Columnist Susan Snyder: Program broadcasts good news

Friday, Aug. 15, 2003 | 4:44 a.m.

As the nation focused on what is arguably one of the silliest projects Arnold Schwarzenegger has undertaken, a few of us had a chance last week to see the results of one project the California goobernatorial aspirant performed well.

Hopefully, all Las Vegas Valley residents with access to network television will have the chance to see this project too.

A dozen teenagers on Wednesday unveiled two television public service announcements they wrote, produced and directed as junior broadcasters with the Greater Las Vegas Inner-City Games.

The Greater Las Vegas chapter is part of the national Inner-City Games Foundation. Schwarzenegger created the foundation in 1995 to support the increasing number of Games programs that grew from the original, founded in 1991 in Los Angeles.

Elaine Wynn and Clark County Commissioner Yvonne Atkinson Gates founded the Greater Las Vegas Inner-City Games chapter in 1995.

It started out as a sports program to give urban schoolchildren something healthy and constructive to do after class was dismissed and before their parents came home from work. That period from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. is one in which many children get into trouble, program officials say.

Many chapters, including our local one, now offer more than sports. So this year Games officials changed the program's name nationally and locally to After-School All-Stars.

Participants in the Greater Las Vegas After-School All-Stars dabble in music, art and chess in addition to soccer and tennis.

And its older teens can explore television and radio careers through the junior broadcasters program. For 12 weeks this summer, 12 high school students met twice a week and learned about the industry by visiting local radio and television stations and talking with telecommunications professors.

Then they split into two groups and crafted public service announcements that were distributed to local television stations Thursday.

One of the 30-second television spots promotes the Clark County READS literacy program. The other announces the Inner-City Games' name change. Both were created in English and Spanish versions.

Anais Melendez, a 16-year-old who will be a senior at Southern Nevada Vocational Technical Center this year, said she wrote the Spanish script for her group's ad about the county reading program. She is pursuing telecommunications studies at school and hopes to work behind the cameras in editing, producing and directing.

"This helped me. We got help and advice from people who actually know what they are doing," Melendez said, minutes before her work was aired at the Ice House restaurant and lounge in downtown Las Vegas on Wednesday.

The segments, taped at KINC-TV (Univision), are scheduled for release Sept. 8. They were distributed to KINC, KVBC Channel 3, KVVU Channel 5, KLAS Channel 8 and KTNV Channel 13. Call the stations to find out when they will air.

"I really didn't know what I wanted to do with my life, and now I know," Kelsey Dettman, one of Melendez's groups members, said. "I want to pursue a career in broadcasting."

Glad she's not after a newspaper gig.

I've seen the videos. TV folks better watch their backs.