Museum of Television and Radio - Keeping the Tube Alive

I've been intrigued about a number of things about New York since the time I landed here. Sure I wanted to see all the sights that the average visitor wanted to see, but the Museum of Television and Radio rated somewhere at the top of the list. Television and radio intrigue me. I find the medium so unbelievably powerful, and the fact that I work alongside some producers, channels and artists back in Pakistan, makes me feel like if I can understand it, I can make a solid contribution through it.

So I saw MTR on the map of New York that my hotel gave me - no big deal. The fact that I had an appointment there - big deal! So what is the MTR all about?

They have more than 140,000 programs and advertisements, covering more than eighty-five years of television and radio history. So you won't find artifacts and ornaments - You will find programming. These guys collect, digitize and archive programming content. And it's a fairly unbelievable collection covering all genres: comedy, drama, news, public affairs, performing arts, children’s, sports, reality, animation, and documentary, and includes a significant international presence, with seven thousand assets from seventy countries. Searchable and accessible. Browse through the library, select your programs, move to the cubicle areas and start viewing your personalized programs. Spend as many hours as you want there.

I wanted to watch Reverend Martin Luther King Jr's "I have a dream" speech that he gave in Washington at the foot of the Lincoln Memorial - I read that speech back in school and I was able to finally see it (will dedicate another blog to that since THAT story is just so long).

Unfortunately, MTR doesn't carry any Pakistani content. No drama and none of our great television programs. However, speaking with Richard Weigle, who is a Producer and Archivist and who was also giving me the tour of the museum, I will hopefully get in touch with one of the curators and make that change happen. Some of our biggest and best names need to be made available to the public audiences in the United States. That's the first step in any cultural exchange and understanding that will happen between our countries.

The Kara Film Festival that takes place each year in Karachi in December? That needs to be linked up to an institution like this. There is so much going on in the television industry in Pakistan that simply must link with MTR -

I've often wondered why Pakistan's government won't see that the ony way we will be able to show the world who we truly are, is if we don't begin to use the media to project ourselves. We already have a culture and a history. It just needs to find itself out of the history books to give people a better understanding of who we really are.

Below is a photograph of Amy Douthett, Manager Public Relations and Jennifer, from the Media Center at MTR. Amy? Thanks for all your help and ideas. I look forward to keeping in touch with you!