#5, April 3, 2003

ATN NewsNotes

Editor:  Kandus Thorp, Assistant to the Director, Adventist Television Network

The ATN–Romania story began nearly a year ago when the Romanian Church gained permission to air their own satellite evangelistic series with speaker Pr Lucian Cristescu on national TV.  The television series was well received, with excellent responses from all across the country.  This positive experience led to the opportunity to begin producing a daily program in June, 2002. 

With very limited media equipment, financial resources and small staff, this media team pushed ahead through daunting circumstances.  They wouldn’t take “no” or “impossible” for an answer, but rather took advantage of every opportunity opened to them.  The Lord has honored their dedication, commitment and faith, with amazing results.

The following inspiring report from Pr Adrian Bocaneanu, President of the Romanian Union, is fascinating, especially to all those interested in developing a media centre and broadcasting Adventist programming on local television in their own country. 

REPORT FROM ROMANIA

Pastor Bocaneanu writes:  At this very moment as I write I am watching a very significant event for us: our program, taped a few days ago, is sent from our studio to the up-link station and from there to the satellite. A few weeks ago Mr Prigoana, the owner of the TV station, proposed equipping us for live broadcast.  In a few days a connection on optical fiber was in place. Today the transition from the regular programming of the TV station to our program and back to theirs went smoothly. Tomorrow we will take the big step to live broadcasting, which will improve our program by allowing viewers to call, e-mail, and even discuss with guests. The first to have this opportunity will be either the Communication Secretary of the Romanian government or the chairman of the National Authority for Audiovisual.

You are for sure eager to know the financial arrangement for this development. We paid in advance to the station the transmission fees for the next four months, and he invested this money to equip us for live broadcast. And, as if this were not enough, he gave us for free the remaining three months plus (up to one full year of daily broadcast).

Let me begin with a report of our programs on this station. The TV station is Realitatea TV, one of the most appreciated stations in the country. Designed as news television, it runs news report every hour and at prime time every 30 minutes. The remaining time consists of analyses, commentaries and interviews. The station has a distinct market--the young-to-mid age professional--and is one of the three most-viewed stations in urban homes. The owner of the station is eager to see us succeed and treats us with special respect and care. In short, having in mind the nature of our programming and our target audience, this station is the best vehicle we could find in the Romanian TV landscape.

The first program, “Life at the Superlative,” was launched in June last year as a weekly program which is openly religious. About forty of the 45-minute programs have been produced since June. They consist of 15 to 17 minutes of local production followed by a program from Adventist Media Productions.  Often we use “It Is Written” with Pastor Finley.  Presently we have Dwight Nelson with his excellent series “Evidence.” These AMP productions are subtitled, which is still the preferred style of translation here in Romania.

On June 9, 2002, we started another 45-minute program, “In the Center of Attention,” on the same station.  It is produced five times a week, Monday through Friday. The air time varied from 4:15 PM to 7:15 PM, and it now airs at 6:00 PM. We are very satisfied with this time, which also means expansion to a 60-minute production.

The program is produced in the filming studio of the church, provisionally located in the executive meeting rooms of the new Romanian Union office.  Production is done in the basement. The system is working in DVCam, using three Sony DSR 370 cameras, and one Sony DSR 200, two VTR Sony DSR 80, one three-cameras live production unit, one non-linear editing system Media 100 on a Mac G 4 dual. The filming studio lights are produced by Ianiro.

TREMENDOUS ACCOMPLISHMENTS OF THE DAILY PROGRAM

The daily program was launched at the invitation of the TV station where we had been already for three month with weekly broadcasts. We accepted the invitation in spite of high costs in work and finances as well as our relative lack of experience.

As to format, with our limited human and financial resources the only option is that of interviewing personalities and occasional talk-shows. Up to now we were able to add little pre-production in the program.

For the period 2001-2005 the Romanian Union has selected four areas of strategic importance; one of them is to enhance the public visibility and credibility of the church. This opportunity to have a regular presence on a major TV channel is a providential way to fulfill this objective, in many different ways:

• As a rule the interviews touch subjects of significance for the Adventist ethos, such as human rights and religious freedom, health education, education, and youth matters, thus raising public awareness on such issues;

• At times of high religious interest (Easter, Christmas, etc.) we are able to address them in a way that is germane to our biblical understanding;

• At times of public interest in social/religious issues with a spiritual significance, we have the opportunity to present in a sensible way our message (e.g. predictions of apocalyptic events, the meaning of Revelation, the zodiac, globalization, abortion, cloning, war, etc.);

• Many Adventist personalities and institutions both from Romania and abroad have been featured in the programs so far--at least one every week;

• The filming studio’s location in the Adventist headquarters gives the most natural way to speak to very important people about the role of the Adventist church in the religious and the social arena of the country.  Often guests are surprised and a little upset to learn they are in such a place, only to radically change their opinions about the church and to express vividly their admiration for the program and for a church that sponsors it. More than that, they promote the program in their circles and suggest other guests to be invited.

