Public affairs TV to shift its focus

By Adam Wilson | The Olympian • Published April 28, 2008

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TVW acts as a live record of state decision-making, with three mobile van crews and 39 robotic cameras tracking legislative hearings, state Supreme Court arguments and gubernatorial news conferences.

Greg Lane, who takes over the station this week, says that's the first part of the station's mission.

"The second part of the mission is to really engage the public, to get them to participate in the process. And that's where we want to shift the focus," he said.

Lane, a 41-year-old Olympia resident, will be the third president of the station, which began operation in 1993. The board of directors announced its choice this month after a national search that began in October.

"I think it's a terrific choice. I worked with Greg back in the House of Representatives. He's talented; he cares deeply about the process. He will be focused on how TVW really connects people to their government," said Cindy Zehnder.

Now Democratic Gov. Chris Gregoire's chief of staff, Zehnder was TVW's previous director. The first station director, Denny Heck, had similar credentials as former Democratic Gov. Booth Gardner's chief of staff.

'Great communicator'

But TVW is a nonpartisan operation. Lane is leaving his job as Republican Attorney General Rob McKenna's deputy chief of staff to take over. Prior to that he worked as McKenna's spokesman, and as a communications director for Republicans in the Legislature.

"Greg is someone who is a great communicator, he understands how to communicate a message. He's done it his whole career," said Faith Ireland, a former state Supreme Court justice, and now chairwoman of the TVW board.

"He also understands the Olympia political scene very well, havening lived in Olympia all his life," she added.

The station is not a state agency. It's a nonprofit organization dependent in large part on a contract with the Legislature that averages $2.5 million a year. But it also is carried for free by the state's cable television companies — a service worth $11 million.

The station also engages in fundraising. It rounded up more than $3 million to match a $3 million appropriation from the Legislature to fund its new headquarters along Capitol Way near the Legislative Building. The move included a switch to digital technology that Zehnder says will be her successor's greatest challenge.

"In terms of the quality of production, we have the capacity now at TVW to do so much more. Harnessing the creativity of the crew there and raising the quality is one of the challenges that Greg and his staff face," she said.

Lane says he wants to expand programming, as well as enhance the already considerable resources of the station online. TVW recently began recording video of most legislative committee meetings. Even if the meetings were not broadcast on television, they are made available on the station's Web site.

Keeping up with those opportunities also will take a lot of work, predicted Ireland.

"Those kinds of things take time and cost money. So I am sure we will always be on the hunt," she said.