How Do You Get on the Discovery Channel?

Anonym1ty asks: "My group of Amateur Radio Operators is planning a DX-Pedition in 2005 to an Island in Alaska. We are planning on operating a station for a few days to become the rare ham radio contact from the island. We already have sponsors, but we want to showcase this event and Ham Radio in some way to the public and were hoping to find some way to get PBS, The Discovery Channel or some other network to tag along with us and showcase what Amateur Radio is. In researching how to contact these I find a sea of red tape. The Discovery Channel Networks only take suggestions from scientists or production crews. PBS seems interested but the few stations I have actually received a response from seem to just mention how they have no budget. How do I find a production company and convince them this would be a good idea? It is important to note that we Ham Radio operators cannot make any money on this and any pecuniary gain would go to the production company."

Comments

Easy, DIY

[HuggybearVT]

Just film it yourself. Buy a digital video camera, get lots of footage, and edit a demo tape. If it's really that interesting, National Geographic, PBS, Discovery, or someone might buy it. They would likely reedit your footage with voiceovers, etc., but expecting them to foot the bill of sending a crew, etc. is a longshot.

You mentioned that Discovery is only interested in talking to Producers... there you go. Become a producer.

Re:Easy, DIY

[91degrees]

I'd agree more or less, but would suggest finding someone with a little training to produce a good quality documentry. There have to be plenty of budding producers who would love to get some decent experience, and will have the training to know what makes a good documentry.

I work in the Film Biz

[microcars]

but that does not mean I can produce your project :~/

heed the suggestions to either find a Production Company or Make this Yourself under the banner of a Production Company you create just for this.

The Discovery Channel only buys programming. They may enter into an agreement to co-sponsor something with a Production Company that has a track record with them, but you have nothing right now.

One of the best suggestions so far is to do the NPR thing, its really cheap (sound only) and you can possibly use this as leverage to get a Video Production Company onboard to do the filming.

However- the bad thing about being your own Production Company is that you have to find all the funding yourself and if you decide you can just make the Video yourself and you have no experience, you may end up with just an expensive home movie.
Your project will have to fit into a pre-determined format and time frame (under 60 minutes, probably under 30 and in reality, it may just end up being a 5 minute bit as part of a newsmagazine show.....).

I don't have any recommendations for Production Companies to go to though, watch the credits carefully on some shows and look for name of the Production Company who actually produced the piece. You will find the same ones listed again and again.

Paying for airtime on PBS

[Phronesis]

I don't know about commercial networks, but the biggest hurdle in getting something on PBS is not getting editorial interest, but raising the money to pay for the air time. It is very expensive to get a documentary aired on PBS and the money comes from the film production company, not from PBS's operating budget.

My uncle and aunt have a film production company that has made several documentaries that have aired on PBS and they tell me that the cost of airtime is a lot more than the cost of producing the movies.

The best way to get something on air on PBS is to find a way to raise money for the production and the air time. Ken Burns's approach to this, from what I hear, is that he's a wizard at getting large corporations to sign on to sponsor the production and air time.

You might go after some RF engineering companies to see if their charitable giving or public relations divisions would be interested in sponsoring a short broadcast documentary.