24215: Hermantin ( news)Haitian TV programs hit Broward airwaves (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>

Sun-Sentinel


Haitian TV programs hit Broward airwaves



By Thomas Monnay
Staff Writer

February 4, 2005

Television programming with a Caribbean flavor has come to Broward County.

The Haitian Television Network of America is expanding its South Florida
base, offering local Comcast cable subscribers 24 hours a day of news,
sports and entertainment in French and Creole.

Programming premiered Feb. 1 on digital channel 689, said Comcast spokesman
Spero Canton.

HTN has been available for about two years in Miami-Dade County, said Claude
Mancuso, chief executive officer and founder of the private cable channel.

"I've got a lot of phone calls from Haitians who are saying, `how come we
cannot get it,'" said Mancuso, 46, of Hollywood. "It's been exciting.''

While HTN has been free to Miami-Dade Haitians with basic cable, Mancuso
said in Broward the service costs $10 a month.He said a charge would be
levied in Miami-Dade some time in the future.

Mancuso said he plans to advertise his network's Broward debut on Creole
radio and in churches and social clubs.

HTN's shows focus mostly on news and entertainment and Mancuso said he would
start alternating Creole and English music videos to reach young
Haitian-Americans. He also plans to air programs to educate the community
about issues affecting Haitians.

Mancuso said the expansion is part of a deal with Comcast to metropolitan
areas with large Haitian populations.

It coincides with efforts by Haitian media professionals and businessmen,
who have been buying airtime from American companies in hopes of benefiting
from advertising dollars.

For example, Alliance Broadcasting Network Inc., a Haitian company, bought
WAVS, AM 1170 in Davie last year for $2 million. Herntz Phanord, Alliance's
general manager and a radio commentator, said his company also controls
WJCC, AM 1700 in Miami under an agreement to buy the station in 2006.

"I'm happy they are expanding," Phanord said of HTN. "The community is
growing. Anytime you can offer more choices, the community will benefit from
that."

According to the U.S. Census, about 300,000 Haitians live in South Florida
-- 61,075 in Broward County. But Haitian activists dispute the number as too
low.

Mancuso, a Miami Senior High School graduate, was born in Morocco and came
to the United States at age 10. He said he fell in love with Haitian culture
when he visited Haiti in the 1970s. He took a job as a television production
manager in Port-au-Prince shortly after earning his degree in television and
film production in 1977.

Mancuso said he returned to Florida in 1981, but went back to Haiti three
years later to create Mancuso Productions.

HTN kicked off in 1988 as a one-hour Creole show on a Miami-Dade cable
company, where Mancuso worked as a marketing agent. He said it grew to two
hours a week and then to two hours daily. It has been a 24-hour operation
since March 2003.

"It's been a long road, exciting and difficult, but I wouldn't change it for
a thing," he said.

Thomas Monnay can be reached at tmonnay@sun-sentinel.com or 954-385-7924.


Copyright © 2005, South Florida Sun-Sentinel