I work at a small Mexican Tv Station AMA!

Has the violence from the cartels affected you or your work? What do you think should be done to help the issues?

I'm glad that you ask this. Definitely no, our state has almost none of that cartel bullshit. It's a pretty safe place to live. We do have crime, but just small thefts here and there and the ocassional murder, but believe me, we're pretty laid back people. And anwsering you're other question: I think we should legalize everything and establish some help centers against addiction and safe use.

Could you please post a picture of your weather girl? We need to know if it's a legit station and all.

Hahah unfortunately we don't have a weather girl :(

How do you feel about Yanet Garcia?

I'm getting some hard feelings about her

How do the people living in Yucatan and more generally in the southern border states feel about the migrants moving to and thru Mexico from Central American countries?

I totally miss this question, im very sorry. But answering your question: At least in my city doesn't seem to be a problem about them. We just don't see them as a threat to our country, on the contrary it's pretty unsafe for them trying to pass through over here. It's like the elephant in the room, everyone knows it's there but no one talks about it. Some of then end up asking for coins on buses.

Can you tell us about any funny/unexpected things happening during your live broadcasts?

There was this time when one of our hosts fell asleep live. He's 90+ years old and he is also a pioneer on the radio industry of my city. Pretty fun guy, curses and smokes a lot.

Woah, I guess that guy really appreciates having a good nap! Even live on TV :)

Yeah, and he's sane enough for his age. He can remember everything, i have mad respect for him.

Do you guys make original content or do you mostly play syndicated stuff?

We have our live shows, some are about culture, we have a hip hop/rap music one, others about our city's "personalities" and we even have a local news show but most of the time we're playing music, theatre plays, monologues, etc. Mostly cultural stuff :)

How many of your original programs are derived from more mainstream shows?

Or is the whole trope about Mexican versions of popular shows and characters mostly made up?

I think none, there's an "established" format for programs in this city. They end up talking and even looking the same. Like i said, mostly cultural stuff.

Hola amigo. Where in the world would you like to visit?

I would love to visit Mongolia, they have an awesome culture and beautiful landscapes. I also love their "throat singing" techniques.

Mongolian food... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jfXFI0J8Fsg

Hahah I used to watch bizarre foods. Some bizarre food you can get here is stingray, their skin can make any sharp knife into a blunt knife.

Whats going on for Easter Church,family and food?

Getting drunk in the beach and eating shellfish it's what going on.

Hello from Brazil!

Are you guys already generating content in HD? What cameras are you using (actual professional cameras or SLRs)? How's editing these days, is it all non-linear or you still use tapes?

Thanks for the AMA :)

We're still making the conversion to HD and we use professional studio cameras. Editing is made entirely on Final Cut Pro or Adobe Premier. We stop using tapes a long ago, we have a digital video library, all packed into a server.

Are you broadcasting digitally yet? I read that the digital switchover is being done in Mexico on a market basis instead of across the country all at once.

Yes, the digital switch is effective since december, but we're still investing in our new equipment. Our bodies are ready :)

Hola. Un hermano q viajo hace unos 20 años a Yucatan nos contó que hay mucha discriminación hacia las personas indígenas, que las mujeres caminan abajo de las banquetas??! Wtf! Que nos puedes comentar sobre eso? Hablando de otra cosa, que sistema operativo, que computadoras usan en tu trabajo? Ahora que estas haciendo televisión estas viendo algún show en especial?

Pues honestamente no he estado mucho tiempo en Yucatan para afirmarte, pero de ser cierto es una pena que discriminen a los indigenas, y jamas habia escuchado que las mujeres caminaran por debajo las banquetas. La mayoria de nuestras computadoras son Mac y por el momento no veo nada, solo escucho el nuevo disco de Faith No More :) Saludos!

Translation: What's your favorite band? Answer: Faith No More

This guy/girl got it haha

Have you ever eaten barbequed iguana, or is that more of a radio thing?

That's more of a newspaper guys thing... radio guys love warthog tho

Probably more local to Tijuana.

I've heard some small towns eat monkeys or serpents. I can totally understand eating a serpent, but monkeys? Nu-uh

Is there really a TV station for small Mexicans? What do they show? Do small Mexicans have their own radio stations as well? Gracias.

