On Saturday, Oct. 15, at 12:01 a.m., a satellite feed made its way from Lee Highway to New York City, and from there to the rest of the nation. On that night, for the first time, Merrifield-based MHz Networks made its mix of local and international programming available nationwide.
"[The new channel] was a response to the number of people that have phoned us over last several years, who have moved out and want to know where they can get MHz when they are in Houston or wherever," said Fred Thomas, executive vice president and general manager of MHz Networks. "Now they can."
The new national channel, MHz Worldview, goes first to the New York offices of GlobeCast WorldTV, a satellite service provider for international programming, said Thomas. The channel's first show is a four-hour block of various Indian shows, some made locally and others internationally, he said. Because MHz has to get rights to their other shows cleared before they air them nationally, they will play the four-hour "Indian window" in a loop until, gradually, other programs are added.
"Basically, we're in baby steps right now," said producer Heather Skipper. "We're looking to grow this out, genre by genre, every month."
THE NEXT PROGRAM MHz will add to the national channel will likely be an international news show, said Skipper, followed by anything from mysteries to European drama to shows from Africa.
"This has been the evolution to what we wanted to do from the get-go, to be honest," said Thomas. "We've had a long way to go to get to the point where we could assemble something good enough to go national."
MHz is a noncommercial network, which means it has to be creative in getting and using funds, said Thomas. "We had to be very frugal and smart, and build this thing within our means," he said.
The network, one of only a handful of independent public television stations in the U.S., has taken a much more international flavor under Thomas’ guidance. Local viewers can see unedited news and cultural programs from Asia, Europe and South America. MHz puts together its own shows as well, examining local issues with multicultural focus.
"It's all subtitled in English so that everyone can watch and get a better understanding of what is going on in the world," said Thomas.
The Merrifield area is a heavily international community, said producer Debbie Brodsky, and its residents are receptive to an international television station. She particularly likes a short program called "WorldView," where local residents tell funny or touching stories about themselves and their lives in one- to two-minute segments that air between the longer programs. For the national channel, "WorldView" will be packaged into 12-minute blocks as its own show, said Brodsky.
This focus on the personal aspects of international events informs the network's whole image, said art director Jasmina Mathieu.
"We're not superficial. We're really interested in close-ups, in wrinkles. We're not interested in polished news," said Mathieu. She redesigned the visual face of the network, creating network ID's for the national channel which she wanted to reflect the complex cross-cultural mix of MHz's shows.
"The idea really is that our programming is very diverse and very rich," said Mathieu, who came to the U.S. from Paris six years ago. "The look is textures and rich colors, all packaged into something very clean."
"I just think we're at that point where the stuff we're doing — and we've been doing it a long time — seems to be working with a really strong interest in learning more about the world post-9-11," said Thomas.
"It's a very positive message," said Mathieu. "We're interested in showing the positive aspect of the [international] newscast, concentrating on people's stories."
The night the national channel arrived on the air was a busy one.
"Whatever you allocate to a specific project, you have to double what you think you need," said producer Penina Motro, who helped get the first national feed to New York Friday night. "Very rarely do things go smoothly."
But that night inspired a camaraderie between employees, she said, who all had to work together to meet the midnight deadline.
"You overcome being hungry and tired," said Motro. "It was very gratifying at 12:05 [Saturday morning] to see what you worked for, to see that it was actually happening."
"And it’s all coming out of beautiful downtown Merrifield," said Thomas.