CABLE SHOW APPROACHES FOURTH ANNIVERSARY

By JOYA WESLEY, Special to the News & Record >

GREENSBORO -- In the fall of 1995, "the spot" for four Greensboro college students was one of the Stoneybrook Apartments on Webster Road There, roommates Troy Jones and Roger "Ski Bo" Johnson conceived the idea for "Spot TV" with fellow N.C. A&T student Jason Thousand and Valerie Pompey-Weathers, who was studying mass communications at Bennett College.

WANT TO WATCH? What: SPOT TV. When: 10:00pm Saturdays and 9:00pm Wednesday. Where: GCTV (Cable Channel 8 in Greensboro). Information: Call336- 379-7006 or visit www.spottv.org

Five years later, Thousand has moved away, but the rest of the crew is still at it. Troy and Valerie (now Valerie Jones) have a 19-month-old son, and Ski Bo is the beloved host of the popular cable access and Internet show that's succeeding at its goal of entertaining, informing and educating viewers in all corners of Greensboro.

Anchored by hip-hop music videos, concert footage and interviews with hip-hop artists, the show also includes videotaped special events and interviews with scholars, political leaders, sports figures and an ever-expanding list of others.

"We've been on the air since November 1996," says Valerie Jones, a graphic designer and a training and outreach specialist at GCTV, which airs "Spot TV" at midnight Saturdays. "Our first show dealt with the anniversary of the Million Man March."

Targeting young African Americans, the producers have attracted a diverse following to the show built around the concept of "The SPOT," which they've cast as an acronym for "Supreme People Operate Together."

"The SPOT is wherever you are at the present time," Valerie Jones says. Watching the show means watching the spot move from one location to another, catching guests at concerts, parties, festivals and conferences. "We usually try to go to them."

The "SPOT TV" headquarters today is the Jones home office on Cliffwood Drive, where Valerie Jones connects with record labels and other organizations to schedule interviews and line up giveaways such as CDs, tickets and T-shirts. Troy Jones edits the shows, often after reviewing hours of the videotapes that fill the couple's closets.

"Troy never took a class in video production - I just showed him what buttons to push," Valerie Jones says. "And now, to me, he's the best editor that I've seen. And I'm not just saying that because he's my husband."

Troy Jones also programs the show's music videos, keeping the focus on positive images.

"He programs it by what he likes, not by what's on the record label's priority list," Valerie says. "We try not to go with what's their top priority because sometimes that stuff is off the wall."

Video programs on commercial TV often don't show the same selectivity, Troy says: "They're getting paid to play a certain artist, and you'll see the same artist 10 times a day."

The music video element is what connects the show to its audience, to hip hop.

"Hip hop is a dance style, clothes, music, culture and a community," Valerie Jones explains.

"We talk about a lot of hip-hop topics, but at the same time we're trying to get those who are in that culture to understand the global society," Troy Jones says.

In addition to current artists and such hip-hop pioneers as Afrika Bambatta, KRS-One, Slick Rick and Big Daddy Kane, the show has interviewed such other artists as George Clinton - the funk artist who put "the bomb" into the American lexicon - reggae heir Ziggy Marley and gospel great Shirley Caesar.

Beyond music, "Spot TV" has featured national and local notables, including Coretta Scott King, the Rev. Leon Sullivan, U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters, Jibreel Khazan (formerly Ezell Blair), one of the four students who began the Greensboro sit-ins; state administration secretary Katie Dorsett, and state Reps. Alma Adams and Toby Fitch, who is Troy's cousin.

The show also has gotten interviews with sports figures including legendary boxer Muhammad Ali, NBA players Reggie Williams and Rodney Rogers and Greensboro's own Brendan Heywood, a UNC basketball standout.

"He's going to be the first pick in the draft," Troy says. "We got an interview with him about a month ago. He's a pretty nice guy."

Event-wise, viewers never know where "Spot TV" might take them. The show covers everything from Greensboro's annual reggae festival to the annual African-African American Summit, held this year in South Africa.

"A lot of what we like to do is create a positive image of people of color - to show us doing things that are outside the norm," Valerie Jones says.

The show also offers insights into things happening right here at home. Khazan, for instance, took time to share his experience as one of the four N.C. A&T students who started the national sit-in movement.

"He came and gave us an interview of about an hour and a half on how Greensboro grew from his time here and how he and his friends created a milestone," Troy Jones says.

As a video show, "Spot TV" has gotten recognition from record companies, recently winning a digital camcorder in a Sony Records competition. The show generally has no problem getting artists to appear as guests, although there are exceptions.

One artist, Cam'ron, initially turned "Spot TV" down but changed his mind after his CD suffered from slow sales, Troy Jones says. 'I guess his management or whatever told him, 'Look, you've got to sell yourself.'"

Speaking of which, "Spot TV" now is trying to sell itself to potential underwriters to generate money to move the show forward. In the meantime, the Joneses say they're thankful to GCTV for the opportunity to do the show, and to God, their family and friends and their viewers for bringing it so far.

They're often surprised by the people who call their response line, people Valerie Jones says are young, old, white, black and international.

"Awhile back we did a show on Mumia Abu-Jamal (a man convicted of killing a Philadelphia police officer in 1981; his supporters say he was framed), and this man came up to us and said he appreciated our show because it allowed him to sit down with his child and explain the issue," Valerie Jones recalls. The Joneses attribute part of the show's mass appeal to the role Ski Bo plays as the primary host. (Guest hosts include local reggae artist Psyche Wanzandae and Kevin Kaous of WJMH (102.1 FM), which markets itself as 102 Jamz.)

"Ski Bo is a very unusual personality," Valerie Jones says. "He knows everybody in Greensboro and he's everybody's friend."

Troy Jones agrees.

"He's a one-of-a-kind person - we've been friends for about 10 years now," he says. "He's more than a host - he's like an ambassador to the community."