Two former employees of independent television station Channel 10 in Vero Beach have struck out on their own to develop and manage a new webcasting service: Buzz TV Network. Accessed via the internet, VeroBuzzTV.com presents programs of local interest.
When co-owners Jeff Voegele and Alex Zulueta opened their Buzz TV studio in downtown Vero seven months ago, they didn’t plan to get into the art gallery business, too.
Perhaps the location of the studio, on northern 14th Avenue (across from the historic railway depot) has something to do with it.
In Vero Beach, 14th Avenue has become synonymous with art galleries, boutique businesses and restaurants. By lending its walls to changing art exhibits, Buzz TV intends not only to report on the city’s cultural doings, but be a part of them as well.
“The art aspect we kind of walked into because of the work we were doing,” explains Voegele. “We have the space, and at the same time we know we have mutual friends in art in Indian River County.”
Using Buzz TV’s studio as an art showcase takes the decision to have a physical address for the TV station one step further, says Voegele.
Not only will the art be on view to the gallery’s visitors, it will also be on view to those who tune into Buzz TV. The artwork that hangs on the studio’s walls will be the backdrop for many of the station’s programs. The potential audience for the artworks is as great as that for the programs themselves.
By providing local content TV via the internet rather than the airwaves, Buzz TV’s programming, tailored to the interests of Indian River County residents, can be accessed by anyone with a computer, anywhere in the USA and beyond. “If you are a snow bird and you are here for the winter, you can go north and still watch local programming on VeroBuzzTV.com,” says Voegele.
That programming incudes shows featuring local personalities Josefina Monasterio and Marsha Littlejohn, who have come to Buzz TV from Channel 10. Other programs include one with Helene Casteltine from the county’s chamber of commerce; another with Freddie Woolfork of the Gifford Youth Achievement Center, and still another with the Cultural Council’s Barbara Hoffman. Another show, “Buzz TV Adventure,” goes on the road to local attractions and events. Lest you think that Buzz TV is all about art and culture, Voegele is quick to point out that “we do a lot of sports programming, too.”
He and Zulueta have big plans for their network. In addition to VeroBuzzTV.com there is a SebastianBuzzTV.com, a BrevardBuzzTV.com, a StLucieBuzzTV.com, and a PalmBeachBuzzTV.com. Never mind that the programming on these sites overlaps more than a little.
“We wanted something that would give us room to grow,” Voegele says.
The partners also own websites under the Buzz TV name for New York, Miami, Chicago, and Los Angeles.
And for the artists whose work is featured at the Buzz TV Art Gallery, there is yet another perk.
According to Voegele, the exhibitions the station hosts will have an “afterlife” in video and jpeg images of the art on yet another internet access site: ArtBuzzTV.com.
At present that site features interviews with artists in West Palm Beach and Doral, Florida, as well as a half-hour interview with James Prozak, whose paintings were featured this summer in the “Ocean Fishes” exhibition at the Vero Beach Museum of Art.
Although the BuzzTV staff numbers only the two principals at present, its founders are up to the challenge of bringing art – as well as other topics of interest – to its audience.
Jeff Voegele comes to the TV business from Channel 10, where he worked as production manager, studio director and news director.
“Off and on I was there for 16 years,” he says, adding that before that, he was in local TV broadcasting in his home state of Connecticut.
Voegele also has a background in children’s theatre. He founded the Mashed Potato Players, a touring repertory company in 1977, shortly after graduating with a B.A. in speech and theatre from Western Connecticut State University.
“Instead of going out and looking for a job, I started my own job,” he says.
Voegele moved to Florida in 1988, when he was in his early 30s. He says that it was scary to leave behind an established client base in New England for unknown territory, but once settled here he found himself performing children’s theatre “at virtually every public library in the state of Florida, along with schools, and performances for parks and recreation.”
Alex Zulueta worked at Channel 10 for about five years.
“I worked in the control room, a little bit of everything. Behind the camera, TV guy, programmer, built commercials for people,” he says, noting that he learned everything he knows about TV at Channel 10.
Born in Cuba, Zulueta left the Communist country in a dramatic way.
“I left in 1995 by raft – me and nine of my friends,” he says.
He settled in Miami, eventually leaving the security of the Spanish-speaking Cuban community there for Vero Beach.
A fellow Cuban expatriate, Carlos Pérez Vidal, is the featured artist in Buzz TV Art Gallery’s inaugural show, which is on view through December.
Some may remember Pérez Vidal from the time he made Vero Beach his home base about four years ago. He currently lives and works in Miami.
The show, titled “Solarium,” presents a selection of works by the artist, from small, shrine-like painted constructions to a mural-sized painting of two pigs, arranged snout to snout, before a candy-colored cloudscape.
If you missed the First Friday reception, the work will be on view at Buzz TV’s open house on Saturday, Dec. 12, from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. A portion of the proceeds from sales of Pérez Vidal’s work will be donated to Indian River County Habitat for Humanity.