Yes there is, we mostly show the injustices of living in a big peoples world. And they definitely have their own radio station. They talk about pretty much the same as our Small Mexicans TV Station. :)

Mexican Radio is the best!

I know i have heard this song before, but i can't remember where.

What genre of television is popular with small Mexicans?

We'll southern mexicans are pretty small in stature so, small people isn't really small people. They like our religious show.

So, what's Bumblebee guy really like? (Joking)

You're probably one of the few people still working in a real TV station. Here in Canada, outside of the larger cities, tv has really changed. Very little local production.

I had no idea about TV production in other countries, to me, making tv on this city is pretty simple. There's not that many production involved. Programs end up talking and looking the same.

How hot is the weather girl? Pics? Links?

We dont have a weather girl... i know, it's sad.

How about a girl?

This station is a sausage fest, we also don't let women vote or drive

Dude, you need to get a local weather girl! Get some hot babe to do it for free/cheap.

That's the problem, no one willing to do it for free.

Hay una presencia indigena en tu provincia? Me interesa mucho la cultura mexicano y la influencia de los nativos.

Of course, and we're proud of it. The most prominent indigenous culture in our city is the mayan. There are small towns around the state that still speak the mayan language, some people still retain their mayan surnames. We even use mayan slang when we speak. Our cuisine. Little fact about my city's name: Campeche used to be called Ah Kim Pech, which means "Land of Serpents and Ticks"

That is awesome!

Pretty certain calling your City "land of serpents and ticks" doesn't exactly bring the boys to the yard. I can see why the marketing department renamed it. /s

Yeah, but we do have a lot of serpents and tick. We're just being honest.

How many people does it take to run a TV station like yours and what are your responsibilities there?

Since it's a small station it only takes about 15 people to get this running. It's a very do-whatever-you-like place. You want to learn editing or do camera stuff, you can do it. Most of the people here knows how to do everything. My main responsability is Broadcasting. To put it simple: I put our shows live and "switch" or mix camera shots on live programs.

¿Hola cómo estás? Mi nombre es Swingawaymarell , ¿cuál es tu nombre ?

Muy bien, disfrutando sus preguntas mientras pretendo trabajar. Mi verdadero nombre es Alejandro. Dime swingawaymarell, el español es tu idioma nativo?

¡¿Seguro por que no?!

¿Qué se hace para la estación exactamente? Se puede arreglar las cosas ? Puedo arreglar las cosas demasiado .

Mi responsabilidad es la de Transmision (Broadcasting). Pongo programas, musica y obras teatrales al aire. Arreglar cosas? A veces.

Puedo arreglar las cosas demasiado
Do you mean that you can fix things too?

Que Pasa?

No mucho, y tu que tal?

Haha, sorry man, you just saw the extent of my Spanish unless you'd care to hear about options from Taco Bell

Haha, that's pretty good. Please tell me about Taco Bell. We don't have that here and almost unrelated but we used to have a KFC but it went down pretty fast, Church's Chicken won the battle of processed chicken.

What is the worst part of your job?

Down time and weekends. Sometimes we have a lot of down time, it gets worst on the weekends were you can get bored pretty quickly. I have the coolest co workers, on weekdays when we don't have nothing to do we spend our time, playing jokes or bullying eachother, eating junk food or smoking until we have work to do. We're pretty efficient :)

curious: what is causing the down time? waiting for shows to finish airing?

are you doing this ama during work? ;)

It's actually the contrary, waiting for live shows causes our down time, almost everything has become automatized, most of the time we're airing music videos or theatre plays. We love culture over here hehe

Almost forgot, yes i was working. Right now i'm at home, i recently came back from the club and ain't even drunk :(

Can you explain some cultural differences that exist between Northern Mexico and Southern Mexico? I've only been to the Northern part but know people from Southern Mexico and it seems like they have really different culture.

At least in my city we're laid back friendly people. We treat anyone as our friend. I've visited others states of the peninsula and the country and they're also cool people But to me, culturally speaking, Mexico stays the same everywhere.

