creative people to pound their heads agains the wall and most leave in disgust. Am I following this so far?
I didn't quite follow what the union issue was about so if you have time, could you explain further?
I have watched public access in Manhattan in the past and was amazed at the quality and diverse content. I just thought Manhattan had the creative people and SI didn't since most of the SI public access shows sucked (not yours, naturally ). I guess there was just too much redtape to go thru on SI so people just gave up.
So, if someone wanted to do a special about the connections of our local government and the builders it would most likely be blocked from airing by the Board.
Hmmm, this is pretty interesting. Do you think anything will change for the positive? Thanks for info - I'm not involved but as a lifelong Islander I find the Tammany Hall atmosphere of SI fascinating.
CTV is not Channel 76, SI NewsNow. They are controlled by TWC (time-warner)"Jimmy's" NOT supposed to have any control over CTV's content...but that did not stop him from getting Straniere's show pulled....
Board members receive no salary.
The union issue is from the comunications workers of America. The staff has been tryng to unionize for the last 4 years. The board is dead against it.
Public access in manhattan IS diverse, but has plenty of bad programs as well. While is appears that they have more creative people, it's just numbers. They have 10 times the amount of viewers and facilites.
"So, if someone wanted to do a special about the connections of our local government..."
NO, it would probably air, unless complaints were made.
Do I think anything will change?...
Being that whomever takes over the executive directors' position will be acting at the whims of the BP's contolled board, NO I do not.
ok - thanks.
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