RPVtv Celebrates 20 Years of Service By Contributor and Artist Lynne La Fleur
The Mayor’s Show at Green Hills Memorial Park – left to right: Liz Brown-Swanson, Mayor David L. Bradley, and Steven Espolt, Green Hills Memorial Park Historian.)
On August 28th twenty years ago, the first digital signal launched and RPVtv was born. The station started gaining momentum and has grown exponentially ever since, covering local news, local people of interest, sports, community events, and assisting local businesses during the shutdown to help them reach out to the community for information, available services, getting food for first responders, and how to reopen.
Tucked quietly behind a shelter of trees at the Ken Dyda Civic Center in Rancho Palos Verdes, this inconspicuous building is actually at the heart of What’s Happening on the Peninsula. Their team of dedicated producers/reporters covers local events – from the goats hired for weed abatement below City Hall, Vicente Bluffs Reserve and the Interpretive Center to community activities Whale of a Day, Rancho Palos Verdes July 4th City Celebration, and Palos Verdes Street Fair. RPVtv also liaisons with the Palos Verdes Peninsula Chamber of Commerce. The list goes on.
(Photo #1 caption – The Mayor’s Show at Green Hills Memorial Park – left to right: Liz Brown-Swanson, Mayor David L. Bradley, and Steven Espolt, Green Hills Memorial Park Historian.)
Station Manager Carlos Rivera manages the two channels 33 and 38 (government access). “It all began as an educational channel working with SCROC.” Carlos had been with Cox Cable TV since late 1995. “By 2000, we had 3 news shows a week, pro sports and local high school sports shows. Freelance reporters/producers Liz Brown-Swanson and Maria Serrao came on board in 2005.
Station Manager Carlos Rivera
“When cable companies came into the area there was no competition, you either got COX or you got nothing. At that point government imposed certain rules stating that communities needed access to local TV in their area. That’s when they came up with PEGA Public Education Government Access. Anyone could produce a show. With more competition, the rules relaxed and other cities bowed out. But RPV stayed on, they wanted a local station right here.”
Maria Serrao, host of Playing the Field
“When we were at COX, we produced a live one hour sports show called “NFL on COX, a play on “NFL on FOX”. Former Los Angeles Raider Jerry Robinson did the show with us. The show took off and we had many viewers,” Serrao says. Today Serrao has her own sports show called “Playing The Field” which includes all Pro sports in Los Angeles and local high school sports as well.
From left to right: Co-hosts Liz Brown-Swanson and Maria Serrao; Lili Trujillo Puckett, Founder/Executive Director Street Racing Kills; and John Tye, RPV Traffic Safety Committee.
History on The Hill with Local History Librarian Monique Sugimoto
Liz and Maria create all the local origination. The staff also includes videographers Jeff Cruikshank and Sean Koven. RPVtv produces History on the Hill with Local History Librarian Monique Sugimoto from Palos Verdes Library District’s main branch, a monthly Mayor’s Show and bi-monthly City Manager’s Update; City Manager Ara Mihranian puts what’s happening in the City into lay terms including information on the Portuguese Bend landslide areas.
Goats do their work for RPV weed abatement
RPVtv is a local educational access channel provided to the community of Rancho Palos Verdes on COX Cable channel 33, Frontier FiberOptic on channel 38 and on YouTube providing interesting programming from the Peninsula, and RPV City Council.
Lynne LaFleur attended Malaga Cove School, Lunada Bay Elementary, and Chadwick School, received her BFA from Pratt Art Institute in Brooklyn and has lived in New York City, Colorado and Northern California before returning to Palos Verdes in the late 1980s.
For more information, please contact Lynne at “lynnelf1@gmail.com”- The Centennial Celebration poster and all the individual illustrations (both as fine art giclée prints and as educational posters) are available for purchase from her website: www.lynnelafleur.com Facebook: LynneLaFleurArtist Instagram: “lynnelf1”