Thank you for doing this! Here are my questions. First, do you show movies? Do you have a library of old movies to show? What format do you use, as in DVD or video? What type of movies are popular with your viewers? Second, are you broadcasting 24/7-all day, every day? Third, do you have any cool ideas for new shows for the station. Fourth, have you ever seen the film UHF, starring Weird Al Yankovic-which is all about programming at a small station-and do you like it? Fifth, about how many viewers do you have? And sixth, how big is your market in Campeche?

Again, thanks for sharing!

• Do you show movies?
  

We don't show movies, only theatre plays or any interesting cultural event, music videos, live shows, and their reruns.

• Are you broadcasting 24/7-all day, every day?
  

We do broadcast 24/7, when it's 00:00 A.M. we put everything we played throughout the day on loop.

• Have you ever seen the film UHF, starring Weird Al Yankovic-which is all about programming at a small station-and do you like it?
  I've read about the movie and no, i haven't seen it yet. But i'm looking forward to see it, so no spoilers please :) BTW i love Weird Al's music parodies, specially "Amish Paradise"

• About how many viewers do you have?
  I actually don't know, and i may sound rude but we don't even care lol.

• How big is your market in Campeche?
  It will sound stupid but our tv station doesn't sell publicity, which is the main income of a Tv station. So our market is pretty small, but some of my co workers an myself are opening a marketing and publicity department because our admins are some big lazyasses and to make extra bucks. We just got "greenlit" from our boss (wealthy old man) so, well see.

Thank you for your questions, have a good one :)

I just found a link for the trailer for UHF.

Looking forward to see the movie :)

Favorite candy? Is there a regional alcohol there that no one has hard of?

I don't eat to much candies but i love chocolate covered raisins and milky ways and anything with chilli powder.

There's this one called Xtabentun, it's a mayan liqueur made of fermented honey from bees fed with xtabentun flower and anise.

Carlos V debe de ser tu respuesta. No "milky way." jaja

Hahah no me gusta el Carlos V, prefiero comer una tableta de Chocolate Abuelita.

Jaja y yo prefiero comer arena que chocolate abuelita. Eso no es chocolate. Es mugrero la verdad jaja

Hahah hereje! Quemenlo en la hoguera!

I'm late to the party, but that part of Mexico is beautiful. We stayed at the Bahia Principe resort, (don't know of you're heard of it) in 2012. Our Tulum tour guide told us about Xtabentun and said to ask to try it when we got back to the resort. The bartender sent us home with two bottles. It's awesome with a little lime juice.

You may be talking about Cancun, Quintana Roo. Tulum is located there, but i agree with you Cancun is a beautiful place with unbelievable beaches. I have yet to try xtabentun, i'm more of a rum/whiskey kinda guy

My best friend founded a web-series and other content dedicated to Mexican and Mexican-Americans. Is there a chance for me to connect you guys by email or anything?

Shure! Send me an E-mail and well see. I'll send you a PM.

What telenovelas do you show? Do you show any classic shows? (Descanse en paz, Roberto Gómez Bolaños.) Is Chabelo still dressing up like a creep?

(I lived in Sinaloa as a kid from 1985-88.)

We don't show telenovelas, Televisa and TV Azteca (Big tv empires) are in charge of those things and No, no classic shows.

Chabelo stop dressing like a creep about three or four months ago when his show got canceled (48 years, that's a long run if you ask me), but maybe he still does it for the Narcos. Who knows ;)

Esta buena la paga en ese trabajo? Tuviste que estudiar algo especial en la universidad para conseguir ese trabajo?

Ni siquiera he terminado el bachillerato, Como en casi todo Mexico o al menos aqui, conocer a la persona correcta te puede ayudar. 850 pesos a la semana te parece bueno haha? En otros lugares la paga es muchisimo mejor, pero no hay vacantes.

¿Oye como va?

Mi ritmo, bueno pa' gozar... mulata.

Do people really use that saying or is it more of a ¿Qué onda?

Nobody uses it.

Exactly, we never used that in the first place. A simple "que pedo" or my favorite "Que transita por tus venas" is enough. They literally mean "What fart" and "whats runs through your veins" respectively.

How does a power outage affect you and the station?

Usually our electricity supplier notify us when there's going to be power outages and then we notify our viewers so it's all cool. But luckily, it rarely happens :)

Is cochinita pibil popular in Campeche? I've been craving it lately, it's been too long since I've visited QR.

