In search of national exposure

Cable show to film a segment locally

Crescent City will soon light up the small screen.

Local filming for a segment of  “Today in America,” a syndicated half-hour show hosted by football legend Terry Bradshaw, is slated for January and the piece will air 20 times this spring on Fox, ESPN and CNN.

“The hook, as it were, is that we have to cover the production costs for the five-minute piece,” said Bill Renfroe, Executive Director for the Tri-Agency Economic Development Authority.

The Tri-Agency allotted as much as $7,000 to fund the $19,800 enterprise.

“But we may not need that depending on how much other people kick in the bucket,” Renfroe said.

Other supporters thus far include the City of Crescent City for $3,000 and Del Norte County for another $3,000. Trees of Mystery has pledged $5,000, the Visitors Bureau will contribute $500, and the Harbor District might kick in up to $1,000, pending board approval. Elk Valley Rancheria and the Chamber of Commerce are also on the list of potential sponsors.

“The focus of the piece is going to be primarily economic development. What I hope to get out of that is to have people across the United States become aware of our community and to look at the potential for relocating or starting a business here,” Renfroe said.

“It really is like purchasing an ad, but getting it for better rates.” Lindsley Smith, communications director for the city of Fayetteville, Ark., told the Triplicate.

Fayetteville was the subject of a “Today in America” spot last year and Smith spearheaded the project.

“Everyone was really happy with the final product,” she said.

“Everyone,” in this case, being the city and local businesses, which use the clip as an online marketing tool to encourage tourism and development.  

The script for Crescent City’s spot will come by way of Renfroe, City Manager Eugene Palazzo, County Administrative Officer Jay Sarina, Mayor Charles Slert and Housing Authority Director Megan Miller.

“There’s going to be four individuals in the community that they will interview. We are still working on narrowing down who that would be,” Palazzo said,  “We have 300 seconds to do this, so that will be a challenge. It’s like telling our elevator story to the nation.”

The “Today in America” website brands the program as educational; a thinking person’s alternative to “shock television and outrageous reality shows,” that “stands apart from this fad and plunges into the heart of mainstream America.”

The website goes on to explain: “It’s a national television show that has no direct affiliation with the networks on which it airs. Airtime is purchased through cable providers, networks/stations and/or other media sellers.”

Thus far the show’s subjects have been mostly corporations: a plastic component manufacturer, a trampoline maker, a mineral exploration company, a software developer, to name a few.  

The show’s parent company, United States Media Television Production, also produces “Inside Business Review” with Fred Thompson, “The Art of Living” with Marilu Henner, and “Going Green” with Ward Burton. The model for all the shows is similar: Clients pay for production and devise a script; a celebrity narrates that script over a professionally produced segment that airs in regional spots on national networks selected by the client, who retains all rights to the materials.

“We may get half a million or three quarters of a million people seeing this air,” Palazzo said.

And while you might spy a cameraman and a producer poking around Crescent City come January, pro football hall of famer Terry Bradshaw won’t make the trip. His hosting duties are confined to the show’s Florida studio.