Gay Community Gets Some Good News for a Change : All-volunteer ‘Spectrum’ public access cable program joins the ‘Front Line of the Battle’ for gay and lesbian rights in Orange County

Orange County, land of contrasts.

Somehow, the place that gave the world such high-profile foes of gay rights as the Rev. Lou Sheldon and Rep. William E. Dannemeyer (R-Fullerton) also has spawned two iconoclastic TV programs with a gay/lesbian focus.

“Secret Passions,” a gay-themed soap opera produced and set in Orange County, gained an avalanche of publicity and a certain measure of notoriety even before its pilot episode was seen earlier this year. In the meantime, “Spectrum News,” a locally produced, all-volunteer news show with an eye on gay and lesbian issues, has been plugging away quietly in the background.

While episodes two and three of “Secret Passions” have been promised but have yet to be seen, 21 editions of “Spectrum News” have been carried by public access channels that make the show available to almost 400,000 homes in Orange County alone. (New programs are produced every two weeks and are shown with varying frequency in different markets. See box on next page.) Co-producer K. Bradley Hudson says that while Los Angeles, San Francisco and other cities have gay-oriented public affairs programs, only New York City has a similar newscast.

“Spectrum” has grown from a technically primitive 10-minute pilot to a regular half-hour show with a staff of 16, splashy graphic effects, TelePrompTers and an ever-more-polished format. The program copies the style of a traditional TV newscast, right down to the rehearsed banter between the anchors.

But “Spectrum’s” content is anything but conventional as it focuses on issues that, according to Hudson, commonly are shortchanged in the mainstream media. “They definitely don’t devote the time to (gay issues) that we can,” Hudson says.

Hudson says he hopes that the show will help educate the general public, but its prime target audience is gays and lesbians. A regular segment will be added soon highlighting the latest in AIDS and HIV treatments and testing, for example. “We just want to get that information out, since we have an audience that is directly affected by the epidemic,” Hudson says.

“We often refer to Orange County as the front line of the battle for gay and lesbian rights. If we can win in Orange County, we can win anywhere,” says local civil rights attorney John Duran, whose commentary is featured regularly on “Spectrum News.” “I think it’s appropriate that (a gay-oriented TV-news show) started here and not in L.A. or San Francisco.”

“I think that the best thing that ‘Spectrum News’ has done is provide a community forum,” says Kevin Farrell, co-chairperson of the Orange County Visibility League, a gay rights group. Farrell notes that Orange County does not have a gay and lesbian publication of its own and has had to rely on newspapers published in San Diego and Los Angeles.

Farrell adds that awareness of “Spectrum News” among the county’s gay community is growing, despite the failure of most television guides to list public access programs. “I think they’ve made tremendous strides,” he says.

“Spectrum News” got its start just about a year ago when the Gay and Lesbian Center of Orange County decided to put together a one-hour program, to be called “Pride Network,” with 10-minute segments produced by different people. Hudson, a coin grader who had some camera and editing instruction from Saddleback College, agreed to take on the news segment--”having no idea,” he says now, “what producing was or the time it would take.”

Hudson and a crew of four finished their 10 minutes in May, but several of the other segments were not completed on time and “Pride Network” never quite got off the ground. “It seemed to us at that point,” says Hudson, “that we needed to break off on our own.”

The first half-hour “Spectrum News” show was completed at the end of June; new editions were produced sporadically every three to four weeks with a revolving cast of largely inexperienced anchors, reporters and crews. The show was and still is taped at Santa Ana public access station KYOU, which offers technical assistance, equipment and studio space and time.

Learning on the job, Hudson and his staff gradually polished the look of “Spectrum News” and honed their own news skills. A purchasing agent named Gerald Larson signed on as a cameraman, became more and more involved and began co-producing with Hudson.

In January, Hudson and Larson decided to make an all-out effort to upgrade the show’s quality. They established a regular production schedule, and stabilized the on-air lineup of co-anchors Joseph Amster and Vicki Zimmerman (he works in an artists’ supply shop, she is a public information officer at Orange Coast College), attorney Duran and Randy Pesqueira, an AIDS Services Foundation employee who offers an entertainment report, usually a movie or video review.

The program has become a mix of local and national news stories, interviews, features and bulletin-board-style announcements of programs and events. One series spotlighted a lesbian couple raising a child; another featured an extended interview with a Villa Park doctor who was arrested for peddling an allegedly phony AIDS cure. A new feature, “Out Front” by field producer Judy Miller, spotlights prominent gays and lesbians in the community.