For us gringos who typically go to Playa del Carmen when we go to the Yucatan, would you recommend taking a side trip to your state? As a local, what are some of your favorite places to visit?

Very popular. The real cochinita pibil it's made buried. And yes, definitely come here. We have a lot of cool museums and also a lot of mayan vestiges. You should definitely try "pan de cazón". The cazón it's a small shark, some big restaurants trick people telling them they're eating real cazón but they give them stingray, which doesn't taste bad but obviously it's not the same taste. Stingray it's a great dish on it's own. Some people think that if you get slapped with its tail you'll get struck by lightning.

¿Cómo crees que cambiará la industria televisiva en México con la llegada de Cadena Tres, las dos frecuencias locales comerciales asignadas para San Francisco de Campeche y los cambios tecnológicos que sufren las televisoras?

Y, como son ustedes un canal cultural, ¿han explorado ustedes la idea de solicitar una frecuencia abierta para uso social y entrar al mercado de TV abierta?

No creo que cambie mucho, Televisa y Tv Azteca tienen controlado todo el medio. Lo que pienso que pasará es que la televisión se volvera un medio anticuado, de por si ya lo es. Eso si, no esperes que pase en poco tiempo. Muchas televisoras le apuestan al internet. La televisión buscar la manera de estar presente a través de internet, pero requiere muchos cambios de formato y ademas es una demográfica diferente. Personalmente me gustaria que estuviéramos en television abierta, con el cambio a la televisión digital es posible y tengo poco conocimiento en el tema pero he escuchado que para aprovechar el cambio a la señal digital necesitas de la renta de un satélite e imagino que son algo costosos hehe.

Where do your TV income coming from ? Are you cable (subscription) / terrestrial (freeTV)?
Small TV station in my Country cannot self sustained by them self, all were part of bigger network.
Without them, is simply cannot exist, since the (local) ad market is virtually not exist. No one want to put ad on local TV.

Is there any snippet of your TV program that i can watch ?
Can you list what your regular program look like ? What they cover ?
I open your TV webpage, but it's not in english.

Sorry for many question, but i'm really interested to see how Small TV work in other Country.

I'm non US btw, work in similar field as you.

Like most tv stations over here, we're subsidized by the government. Father Government spends big bucks on media. But here's the catch, we can't talk to much smack about our government. We're on cable, by the way.
Yeah, our webpage is only spanish right now. I'm planning on a full translation, i just need a "thumbs up" to do it. You can watch some of our show promos in our youtube channel: TVM Campeche. Don't worry, i love answering them. What kind of job do you perform?

Currently not working anymore in station.
Like you, i perform many things, from editing, graphics, producer, camera hahaha...you know how it goes....
We're on terrestrial, and not 24/7 broadcast. On certain hour we switch to parent network.
Since we're virtually bleeding money, no room for expansion, can't make better program with very limited budget (which almost non existent). We don't subsidized by government, so on that regard, we pretty much free (usually just a talk show about local issue).

But hey, we have another thing in common, no weather girl either !
(since the weather is pretty much the same throughout the year,..lol)

Exactly, we get our weather report from a specialized secretariat. And like your country, weather stays the same the whole year, there's no need for a weather girl haha. I would love to do graphics one day. Editing is fairly easy. From what i've seen, almost every job on a station requires a lot of creativity and a bit of practice. But anyways, is always nice to meet people who's used to working in tv. Have a great day :)

Are burritos your favorite food?

Burritos are not very common over here, but my favorite food is definitely mole. You should try it.

Like the ones that dig up your yard and are blind?

Hahah no, it's a brown kind of liquid paste(?) which is based on chocolate, and has some chili peppers and chicken. Some times we use mole for chilaquiles.

I'm from a fairly unknown mexican state located on the Yucatan peninsula called San Francisco de Campeche.

Wait, what?!? I've never heard of that state! Oh, you mean Campeche; I forgot that a lot of the Mexican states have longer, formal names, e.g., Estado Libre y Soberano de Guanajuato that I don't hear used that often.

