Now, for the news
Published 2:09 pm Tuesday, July 29, 2008
It was in high school that Selina Shearer first read from a teleprompter.
Visiting Bainbridge Island from Belfair to get a taste of television news at the building that now houses Bainbridge Island Television, Shearer said it was that experience that catapulted her toward a career on camera that has included a number of news jobs around the state.
Fast forward to Friday, when, with the premier of BITV’s weekly newscast, Shearer returns as a newscaster for the station where she got her start.
“I’ve kind of come full circle,” said Shearer, who will be the show’s news director and anchor, along with a multitude of other titles.
The half-hour show will cover a broad range of topics, from city politics to human interest stories. There will be segments on the environment and community events; BITV board member and radio personality Paul Merriman will host a “MoneyWise” segment.
Mostly the content will be topical.
At first, Shearer said, she’ll see the bulk of the camera time. But the ultimate goal of the show is to get islanders involved in the program as much as possible.
“We don’t want it to be all Selina all the time,” she said. “People would get tired of me. We want to teach community members to go out and gather their own news.”
To that end, the station offers information about all aspects of television journalism, both at the station and to interested students at Bainbridge schools.
The show will increasingly use the web to connect with viewers. Streaming broadcasts will be available immediately at bitv.org. Eventually the show will have its own website; in the interim individual segments can be viewed on YouTube.
Bainbridge has had a commercial news program in the past, but this broadcast will be much different, said BITV Executive Director Scott Schmidt.
“We’ll be engaging the community in the newscast unlike corporate newscasts where there’s a real agenda,” Schmidt said. “We’ll be setting our agenda as the community might dictate.”
Still, with a tight budget and small staff, Shearer and Schmidt realize they’ll face some big challenges. Schmidt said only a handful of similar newscasts exist around the country because it’s so difficult to pull off.
The BITV staff will have to juggle multiple tasks, especially in the beginning when the show is getting off the ground.
The show will be funded by several community sponsors, but like public broadcasting elsewhere, restrictions are in place to prevent those sponsors from influencing content, Schmidt said.
To prevent the corporate look from creeping into the broadcast, the show will be shot on location and outside the BITV studios.
“If it’s pouring I’ll just put on a coat,” Shearer said.
Though the show will be about Bainbridge, other stations in the region are considering airing it because it “will have a regional feel and appeal,” she said.
Overall, the station is just starting to pick up steam following protracted contract negotiations with the city that were resolved this spring.
Under the new contract, the city still carries public meetings, but receives a larger share of the revenue paid to the city by cable subscribers.
“The biggest misconception is that we’re flush with money,” Schmidt said.
Because of the funding shortage that occurred during negotiations, the station is about a year behind schedule, Schmidt said.
Shearer joined the staff in December, and the newscast was originally set to debut in April.
Now that they’re ready to go, the next big step is reaching out for help from the community. They’ve got a few sponsors, but are looking for more.
Some news content will come from the Bainbridge Island Review, which will be a news partner of the station. Producers of the show, however, want a broad group of contributors. Slots are open for a wide range of positions, from technical contributors to an interesting “character” to read the police blotter on air.
“Our goal is to show that we really want to be a community asset,” Schmidt said. “To do that we need to give something back to the island. Then we’ll really start to feel the pulse of the community.”
On the air
BITV News will launch its premier 30-minute broadcast Friday at 5 p.m., and again at 10 p.m. on Channel 12, and at 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. on Channel 22. New episodes will air weekly on Fridays at those same time slots, and will be repeated throughout the week. The broadcast will eventually have its own website, at which viewers can watch individual segments of the program; in the interim segments can be viewed on YouTube. To learn more or get involved with the program, visit www.bitv.org or email selina@bitv.org.
