CORRECTION APPENDED (SEE BELOW)BTV:65, the student television station that has been without original programming since the beginning of the academic year, will begin airing new episodes of its news program next month, according to the station's leaders.

The amount of training and time-commitment involved in broadcasting has made it difficult to recruit the necessary crew for the station to start programming earlier, said Avi Swerdlow '10, the executive producer and director of BTV News, the station's original news broadcast that was formerly called the Beat. Swerdlow, who said he has been busy training potential board members, is running to be BTV's president.

"It's really hard for BTV to encourage new members to come in," he said, adding that the group lacked an adequate studio until recently. "Hence, the organization just fell into a black hole."

The station, which this year has been allocated $18,200 of the Student Activities Fee, has been under scrutiny for not producing and airing original content as it has in the past. BTV's cable channel ran dark until November, when the station began using Internet Protocol Television and restored its broadcast on its cable channel. BTV leaders attributed the delay to technical problems in shifting to an IPTV broadcast.

"An impression has been created that BTV is a useless club that doesn't get anything done," Swerdlow said. "We have to remove this impression, which is very difficult."

BTV President Ari Schnitzer '07 told the Justice editorial board in mid-November that the Beat would be broadcast by Thanksgiving.

Instead of airing what they said would be substandard programming this academic year, BTV leaders said they chose to work on training the next generation of BTV staff members.

"If people switch on their TV and see bad programming, they're going to turn it right back off, and that's not what I want," Swerdlow said. "If people see blank screens on BTV, they're just getting no impression, instead of a bad one."

That's why, Swerdlow said, he spent last semester recruiting and training "so that we can get the organization going again."

Also this semester, BTV struck a deal with Library and Technology Services to use their studio in Farber Library, a larger and more professionally-equipped space than their former Ziv Commons studio. The station moved into Ziv Commons in spring 2005 because club leaders said it would allow them greater flexibility in when they could shoot.

A new partnership with Open Student Television Network, a network of college television stations, will allow BTV to broadcast other stations' programs. BTV will also submit its programming for broadcast elsewhere.

The OSTN content will be on the air within the next two weeks, Swerdlow said.

Swerdlow said that BTV's first major aim is to restart its 15-minute news broadcast, now called BTV News, because it offers good training opportunities for members without broadcast experience. He said its first episode will be filmed February 10 and will be aired shortly after.

A sketch comedy show is also in the works, Swerdlow said. And the station is considering bringing back Sex and the Suburbs, a live call-in show about sex and relationships.

"[BTV leaders] are putting a great deal of effort into the station's programming status," said Tim O'Neil, the assistant director of Media and Technology Services who worked with BTV on their transition to IPTV and on the studio deal.

"Even though we are starting from step one, it's really exciting to think about all the things we have the capability to accomplish over the next months," BTV News Producer Eva Cataldo '10 said.


This article originally stated BTV was granted $28,000 of SAF money. The club actually was allocated $18,200.