WMPA TV

WMPA-TV is an all-volunteer, non-profit public access cable station in West Milton, Ohio USA. Founded in the late 1970s, this access station has served the villages of West Milton, Laura, Ludlow Falls, Potsdam and Union Township. It has offered a variety of programming over the years including several sporting events, school functions, church services, and the broadcasting of the West Milton Council Meetings.

Organization

WMPA is funded by the Municipality of West Milton via a percentage of the obtained franchise fees. It is governed by the Municipal Manager via an appointed Station Manager who oversees all day-to-day operations.

Website

WMPA-TV is beginning its expansion onto the Internet. Its community billboard, which displays local information when programing is not being broadcast on television, also creates and operates an interactive website using the same inputs. This Audience system by Capital Networks is the workhorse of the station. WMPA still considers its web version a beta and a domain has not yet been assigned to the station.

Controversy

WMPA-TV has aired many locally produced programs during its existence. Among the most controversial was the “Top 20 Countdown,” a show hosted and produced by Jim Studebaker and Thomas Beck and featuring comedy sketches and lip-synched music videos, all under the pretense of “entertainment.” One complaint generated against “Top 20 Countdown” was the supposed cooking of a live cat on an outdoor grill, which was in fact staged, not real. Another controversy involved cross-dressing, wherein Jim Studebaker dressed as a female and performed a lip-synch rendition of the “Shoop Shoop Song.” Comedy sketches targeting minorities, the elderly, the obese, the handicapped and local government officials were common.

“Top 20 Countdown” was shortened in length and renamed “Videomania” in mid-1989, when it was discovered that a 3 ½ hour show was just too long for most viewers to stomach. More emphasis was placed on comedy and less on lip-synched music videos.

An offshoot production titled “PumpTV” was launched in spring 1990 by John Studebaker and Erik Martin, and ran for exactly one episode.

All three shows borrowed material liberally from such television programs as “Laugh-In,” “Saturday Night Live,” "Benny Hill," "Late Night with David Letterman," and “Hee-Haw.”

External links

[http://70.60.152.235:50001/messageboard/] Beta Website