International TV Assn Produces Ham Radio PSA

ITVA PRODUCES YOUTH-ORIENTED AMATEUR RADIO TV SPOT

The San Francisco Chapter of the International Television Association has produced a 30-second TV public service announcement designed to assist the amateur community in recruiting more young people to the hobby. Copies of the TV spot are being made available to Amateur Radio clubs for distribution to local television outlets at nominal cost.

The ITVA Amateur Radio spot aims for youth appeal.

Each year ITVA volunteers produce a public service announcement for a charitable or nonprofit organization. This year, they focused on Amateur Radio.

ITVA President Ken Alan, K6PSI, said he'd been hearing about the need to recruit "new blood" into ham radio, "so I suggested it to the PSA committee, and everyone loved the idea." ITVA recruited several San Francisco Bay area hams to consult on the development of the story line for the 30-second spot.

Spot producer Michelle Brown said ITVA "focused on the message on the two concepts that most appeal to that demographic: high technology and disaster preparedness."

Alan says the producers "wanted to show young people using H-Ts for socializing and in a disaster scenario." Referring to the "high tech world of Amateur Radio" and using rock music in the background, the announcement points out that hams can talk to people all over the world. The spot also depicts a simulated earthquake or explosion, where the things start to shake, lights flicker and go out and there's a cry for help. The young, female ham grabs her H-T to call for assistance.

The visual backdrop for local clubs to provide their contact information. [TV screen grabs courtesy of ITVA]

The spot concludes with an invitation to "find out more about amateur radio" and provides a 10-second visual backdrop for a local sponsoring club to superimpose its name and contact information. The whole idea, Alan told ARRL, was to steer clear of ham radio stereotypes and "just show the hobby as contemporary, high-tech and fun."

A Quicktime movie of the PSA can be viewed at the ITVA Web site. Amateur Radio organizations may order a professional Betacam copy to be used in their television markets at $20--which covers the cost of tapes, duplication, and shipping.--ITVA

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