After nearly two years off the air, Brown Television will begin broadcasting again tonight.
The student-run television station will resume broadcasting Monday through Thursday from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. Initially, its content will consist mainly of footage of campus events filmed by BTV members, but in coming weeks station managers hope to debut new, student-generated programs, students involved with the BTV said.
"It's impossible to come back the way we want to come back" - with only student-generated content - "this soon," said David Notis '10, the station's executive producer. Instead, students involved with BTV are calling this week's debut the station's "soft launch" - an opportunity to demonstrate that it has the infrastructure in place to broadcast and lay the groundwork for a wider variety of content to air soon.
In the meantime, BTV will feature footage generated by its members of events like Janus Forum debates, theatrical productions and other campus happenings - including a documentary with footage of election night celebrations on campus produced by Roman Gonzalez '11, the station's manager and programming director.
Students founded BTV in 1987 under the leadership of Doug Liman '88, who is now a successful filmmaker best known for directing the 2005 blockbuster "Mr. and Mrs. Smith" and directing and producing "The Bourne Identity." But the channel slowly "faded away" after his graduation as the staff shrank in size and the station was poorly maintained, Notis said. Finally, in 2007, the station stopped production entirely. Notis and Jad Joseph '10 then took charge of the organization.
Since then, BTV has been working to "build up its infrastructure," Gonzalez said. The staff has grown to consist of about 28 committed members, who are now trying to make BTV "a big presence on campus" once again, Notis said.
The station is holding a party Friday to celebrate its return to the airwaves and promote the BTV Web site, which is "a big component" of the new BTV, Gonzalez said. In the future, BTV hopes to have streaming video on the site, in recogntion, Notis said, of "how hard it is for college students to find a block of time to watch."
For now, BTV will be available via Internet Protocol Television, better known as IPTV, and, for a short time, on cable channel nine. The nationwide shift from analog to digital television broadcasting, currently slated for Feb. 17, will knock BTV off of the residence hall cable system, which the University may scrap entirely at the end of the academic year, The Herald reported in October.
BTV's main goal, Notis said, is to feature mostly student-produced programs, for which the group will provide high-definitioncameras and microphones. BTV has already received 16 student-written pilots in a recent competition. The station will help produce the winning script for broadcast on BTV.
In addition to collaborating with other students, BTV plans this semester to feature a program called "Campus Now," which Notis said is basically "a highlight reel of Morning Mail." It also plans to broadcast "BTV Retro" - shows that aired in the early days of BTV - according to Gonzalez.
