Hoping to follow in Oprah’s footsteps   �

staff writer

with the proliferation of

Black tV networks — partly

as a result of Com-cast/NBC

Universal’s backing a number

of minority start ups following

diversity pressure from

lawmakers like rep. Maxine

waters — it’s shaping up to be

a competitive fight for survival.

the field includes Oprah

winfrey’s OwN, aspire tV

(Magic Johnson), revolt (P

Diddy), Legacy tV (Byron

allen) and Bounce tV (andrew

Young and Martin Luther King

iii).

they, of course, are going up

against tV One and the 800-

pound Gorilla, Bet.

that might be a daunting task

for some, but not entrepreneur

Joseph Collins, a south Los

angeles native and founder of

the signal Hill/Long Beachbased

Punch tV Network.

Collins, 49, who got his

start at a local tV station in

Milwaukee, wisconsin, has

spent 30 years in the industry,

producing over 600 tV commercials

and was presented

the 1996 entrepreneur of the

Year award by senators Diane

feinstein, Barbara Boxer and

fred aguilar.

according to Collins, Punch,

which symbolizes the melting

pot of a punch bowl, is currently

on 42 stations nationwide and is

in its second year on air.

“the actual concept for the

the network came five years ago

and it took us three years before

we launched and go on the air,”

he said. “Punch tV is like this

mixture of all different cultures

and different nationalities, all

from an urban perspective, not

necessarily african-american.

“what happened is that hip

hop has really changed the

nature of urban culture; you

have asian kids beat boxing,

riding down the street with their

loud music playing and you

would never have imagined

someone of asian descent doing

that.”

He added: “i wanted to

design a tV network to be able

to speak to that audience and be

able to connect and tell stories

for that audience.”

with affiliates in alabama,

alaska, California (Los angeles

— KtaV Channel 35.6),

florida, Georgia, indiana,

Kansas, Puerto rico, texas and

washington, Punch’s programming

is a mix of talk shows,

movies, women’s interest,

sports and children’s shows.

the lineup includes original

programming and content from

independent producers.

“we produce a lot of original

programs ourselves,” he added.

“there’s a love story about a

woman in her 60s who falls

in love with a young man in

his late 30’s and then there’s a

Black History Month show that

dispels myths about our history.

in terms of the content, the fact

that i’ve been in production for

a long time i had a lot of relationships

and had a big span of

people we could call on, people

who wanted to get their projects

out there.”

as you might expect, creating

a network from scratch

takes some financial muscle

and Collins noted that Punch is

a public-traded company. “we

spent under $10 million to get

here, which is a pretty high

dollar figure. we’re still growing,

still building and we’re

hungry and want to change the

world. the growth rates have

been phenomenal, we’ve grown

from 7 to 60 million households

in less than a year. we’re hoping

to get the community to

become part owners in Punch

by investing in our over the

counter stock.”

the would be mogul certainly

believes the time is right.

“the tV industry is really