The Tube : Veintesomething Video

Imagine a Chicano “Wayne’s World.” Subtract the idiocy, add some music and a certain yo no se que and you’ve only begun to catch on to “Illegal Interns.”

Produced by “four young Chicano minds” -- brothers Flavio, Efrain and Oscar Morales and their friend Richard Estrada -- it’s heavy on music -- rock, alternative, dance and rock en espanol -- and interviews with newsworthy artists, Latino and non. “We cover everything, ‘cause we like everything,” says Flavio, who co-hosts with Richard. “We pride ourselves in not narrowing our show. Otherwise we’d lose what we’re all about.”

“Illegal Interns” was born in 1990 when Flavio and Richard put on a public access show as interns (get it?) at Buena Vision Cable, which operates in and around East L.A. “We were given the opportunity to do an alternative music show and we ran away with it,” says Flavio. The other Morales brothers were soon on board, and they moved to the city’s newest TV station, the resolutely multiethnic KMET, Channel 38, where the show is broadcast every day from 5 to 5:30 p.m.

Between writing, hosting, producing and editing the show, keeping up with their various school responsibilities and looking for an agent, the Eastside quartet is feeling pretty ragged. “We’re starting to look tired,” admits Flavio.

They’re also feeling poor. Although they can use KMET’s production facilities for free, they don’t get paid and are in dire need of some dinero.

Flavio perks up, though, when he envisions what today’s hard work and sacrifice could well bring. “We’ll have season tickets to the Dodger games, a nice little production house crawling with kids--young interns and fresh minds--and we’ll be living off it.”