I always enjoy watching California’s Gold w/ Huell Howser on PBS.
[QUOTE=DanBlather]
How about Who Wants to Be The First On The Block With Indoor Plumbing.
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Is that an Oregon only production?
Our local PBS stations shows locally-produced programs, both by them and by others in the area. Typical topics are local history and interest stories.
There’s also at least two shows I can think of that the local CBS affiliate produces. One is a Finnish language general interest show with things like news from Finland and Finnish folk music (yup, not kidding there), and the other is an outdoorsy kind of show.
[QUOTE=Zeldar]
Is that an Oregon only production?
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We are still waiting for running water that doesn’t come from the sky 
[QUOTE=DanBlather]
We are still waiting for running water that doesn’t come from the sky
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Do y’all have a cistern, then?
In the spirit of your earlier question, there was a gimmick radio ad for a mail order homemade bomb kit, with the come-on line, “Be the first kid on your block to be the last kid on your block.”
I watch Texas Country Reporter whenever I catch it on. I don’t think it’s distributed outside of Texas.
Here’s a sample, it’s a story about a dog named Skidboot.
[QUOTE=elmwood]
There’s the various regional sports talk shows that air on regional sports networks like Fox, MSG, and so on.
Local game shows used to be quite common. Most I remember from my youth were cheesy; “Dialing for Dollars,” “Bowling for Dollars,” “Strikes, Spares and Misses,” and so on. I don’t know if there’s any left. There may still be It’s Academic/Scholastic Bowl-type shows around, airing in local markets and highlighting local high schools.
Local kids shows were a staple of youth for many Generation Xers, but I don’t know how many are left. Usually they had a variety show-style format, or they served as the backdrop for plain old Warner Brothers cartoons.
A few markets have local talk shows. “AM Buffalo,” an old-school coffee kaffeeklatsch-style show, still airs on weekday mornings on WKBW(Channel 7) in Buffalo.
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I was reading your list of local game shows thinking- those aren’t local we watched them in Buffalo growing up-
And then I saw your reference to AM Buffalo and all became clear!
Strikes, spares and misses- I like that one!
All sorts of TV shows are made in California.
Movies too!
Uncle Floyd is a well-known New Jersey figure.
[QUOTE=Otto]
I think cable operators are still required to provide a public access channel so that local community programming has an outlet. From what little I’ve seen of it, which was years ago, it’s mostly in the form of “talk shows” (meaning crackpots staring into a camera for 30 minutes and ranting about whatever crosses their minds).
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The FCC requires cable operators to offer PEG (Public/Education/Government) channels, also called Public Access or Community Access channels to local governments. It also provides for the cable company to collect from 0 to 5% of the cable bills as a franchise fee, remitted to the towns, to be used “to offset the costs of production” of the channel(s). At least that’s the wording in the Charter Communications franchise agreement that I have seen.
We have 5 channels in two towns in the county; the largest town with 10,000 population has 4 channels and the one with 2700 has one. Other towns either collect the franchise fee or not, as they wish, and those that collect it use it for other stuff and don’t have a TV channel.
Our PEG channels are divided up into School, Government, Tourist, and Community Access (a catchall for everything else). We carry the city government meetings live and other meetings on tape. The local school district administers the school channel and they air school board meetings and school events like concerts and athletics.
There is a wealth of video shows available from national sources that make up the bulk of the community access programming; the US Army puts out a half-hour show every two weeks; there are medical advice shows and contemporary topic forums put out by law schools. All of these are free to us.
Six of our local churches videotape their Sunday services for airing, and we cover community events like concerts, parades and forums. Some of these are perennials (concerts, usually) and we re-run them every year, as we have more time than shows. The local Humane Society puts their “Adoptable Pets” on a video that we run every day. Around election time, we have League of Women Voters’ forums of local candidates.
A few community members produce and contribute shows on a volunteer basis. Almost nothing is refused as long as the tape is not damaged and the content not questionable or commercial. Obviously, the quality of the contributions is quite variable. One I did myself was a trip down a creek in canoes with our local naturalist as a guide. Another was a butterfly tagging field trip.
In between shows and to fit odd time slots, we run community announcements, meeting agendas and show schedules.
I haven’t yet seen a crackpot staring at the camera and ranting for 30 minutes, but we did get a tape once of some high school kids goofing off, telling jokes. We aired it.
Especially Outdoors Maryland.
The quality and nuttiness of public access programming varies from place to place. Here in Cleveland, public access is the exclusive domain of urban churches. The nuts seem far more abundant in larger markets.
[QUOTE=elmwood]
The quality and nuttiness of public access programming varies from place to place. Here in Cleveland, public access is the exclusive domain of urban churches. The nuts seem far more abundant in larger markets.
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I’m gonna give you a big 10-4, Good Buddy!
The little watching I have done of the local CATV channel has been wannabe country music types, wannabe talk show hosts, or wannabe or has-been preachers.
There was one regularly recurring show that I tried to remember to watch that had some wannabe comics (a duo) doing some right raunchy comedy for a half hour or so. Bizarre stuff. I can’t say I saw those guys elsewhere, as in “successful” enough to get off CATV, but it was funny in that environment.
WFYI-tv in Indianapolis http://wfyi.org/indexTV.asp has some distinguished local programs. Across Indiana is a quirky series of pieces about unusual places and things.
For Gold And Glory was a brilliant special about a long-ago black auto racer.