Saratoga News
News
Photograph courtesy of KSAR
'Saratoga Spotlight' director Ruben Grigalva, editor Wendy Reed and host Pam George go over last-minute script changes at the March 31 taping of the show's first two episodes.
KSAR moves in the 'spotlight' with public-access cable show
By Shannon Burkey
With its latest venture, Saratoga's community access television station, KSAR, is looking to bring interesting people and places from the community into the spotlight--the "Saratoga Spotlight," that is.
The new show, hosted by freelance television host Pam George, who also did the honors for KSAR's 50th anniversary DVD, will be airing soon, and Chris Wasmund, KSAR executive director, said it promises to be unlike anything else on community television.
"We wanted to do this show because we kept hearing from the community that businesses needed help and that community organizations needed help promoting their events," Wasmund said. "We are trying to create a professional show about Saratoga for Saratogans."
Wasmund and the KSAR board of directors decided to come up with a show that spotlights the people, places and businesses that make the community unique.
The show will take on a news magazine format and will be broken into segments such as entertainment, education, in-studio interviews, on-site visits highlighting various locations around the city and an upcoming events calendar. Each show will end with George opening the "Saratoga Trunk" filled with questions and comments from the viewers and answering them on air.
Once people in the community learn there is a show about them and their local interests, Wasmund said she thinks the show will grow.
"If this is going to be a success it's because Saratoga wants it to be a success," she said.
The show's first guest, Councilwoman and Saratoga Village Development Council Chairwoman Jill Hunter, will be talking about the revitalization of the Village, about how the community can get involved and about the monthly community events the SVDC sponsors to bring the community together.
Hunter said she was honored to be the show's first guest and hopes that more people will tune in to the station.
"I'm thrilled that they are doing such a show," Hunter said. "I think it may be tough in the beginning because people don't know about it, but I hope that they don't lose heart because these things take time."
The first two shows, which were filmed on March 31, went extremely well, according to Tom Stoiber, chairman of the KSAR board.
"I'm very pleased with how it went, and there was great chemistry between Pam and the guests," Stoiber said. "We think it's nice to have background on the organizations and people in the community so we thought we would bring those people--all those people that we think the average resident would like to know about--to the show."
When the show was created, Stoiber said there were two objectives they wanted to accomplish: get people familiar with Saratoga and bring more viewers to KSAR.
The station struggled a little after city budget cuts in 2005, but Wasmund and Stoiber hope the new show will build KSAR back up and bring in viewers that the station may not have had in the past.
Although the show is operating on a limited budget to begin with, Wasmund is looking to the community to get involved in supporting or sponsoring it.
"This is a show about them, for them," Wasmund said. "We are looking for people that are going to help us make this show a success."
Stoiber believes KSAR has the recipe to accomplish just that.
"A show like this makes the community smaller and the city of Saratoga more interesting and a better place to live," he said.
"Saratoga Spotlight" will air on Mondays and Fridays at 7:30 p.m. and Tuesdays and Thursdays at 11 a.m. and is tentatively set to begin on April 16. For more information, visit www.ksar15.org or to be a guest, highlight a business or send a comment to the "Saratoga Trunk," e-mail spotlight@ksar15. org.