“Spectrum” has taken its cameras into the field for news reports. The Measure N vote in Irvine last November, which deprived homosexuals of protection under the city’s human rights ordinance, “was basically an all-nighter for us,” Hudson says.

In April, Hudson and Larson traveled to Chicago to cover national AIDS demonstrations. While taping the protests, which drew 10 Orange County activists, the newsmen were arrested when they got caught between two converging police lines.

On May 1, “Spectrum” had the only news crew on hand when activists from a group called Stop AIDS Now took over the INS building in Los Angeles to protest immigration policies involving people with AIDS. Three Los Angeles TV stations bought the footage and showed it on their own newscasts.

Unlike most news shows, which are broadcast live, “Spectrum” is taped on alternating Wednesday nights and field reports are edited in during post-production. Anchors may go through several takes of a story, especially when Hudson is working in some new technical wrinkle. At one recent taping, TelePrompTers were the addition of the day. Anchors and commentators used to read from their notes, their eyes shifting constantly. But now they could read confidently into the camera, just like the pros.

That raised a new question, though: On the longer stories, should they stare into the lens the whole time, or pretend to look at nonexistent notes once in a while? “I don’t know. Does Bree look at her notes?,” Amster wondered aloud. “Does Tritia?”

“Brad,” Zimmerman said later, “always adds a new challenge.”

Having nurtured “Spectrum News” through its first year, Hudson is ready to spread some of the financial and creative responsibility around. He says he has spent about $5,000 of his own money while Larson and an earlier co-producer, Kathy Gill, have chipped in about $1,000 each. Hudson and Larson also spend about 50 hours a week working on the show, on top of their regular jobs.

For a while, Hudson says, he and Larson were too busy producing the shows to worry about raising money, but now he and especially Larson are working to line up backers. A few weeks back, “Spectrum News” aired its first program with a paid sponsor (a local bar). A subsequent edition was partly underwritten by the local AIDS Response Program.

Even with the free studio space and assistance from KYOU, each episode requires about $750 worth of tapes and other supplies. Sponsors are being asked for $250 each.

Hudson and Larson aren’t letting money worries slow them down, though. On the contrary, they are planning to go on the air weekly and already are expanding the show beyond its Orange County base. It now can be seen in Ontario, Upland and Montclair, and starting in June it will be shown in Pomona.

“It really is exciting,” says Bill Gordon of the Pomona-San Gabriel Valley Gay and Lesbian Coalition, who works on the “Spectrum” crew. “I don’t think there’s anything out there quite like it.”

Hudson says he’s had some feelers from San Diego and Hollywood. His goal is to train volunteers in each potential new market so they can produce their own segments for the show. “Some kind of national network is possible,” Larson says.

Meanwhile, though, the focus remains here in Orange County. While some cities have gay and lesbian quarters, the local gay population tends to be spread out.

“We don’t have a Castro Street like San Francisco,” notes Duran. “We don’t have a West Hollywood like Los Angeles.” Beyond that, the local gay community spans a wide philosophical spectrum, from the conservative Log Cabin Club to the militantly activist Visibility League. Larson believes that television can be an effective tool for bringing cohesiveness to such a geographically and politically splintered group.

“Orange County’s big, and there are a lot of people out there who are not connected to the community,” Larson says. “They can tune in this show and immediately plug into what’s happening.”

“SPECTRUM NEWS” TIMES AND CHANNELS

Cable Company Cities Day/Times Channel

Dimension Most of South Mondays, 9:30 p.m. 3 Orange County Multivision Anaheim, Villa Park Mondays, 6 p.m. 22 Copley-Colony Costa Mesa Mondays, 5:30 p.m. 61 Comcast Buena Park Mondays, Fridays, 55 8:30 p.m. Comcast Placentia, Fullerton Mondays, Fridays, 51 8:30 p.m. Cablevision of Orange Mondays, 9 p.m. 21 Orange Comcast-KYOU Santa Ana Tuesdays, 5 p.m.; 26 Thursdays, 7:30 p.m. Community Irvine 1st and 3rd 3 Cable Wednesdays, 3:30 p.m. Paragon Huntington Beach, Mondays, 3:30 p.m. 30 Garden Grove,Westminster, Stanton, Fountain Valley, Midway City, parts of Los Alamitos and Cypress

(New editions of “Spectrum News” are produced every two weeks).