I feel kind of bad; I've been to Yucatan, Quintana Roo, Chiapas, Tabasco, and even managed to enter Guatemala undocumented, but never managed to step foot in Campeche. :(

Hahah yeah i get you, that "san francisco de campeche" thing is just a formality. We just call this place campeche. And definitely come, i'll take you on a tour free of charge :)

Do you feel a hot wind on your shoulder?

No, but i feel the touch of a world that is older.

Can i be on tv when i come to cancun?

Hahah don't know, we don't have a station in Cancun. But if you come to Campeche i'll pimp you into the sexiest host ever.

You're interviewing Trump. What do you say?

Me: Can i try it?
Trump:Try what?
Me: Your wig, can i?

Does your channel plan to air any sports?

Not, not even a "hosts" based one. Other stations broadcast live baseball.

I' dont think so, our channel is more into culture. So, definitely not.

Do you like the band Molotov?

Yeah, some songs. We use to cover a song called "mamar" by molotov, which is also a cover with a change of lyrics. Molotov tends to that to a lot of songs. The original song is called "Mamá" by Los amantes de lola.

Uno cerveza for me por favor?

Sure, would you like some stella? Most of the mexican beer taste like pee. The only good ones are "indio" "dos equis" and "victoria"

Corona no bueno?

Definitely no bueno, Victoria muy bueno.

What kind of programming do small Mexicans prefer compared to the larger variety?

Like i said earlier, they enjoy our religious show. :)

Qué interesante, he leído este thread por media hora y en serio me agrada.

Hace poco por fin me decidí a qué estudiar y es Comunicación, y me encantaría estar/trabajar/ver donde estás. Así que tengo unas preguntas, a ver si no es muy tarde jojo..

Cómo es que transmiten en vivo? Algo que me da mucha curiosidad es saber cómo envían las señales o algo, por decir tienes tu programa ya exportado en .mp4 y de alguna forma lo envías literalmente al aire?

Cómo salen a cortes comerciales?

No tienen alguna forma de ver cuantas tvs están sintonizando su canal? Ustedes eligen el número del canal? Como Canal5 (no sé si lo tengan allá, soy de Veracruz, saludos :)) y literalmente tenían su canal en el 5.

Editan sus programas al aire? O graban todo un mes antes y lo transmiten al aire un mes después de haberlo editado?

Leí que dices que tiene sus biblioteca de archivos en servidor, de dónde consiguen esos archivos? me imagino que son audios, fx, imágenes, vídeos, etc.

Como forman su programación?

Tengo más dudas pero se me han olvidado, jajaja, un saludo y espero no molestar con tantas preguntas. Saludos

Edit: Podrías enseñar una foto de cómo es su estudio o dónde tienen las pantallas de programación?

El dia que vengas a Campeche aqui tiene una casa :) Honestamente yo no he estudiado comunicación, nunca imaginé trabajar en television para ser sincero. Simplemente fue una oportunidad que se presentó. Me parece genial que estudies comunicación, mucha gente por aqui dice que estudiar comunicación es bastante facil y no es por hablar mal de la carrera ni meterte ideas pero dicen que la carrera de comunicación a veces parece un curso y no una carrera. Pero bueno, como te comenté si algun dia vienes a Campeche ten la libertad de localizarme y te paseo por todos lados xD. Ahora, respondiendo tus preguntas. Transmitir en vivo: Tratare de no ser muy técnico, nosotros usamos computadoras Mac, en nuestras compus usamos un programa llama On the air video: el software te permite crear playlists y obviamente un playlist te permite poner ya sea canciones o videos. Cada programa o ya sea bloque horario tiene un playlist propio. Ahora ya tienes un playlist, al que tambien llamamos Playout, necesitas sacarlo al aire. Para eso usamos una tarjeta llamada Black Magic (también es el nombre de la compañía que las produce: BlackMagicDesign) dicha tarjeta es un convertidor, la tarjeta esta conectada a una botonera o matrix de video la cual a su vez esta conectada a un convertidor de audio y video llamado Pico Macom. El Pico envia la señal a nuestro provedor, en este caso izzi antes conocido como Cablemas, y el resto es historia. Izzi se encarga de incluso convertir nuestra señal a "digital", estamos empezando a hacer el cambio a television digital. Usamos tecnologia semi-analoga pero debido a la conversión que hace izzi seguimos Análogos. Espero esto resuelva tus dudas en cuanto a transmitir. Casi lo olvidaba el audio se saca atra vez de una consola de audio que tiene cables por doquier y parece estar en "Life support" Todos nuestros programas se graban en Dvd y ademas usamos otro aparatito Black Magic que usas discos SSD o cualquier disco duro con entadas Serial ATA o SATA para los cuates.

