Newark Mayor Cory Booker is ready for his closeup.
"I'm so glad to be here," Booker told a crowd gathered at the official launch of the state's first all-digital government access channel on Thursday. Then, Booker delivered jokes as if he was giving his best Jay Leno impersonation.
Putting the humor aside, he called the new television station constructed in Newark Symphony Hall a "bold ambitious vehicle" for the city's residents.
Newarkers subscribing to Cablevision, the city's cable franchise holder, will get programming on Channel 78, which will highlight city services and delivers city officials' messages. There is even a direct video feed from the mayor's office.
"We want to make better ways of making government more acceptable, more transparent, more connected," said the mayor.
As part of that effort, city officials already host "open office hours" in city neighborhoods to listen to constituents and operate a non-emergency call line -- (973) 733-4311. Booker also has a monthly radio show on WBGO 88.3 FM.
Plans for the television station took more than a decade to develop. While the city got the station as part of its franchise agreement with Cablevision in 1998, it did not then have the personnel to operate a facility.
Momentum picked up again after Booker's election in 2006. With an investment of almost $2 million from Cablevision, and more than $1 million in capital funds from the city, the studio was built in Symphony Hall, which is owned by the city. The building was once the home of UHF Channel 47 and the home of Channel 13 when it began as a commercial station in 1948.
The city's new station went on the air on Jan. 16, providing mostly community bulletin board news and no original programming. But officials said that is about to change.
Soraida Peres, a 20-year veteran cable television producer hired to manage the station, said the first actual program will likely be a broadcast of an upcoming city council meeting. The station also is to air next month's state of the city address, which Booker will give at Symphony Hall.
The studio's budget, still incomplete, will initially include about $482,000 collected from 2008 cable franchise fees, said Michelle Thomas, the city's acting business administrator. Until then, Peres will be paid at an hourly rate, under a three-month city contract that is not to exceed $17,000, said Desiree Peterkin Bell, the mayor's director of communications.
Newark has two other channels: Channel 19 is reserved for public access programming and is broadcast by Cablevision offices on Central Avenue, and Channel 77 is used by the Newark Public Schools. Its programming is provided by Essex County College and is broadcast from the college.
The addition of Channel 78 is expected to broaden the variety of public and community-based programming sponsored by the city, including ceremonies and speeches by public officials.
The station will be available by appointment for tours and will be used to provide internships for students interested in TV production careers, city officials said. Peres said she also saw opportunities for showcasing Symphony Hall, its programs, and history.
FTF of Warren, the general contractors, and city officials involved in the new TV station's construction stumbled on basement murals in the old theater and painted-over, art deco glass panels. The theater even has an old lighting panel that had been used in its original television studio.
"We'll probably polish it and keep it as a historical item," said Peres, as she stood in one of the new station's control rooms where videos can be stored as digital files. The equipment was installed by Tele-Measurement of Clifton.
Peres said the number of programs the station produces will depend on how much the city decides to use the facility and assured political campaigning won't creep in because it is prohibited under federal law.
Booker steered clear of plugging his 2010 re-election campaign during the station's launch, and clearly enjoyed the possibilities of city officials going on air. He joked that no one would be doing episodes of "The Biggest Loser" or "The Bachelor."
"The humor gets worse from here," he told a captive audience in the studio. "Please, where's that little button for applause?"