Looking back after about 120 editions of the daily program we recognize several developments:

• The leadership and the members of the church grow in their interest and ability to address issues of interest to the society at large;

• Many public personalities of Romania have an improved picture of the Adventist church;

• This program becomes more and more the preferred venue for serious discussions on moral and spiritual issues. Many serious, thinking people admitted to us that they have decided not to show up any longer on TV due to the prevailing vulgarity and lack of professionalism of the program hosts; however they always respond to our invitation and actually feel very honored by this;

• The program has forged excellent relations with authorities and key government leaders;

• The general public is educated on the moral and spiritual values we stand for as a church;

• Adventist personalities and institutions become well known and appreciated in the public.

As mentioned, the station is specially appreciated by urban, educated, fast-paced young people. Our program has an average rating among urban viewers of 12-14%, with occasional peaks of 20%.  This is also a good platform for running ads. Soon the first important contract will be signed. The goal is to cover the transmission fees based on revenues from ads.

PERSONALITIES SEEN IN OUR PROGRAMS

• Key members of the Romanian government: Education Secretary (two times), Health Secretary (two times), Culture and Religion Secretary (several times), State Secretary for European Integration and several deputy secretaries. Lined up are other members of the government, including the Foreign Affairs Secretary, Justice Minister, Communication secretary, etc.;

• Leaders and representatives of other national authorities and agencies: the Romanian Ombudsman, the president for the National Commission for Consumers’ Protection, chair of the Institute of Public health, member of the National Council for Audiovisual, chair of the Romanian Spatial Agency (the only Romanian astronaut), chair of the Romanian Federation of NGOs active in child protection, and many others; lined up is the chair of the National Council for Audiovisual and others;

• Members of the Romanian Parliament--about ten, some of them chairs of main political parties and of parliamentary commissions;

• Members of the Romanian Academy of Arts and Sciences--four leading members, including the president;

• President of the Romanian State Radio, Mr Dragos Seuleanu (he was raised an Adventist);

• Former Romanian president, Dr Emil Constantinescu;

• Representatives of civic organizations and foundations;

• Leading writers, artists and film makers;

• Representatives of important humanitarian organizations, including the executive director for World Vision Romania;

• Representatives of foreign embassies, including H. E. Sandu Mazor, Israeli Ambassador in Romania. The ambassadors of USA, U.K. and France are lined up for the next two weeks, as well as the European Union ambassador in Romania, H. E. Jonathan Scheele. Also lined up are Romanian ambassadors to USA, Spain, France and Israel.

Leading representatives of religious life, other than Adventists, have been featured, including:

·         Metropolitan Nicolae of Banat, a very devout Christian, highly respected for his moral uprightness;

·         Representatives of the United Bible Societies, Europe;

·          Lined up are the president of the Baptist Union in Romania, Dr Paul Negrut and the president of the Pentecostal Union in Romania, Pavel Rivis Tipei.

Many Adventists have also been featured in these programs, such as:

• General Conference and General Conference institutions representatives: John Graz, Ray Dabrowski, Jonathan Gallagher, Richard Stenbakken, Mitchell Tyner, Brad Thorp; Jon Paulien, etc.

• Representatives of Euro-Africa Division and European Unions: Ulrich Frikart, Carlos Puyol, Lucio Altin, Dora Bognandi, etc.;

• Representatives of North-American church institutions: Ron Gladden, and others;

• Representatives of North-American humanitarian agencies working in Romania, such as Dr Jasmine Jacob (REACH) and Kent Greaves (ICC);

• Representatives of the Romanian church: Adrian Bocaneanu, Ion Buciuman, Viorel Dima, Lucian Cristescu; several professors from our Seminary, leading Adventist physicians, etc.

OTHER PRODUCTIONS

I mentioned already the weekly broadcast. Recently we have hired a young pastor to be the producer for this program, which is distinctly religious in nature.  Other options come now with the growing popularity of our two telecasts on Realitatea TV.

PAX TV recently began operating in Romania, and we hope we will be able to produce a weekly program regularly for them. Other stations would be willing to take our productions, but we can’t do more for TV.

We continue to produce, at a slower pace, the video bulletin for the Romanian Union. Now we will have full capabilities of uplinking it from our facility, thus saving a lot of work and money in duplicating up to 500 tapes and mailing them to different churches.

Different departments and church institutions from time to time need promotional and instructional video presentations.  The studio is also busy with duplicating tapes and DVDs with the recent evangelistic programs (2002 and 2003) and other materials requested by conferences or individual churches.

Up to now little was done to provide footage for ATN programs, but in the future this has to become a constant activity here. The possibility to send them to ATN via satellite should be explored.

THE LARGER PICTURE

As the activities become more and more complex, and encouraged by the perspective of increased fund generating, we envision a production center proper. There is space on the same property, behind the union office building, to build a production studio, with several sets, with adequate space for editing, duplication and shipping, etc. We are working now on drawings for this, and I will submit them to you soon.

With this investment, I consider our facility could easily become a regional center. We are surrounded by relatively small unions (Bulgaria, Moldova, Ukraine, two unions in former Yugoslavia, even Hungary). They could prepare their speakers and programs, then come here, tape the programs to be further edited, processed and uplinked/duplicated here. Travel is easy; we share a common culture and vision and would be happy to work with them.

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