Even after hosting a weekly dance fitness show on Pittsburgh's public access cable channel for three years, Paul Eugene Green is still surprised by the local celebrity status he has gained.
"It's still kind of amazing to me to be out at a convenience store, or walking down the street, and have someone come up to me all excited because they watch the show," said Green, 50, of the North Side. "It's kind of nice to know people are out there watching and enjoying what I do."
Pittsburgh Community TV is to move soon to Garfield, and its leader hopes the new site will open the door for more city residents to grab a share of the spotlight.
"We really want to be able to provide city residents with more opportunities to come in and produce their shows," said Thomas Poole, executive director of PCTV. "But we only have space for one studio in our current location, so we're limited in what we can do."
PCTV, which will celebrate its 20th anniversary next year, is negotiating a 10-year lease for a 10,000-square-foot building in the 5400 block of Penn Avenue in a building owned by Bloomfield-Garfield Corp., a nonprofit community development organization.
The studio on Western Avenue on the North Side has about 6,600 square feet.
The station broadcasts on a 24-hour schedule and has 45 series and one-shot programs. Some carry adult content, according to the station's Web site, www.pctv21.org. In addition to Green's dance fitness show, PCTV has series that spotlight local rock bands, youth football, religious teachings, off-roading, African American culture and family fishing. An "underground variety show" brags of nudity and swearing.
Since joining PCTV in 2002, Poole has been updating the station's equipment.
"We had maybe five working lights in the studio, and most of our equipment was analog and hadn't been upgraded in a decade," Poole said. "Now, almost everything is digital, and we've put together three field production kits that allow producers to go outdoors to do shows."
Poole said the additional space will allow the station to build a second studio and add a conference room and a waiting room for guests scheduled to appear on camera.
"The space is so tight now that people have to go through the green room to get to the bathrooms," Poole said.
PCTV, a private nonprofit, was launched in 1986 after the city's original Warner cable franchise was sold.
Rick Swartz, executive director of the Bloomfield Garfield Corp., said the only concern with the move is the lack of parking.
"They would be a great complement to our business district, so we are trying to come up with a way to accommodate their parking needs," Swartz said.
The move to Garfield also would make the station more accessible to producers -- 42 percent of whom live in the East End, according to a PCTV survey.
The two-story Penn Avenue building has been vacant for a decade. The community organization also is working on securing about $1 million to renovate the 85-year-old building.
Poole said that while he would like to see more youth-oriented shows on PCTV, the programming depends on what people want.
"This is all about providing the tools for people to come in and do their thing -- we teach them the basics of operating the equipment, but there are very few constraints on what they can do," he said.
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