Los cortes comerciales son lo mas sencillo. Para hacer cambio entre camaras y macs necesitas un mezclador de video tambien conocido como "switcher". El switcher esta conectado al matrix de video y en matrix de video están conectadas todas nuestras macs o todo aparato que se use para transmitir video. Pero bueno, el switcher te permite cambiar entre que camara va al aire o que compu sale al aire. Le indicamos al conductor que puede mandar a corte y yo me encargo de "switchear" a corte comercial. Es algo dificil de explicar, solo viéndolo podrias entenderlo.

Saber cuantas tv's nos sintonizan no tengo idea, creo de eso se encarga alguna de las tantas secretarias municipales o estatales. Te mentiria si te dijera cuantas. En cuanto a numero se canal creo que si, pero imagino tienes que aflojar billetes, igual estoy un poco oscuras en ese tema, disculpa.

Si con editar programas al aire te refieres a que algo salió mal al aire y no quieres que vuelva a salir en una repetición. Si, si se hace. Ahora si te refieres a que grabamos un programa para cierta fecha, igual lo hacemos. Pero no toma tanto tiempo como piensas. A nuestro editor le toma ya sea entre media hora y 2 horas editar un programa grabado. Y no esta hecho "al chingadazo" como diriamos haha.

Todo el audio y video se saca de internet o de nuestra videoteca fisica. Y post producción se encarga del fx.

La programacion se fija cada semana y pues simplemente se cubren horarios con videos musicales y especiales (obras de teatro, conciertos, etc) hasta que es hora del noticiero o algun show en vivo. Y pues es al gusto de la encargada de programación hehe. Para nada, siempre encantado de responder dudas. Te debo las fotos, pero si quieres mandame MP y le tomo una fotitos mañana al canal.

Donde esta la biblioteca?

I don't read.

Mexican food or Mexican football, what would you broadcast?

Mexican food, no doubt about it. I dislike football.

Why do they only hire small Mexicans?

Because we dislike tall people.

Is there where Rosario Escobar use to work?

I would like to say yes, but no :(

has ido a los angeles? o no

Nunca, amigo. Vives ahi?

Si ya vivo aqui acerca de muchas estaciones de television, es bien chido deberias visitar si tu puedes o si estas interesado en las estaciones grandes de EEUU, end donde trabajas en mexico? voy alla mucho, gracias por tus respuestas

Vivo en Campeche, aqui tienes tu casa :) y si definitivamente me gustaria visitar una estacion de. Tv en EEUU. Has podido entrar a alguna de las estaciones?

Nunca, amigo. Vives ahi?

What is your proudest moment?

My proudest moment? Well, im very proud of being able to comunicate in two languages, and being able to buy the things i want without asking my parents. Makes me feel less like a burden.

Is your station interested in things like youtube? Ie blending typical content for TV with stuff for social media?

I see a few folks on YouTube trying to go the other direction, and would have a similar size production crew as you described before

We post things on youtube, but most of them got removed by youtube's copyright system haha. We used to broadcast in our webpage but our pc got busted. We'll fix it this monday haha.

As a tech guy, need any tech support?

We have a tech guy of our own. He's pretty good at it. But if our nuclear reactor suffers a meltdown, we'll definitely calling you.

How would you solve the underlying social issues present in the Middle East?

I honestly don't know my friend, it's a pretty delicate situation :(

Do you think humans will invest in the terraforming of Mars, despite it requiring so many generations before seeing results?

Of course we'll invest, we will also invest in a Martian Rover with a Wifi hot spot so we can send martians our dankest memes... and probably some dickpics

I'm asking serious questions, here.

Oh... sorry

Knowing how much methane gas they produce, is it still ethical to have large industrial production of beef?

Let me ask you a question. Do you like beef?

Yes, I like beef.

I don't, do you like methane gas?