By MICHAEL BOYLAN
mboylan@TheCitizenNews.com

If you've been flipping channels in Peachtree City recently, there is a good chance you may have seen "McIntosh Prime Time."

The program, produced completely by High Chief Productions, a group of students from McIntosh High School, is enjoying success on Channel 19 on AT&T Cable in Peachtree City.

The program features a broadcast of the previous week's McIntosh football game and then gives news about all of the other sports taking place at the school. Recently, they broadcast a Lady Chiefs playoff volleyball game. The program is averaging 2,400 viewers and ties ESPN's "Outside The Lines" program in the weekly Georgia Sports Programming Nielsen ratings. The program was the brain child of junior Buddy Woolf.

Woolf did a program similar to "McIntosh Prime Time" at his former school and began looking into doing a program in Peachtree City last year. At first, he hit several brick walls. Some channels did not want to broadcast a show and many groups were not comfortable with a program being produced entirely by teenagers. When Intermedia was recently bought by AT&T and Ken Faust became the manager in Peachtree City, Woolf's luck changed and a deal was instantly made.

Woolf and his crew begin work on the Thursday night before each game. They prepare the tapes, the cameras, the wiring and the equipment to make their preparation Friday before the game that much smoother. Friday, the producers of the program call the groups advertising on the program and make sure that the money is in. They relax at Woolf's house after school and play Nintendo and then head to the game for 90 minutes of pregame preparation.

At 7:30 p.m., the broadcast starts. There are three cameras, two on top of the press box and one on the field called "the action cam." They record the game on four tapes and conduct postgame interviews. After the game, they relax before a grueling weekend of editing.

Saturday the editing process begins at Woolf's house. The crew edits on a computer and uses two VCRs and a super TV monitor. They put the game together and then add all of the transitions, credits and the opening. Next they render and format the program and then record it. The editing process can take anywhere from 10 to 15 hours, which is about a third of the total time that putting together one episode can take.

Tuesday, the crew watches the tape and makes sure that everything is on there and correct. They deliver the tape to AT&T Cable Wednesday morning and at 6:45 p.m. Wednesday, "McIntosh Prime Time" is aired.

The crew of "McIntosh Prime Time" is Woolf, Cecil Wang, Mike Bowman, Phillip Rice, Ben Allen and Mike Ilnicki. Woolf and Bowman are in the broadcast booth calling the game, while Wang is on the field as the producer. Rice, Allen and Ilnicki run the cameras and also participate in the editing process. All of the members of the crew sell advertising to local businesses.

The show has performed so well that they have no more ad space and have had to turn advertisers away until next season.

The next season will begin with boys basketball in the winter and will be followed by boys and girls soccer in the spring. Other sports will be broadcast as McIntosh teams make their respective regional and state playoffs. There is even talk of more programming done by High Chiefs Productions in the future, and Woolf has his sights on making a TV movie for next year. There is even the possibility of a live broadcast of football games next fall.

Also coming in the future are digital cameras that Woolf claims will greatly enhance the production values and a wider audience as AT&T Cable expands.

The group is interested in television production and likes being in front of the camera as well as behind it. The business side of the business can be frustrating for them at times, but the experience is enjoyable for all of them, if also extremely tiring. Some of them may follow this interest in college.

McIntosh Prime Time wouldn't be as successful if they didn't get support from all over. The students at McIntosh have been extremely supportive, as has Principal Greg Stillions and assistant Principal Mark Mickleboro. The program also has a good relationship with all of the athletes and with the coaching staffs of the athletic teams, especially Coach Butch Prosser. They also receive assistance and advice from Terry Love and Woolf's parents.

High Chiefs Productions has had a lot of fun this fall and experiences to last a life time, including one episode in which Allen was flipped off while getting a shot in the Eagle's Landing huddle. Most of the crew will take the winter season off and hand over the reins to the next group of students that want a taste of life in television.

Many young people want to get into television, but few have the desire or the direction to follow through with their dreams at such a young age and to be so successful at it.

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