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OLA restores Out Front GLBT - TV shows
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Submitted by Michael Chanak on July 10, 2006 - 4:11pm.
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Some 100-studio master videotapes from Out Front GLBT TV line the floor of my bedroom and the mess spills over onto a kitchen table where the memories of 5 years of volunteer effort rest. Out Front was the last “gay show” on Warner and then Storer Cable in Northern, Kentucky to air in the Greater Cincinnati area.
Out Front aired from February 1989 to its conclusion in 1994 and was the first program of its kind to air in Northern Kentucky. Unlike GCN – Out Front generated all of its own content. Out Front, like GCN had a number of producers: Steve Hemker, Jimmy Price and Michael Chanak, Cynthia Brown, Tom Hunt Brooks and finally Dr. John A. Maddux. All the history of Out Front years and its hundreds of guests and events is documented on 50 hours of videotape couldn’t be viewed by members of the community due to the tape format. So, the tapes were turned over to the Ohio Lesbian Archives in 1994 where they stayed undisturbed until June 2006. But new life for aging videotapes appears to be one benefit the community will see as the OLA moves from Crazy Ladies Bookstore in Northside to the Clifton United Methodist Church at the corner of Senator and Clifton Avenue. Thanks to Vic Ramstetter of the OLA a ¾ inch videocassette player was located and a gigantic project was born to transfer each show onto a separate DVD. Most of the videotape held up well – and the entire transfer process should be done in time for the groups grand reopening in October. Out Front was primarily a news program featuring interviews and editorials from a wide range of GLBT folks (and straight allies) reflecting the diversity and the history of the community, In October contact Ohio Lesbian Archives to make a time to view the DVD’s. This rich archive covers Pride events, the Mapplethorpe exhibition, the forming of the Community Center, the Human Rights Ordinance, and most likely every GLBT supportive group of the era. |
Out Front GLBT TV was the not the first “gay volunteer” show on the local cable company public access, that distinction goes to GCN – Gay Cable Network Cincinnati. Roger Eikenberry and Mark Bailey brought the show (part of GCN New York) to Cincinnati in 1985. GCN Cincinnati continued until its close in December 1988 when it was led by Mike Leamon. 
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