Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, February 23, 1992 TAG: 9202200288
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: E-10 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DAVID M. POOLE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: COLLINSVILLE LENGTH: Medium
CABLE 6: LOCAL NEWS IN THE RAW
Cable 6 could not get enough of the "animal sacrifice" story.The TV station kept the issue alive for weeks, even after Henry County authorities had said there was nothing illegal about a man whose religion involves the sacrifice of sheep.
The news team needed a daily dose of footage. That's how they came up with the idea of spicing things up with clips from the "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre."
Welcome to Cable 6 - where small-town happenings are redefined by tabloid TV.
Cable 6 doesn't blink when it comes to the bizarre, sensational and sexy.
Owner Charles Roark says his station is more than "flash and trash." It runs a traditional news show each afternoon and even plays tapes of gavel-to- gavel public meetings.
Cable 6 also airs stories on routine occurences - broken water mains, barroom brawls and chimney flue fires - that often escape the notice of The Martinsville Bulletin.
Through the magic of videotape, Cable 6 can make a fender-bender appear important. Flashing police lights reflected in broken glass on the highway. A victim holding her head. An ambulance pulling away.
The tape is compelling - even if nothing of real news value happened.
David Hungate, director of technical operations at Cable 6, said it took him a while to adjust to the station's threshold for news after working as a TV cameraman in Washington, D.C.
"In D.C., unless five are dead, don't even break out your camera. And here, a minor accident is news - and rightfully so," Hungate said.
The novelty of local TV works to Cable 6's advantage when covering crime news. Witnesses and victims rarely turn down the chance to appear on the tube.
One man whose house was damaged by a chimney fire told Cable 6 that because he didn't have homeowners insurance, he was planning to tell police he did not start the fire.
"That's the nice thing about this town," Hungate said. "You can do pretty much anything you want. People don't know they can tell you to go to hell."
Cable 6 gets much of its late-night crime and accident footage from Bob Sharp, a former deputy sheriff and erstwhile private detective.
Sharp says his biggest scoop was uncovering a gang - known as 8-0-8 - that is behind much of the crime and violence in the west-end of Martinsville.
"Without Cable 6, you wouldn't know there's a gang in Martinsville," said Sharp, who also hosts a crime show.
The Bulletin has ignored the 8-0-8 story, and police chief T.L. Roop says that his officers could find no evidence of organized "gang" activity.
"I think Channel 6 has gone overboard on the thing. They take a camera out on the streets and put it in the face of people who will say anything to get on TV."
Cable 6 has received complaints that its news coverage is racist because it focuses largely on crimes committed by blacks.
Roark responded with a special on the birthday of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and public service programs for Black History Month.
But the station loves the bizarre, as it showed in the way it handled the story of a Henry County man who sacrifices sheep in religious rituals. Unsubstantiated allegations that the man used a chain saw to dismember animals made the story even more irresistible.
Unable to capture the man on videotape, Sharp and Roark came up with the idea of using footage from "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre."
News anchor Craig Corbin, whose news standards are more traditional, suggested running the idea by the station's attorney.
"Our attorney said we couldn't do it," Roark said.
There are few other examples of restraint at Cable 6. After all, it aired tape of a man exposing himself to a Cable 6 cameraman. The man's private parts were blocked out, but the tape caused a stir.
"That's what I like working for Charles," Sharp said. "He says, `It happened, didn't it? Let's put it on!' "