Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, September 4, 1994                   TAG: 9409060003
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-4   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY  
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: DUBLIN                                 LENGTH: Medium

NRCC TV GOES STATEWIDE FOR HOUR-LONG BROADCAST

"That's the cue for everybody to be kind of quiet, OK?"

The school's television studio in Martin Hall has been used to produce distance-learning videotapes, to record faculty lectures and for other audio-visual materials. But this hour-long broadcast on professional development last month was going to all 34 campuses of the state's 23 community colleges.

Only New River and Northern Virginia Community College have the capability to produce such a broadcast. For New River, it was a first, but the staff was moving calmly and professionally toward zero hour.

The staff members wear T-shirts with "Telecommunications Team" printed on the front, some with their ties hanging out over them. Occasionally, one will pluck a grape from a clear plastic pail perched at one end of the control panel.

Various participants, including Arnold Oliver, chancellor of Virginia's community college system, and Bernadette Black, professional development director, have been through makeup procedures - most applied by telecommunications team member Peggy Atkins - and await their turn before the cameras.

Paul Lee from Blue Ridge Community College, one of the few participants who has been part of a live broadcast before, emerges from the towel wrapped around his shoulders for the makeup application. He wonders aloud how people who work daily in television get used to doing this before each broadcast.

In his other broadcast, the graphic putting his name and title on the screen when he appeared showed him as being from Blue River Community College. When he got back to Blue Ridge, all his colleagues sang "Blue River" to him to the tune of "Moon River."

This time, the identification is correct.

Black is the anchor for the show, and has been shown where to look for her lines on the TelePrompTer. The scrolling script of the TelePrompTer is located next to the camera, so that people reading from it seem to be looking right into the lens and speaking from memory.

The entire script has been typed by Esther Phillips, who performs a similar service to caption studio tapes for people with hearing problems. "That's why she's so fast," says Tom Wilkinson, director of distance education and learning resources at New River.

Black has been full of praise for Melendez's professionalism and calmness in the center of the TV storm - even when he insists that she remove her intricate necklace to avoid reflection from studio lights.

"Crisp and pithy," she says, describing how the program is supposed to go. "Crisp and pithy."

Outside the studio, at one corner of the control panel, Atkins extends her arms out and shifts a bit in her chair.

"A minute 30," Melendez calls out 90 seconds before the broadcast goes live, as he stands outside the studio monitoring picture and sound on the long control panel. A question comes up about one of the microphones being used, and staff member Eric Brady slips into the studio to check it out. "Eric, you got a minute 15," Melendez says calmly.

Brady makes his check and gets out in time, and Melendez continues the countdown: "Thirty seconds. We're going to black. Stand by ... 20. Stand by in the studio. Fifteen. Ten, nine, eight, seven, six - roll tape - four, three, two, one. Tape is up. We're on the air."

The signal goes from Dublin to Poor Mountain near Roanoke where it is picked up by Blue Ridge Public Television, which is cooperating in the venture, and zapped to Virginia Tech where it is uplinked to a satellite in space and down to receiving stations at the various community colleges.

At New River, it is picked up in the Rooker Hall auditorium where faculty members hear Oliver talk about the most far-reaching professional development program ever attempted by a community college system in the United States. Pre-taped panels are patched into the live broadcasting, and an 800 telephone number allows questions to be put to Oliver from various community colleges.

An hour later, it is over, the tension is gone, and people are congratulating one another on a job well done.