Category: News || By

By Jason Togyer
© 2011 Tube City Community Media Inc., all rights reserved

Jim Smith is out to prove his skeptics wrong. He says he's building an entertainment empire in McKeesport because he believes in the region --- and especially in its people.

"Nobody seems to think we're real, but we've shown them that we're here and we've shown them that we're real," says Smith, co-founder of Tru Vu Entertainment, part of a network of companies running out of the former Immel's Department Store on Fifth Avenue, Downtown.

With his wife and business partner, Cathy Morgan, and several local investors, Smith has proposed the creation of a 24-hour Web-only TV network, along with several live entertainment venues, a coffee shop and an upscale restaurant.

The company is currently at a "stalemate" because of a lack of support from local, state and federal agencies, according to Smith, but he's working on a deal with a Dutch entertainment conglomerate for exclusive rights to webcast an event celebrating Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and has received approval to run a $1 million giveaway for Tru Vu users.

Smith, who has attended recent city council meetings to complain that the city isn't doing enough to help him promote the businesses, says he doesn't have any doubts in the ability of McKeesporters and Mon Valley residents to make Tru Vu successful.

"We have really seen a lot of heart in the people who work here," says Smith, who currently lives in the city's 10th Ward. "They really see what we're trying to do here, and they're trying to do everything they can to make it a reality."

. . .


Yet seven months after Smith's grand opening in McKeesport, no content has yet been produced by Tru Vu, and at least two local elected officials have raised questions publicly about the company's viability.

At the request of Tube City Almanac, two Pittsburgh-area broadcasting executives were asked to review the business plan for Tru Vu and its related companies. Both men, speaking under condition of anonymity, were sharply critical. Neither is a Tru Vu competitor.

The first, a radio station programmer and consultant who has been on the Internet since its early days, says that in his opinion, the plan "uses a lot of the right words ... but it doesn't add up to anything."

The second, who helped launch Warner Brothers' interactive QUBE cable TV service in the 1970s, is kinder, but equally skeptical. He suggests that in his experience, the parts of the business plan that would seem most feasible are the coffee shop and restaurant --- not the TV networks.

. . .

Smith says he's founded successful companies all over the country. He and Morgan most recently lived in Arizona, according to published reports. His growing network of companies based in McKeesport includes a talent agency and a credit collection agency, Samuel, Stevens & Bosse Inc.

In addition to the Immel's building, which is owned by one of his business partners, Jerry Magnelli of Baldwin Borough, Smith has purchased and is also using the former business incubator at the corner of Fifth and Sheridan --- a former Montgomery Ward store that was later part of G.C. Murphy Co.'s home office complex.

At the heart of the plans is Tru Vu, which has proposed offering more than two dozen TV channels, including channels for live music, news, soap operas, home shopping, religion, movies and "many more to come!" All of the channels would be streamed from McKeesport and showcase local talent, including actors and musicians trained at Pittsburgh's universities.

. . .

Smith says he's tested his Internet TV concept successfully twice before in Florida and Tennessee, and eventually hopes to employ as many as 1,600 people in a $20 million per year business.

According to a longtime friend and former business partner, Smith is sincere, and has been refining his Internet TV station plans for years.

"He's definitely got an entrepreneurial spirit," says Charlie Becker, a credit investigator in Delaware, who came to McKeesport last year to help open Samuel, Stevens & Bosse. Becker, who's known Smith "at least 15 years," says he left the McKeesport operation because he wanted to return to his home in Delaware.

. . .

Tru Vu's arrival in McKeesport was heralded by a front-page article in The Daily News, along with coverage in the Post-Gazette and in the city and school district's magazine, In McKeesport Area. Smith was credited with helping to "rebuild" and "(bring) new life" to the city's long-suffering Downtown.

Despite the good press and high hopes, there's no live entertainment originating from the Immel's building yet, although a temporary studio is under construction.

Smith says that Tru Vu and its related companies were forced to "restructure" on Jan. 1 and lay off employees after state and federal job-creation money failed to materialize.

. . .

Two candidates for mayor in the May primary have gone on record to question whether Smith's dream is even realistic.

When Smith came to McKeesport City Council in January to complain that the city had not done enough to help Tru Vu establish itself, Councilman Darryl Segina retorted that he'd found the company's operation "kind of rudimentary."

"I'm not trying to chase any business out of town, but I'm trying to get some more information about what you're trying to do," he told Smith.

Mayor Regis McLaughlin also pronounced himself "unimpressed" by the Tru Vu operation.

. . .

The two broadcasters who have seen Tru Vu's business plan share McLaughlin and Segina's misgivings. The first, who has more than 30 years' experience at radio stations around the country, says that in his opinion, the 13-page Tru Vu prospectus that he was shown was "nonsensical."

"It's all over the place," he says. "This defies logic in so many ways I can't even start to enumerate them."

The other broadcaster worked at Warner Cable's innovative QUBE service, which offered live, original, interactive programming in several cities, including Pittsburgh. He says "boosting McKeesport and creating new jobs is obviously needed," but adds that Tru Vu's plans need "a real dose of reality."

"Have the backers realistically looked at the personnel needs for the TV aspect of their plan?" he tells the Almanac. "It is horrendously expensive to create a live channel."

. . .

The proposed "'50s style diner," copy center and restaurant "have a chance" to succeed, the second broadcaster says, but a stand-alone, Internet-only TV network is probably not viable. Although the Tru Vu business plan cites MTV as an inspiration, the broadcaster says he doesn't think that comparison is valid.

"MTV succeeded because cable was in its infancy," he says. "There were music programs such as Wolfman Jack's 'Midnight Special' on NBC. MTV succeeded in that era because it filled a need in a day when there were few other cable choices ... and no Internet."

Today, he says, there are "streams from thousands of terrestrial broadcasters worldwide. Tru Vu will have to cut through that established clutter."

. . .

Such criticism and skepticism doesn't faze Smith. "I've had 15 people in here who have all told me, 'It can't be done,'" he says.

According to Smith, establishment broadcast executives don't understand the keys to the Tru Vu concept --- low-bandwidth, undiscovered talent and interactivity.

Tru Vu's programs will require only 32 kbps of Internet bandwidth --- suitable for viewing even on a 56K modem --- using a compression technology that Smith says is proprietary.

The channels will be "100 percent interactive with the world," Smith says, "not just broadcasting to an audience." Viewers will be able to comment in real-time and even influence the direction of the programs they see, Smith says. "We are truly live, and that's very hard for people to understand," he says.

. . .

To avoid heavy talent fees, Smith says, the Tru Vu stations will spotlight artists --- including local acts --- not available anywhere else. "Our cost to produce a show is 1/100th or maybe 1/1000th of a prime-time network show," he says. "This is original content, not the same old content."

And bloopers will be part of the charm. At his previous Internet TV stations in Florida and Tennessee, Smith says, "the more bloopers we showed live, the more people reacted to it."

But one of the broadcasting executives who have seen Tru Vu's business plan argues: "There are plenty of live, interactive internet portals. He doesn't acknowledge them, or perhaps does not know of them. Moreover, he's looking backwards -- at 56K modem users --- when the future is clearly broadband and is spreading quickly."

. . .

The other broadcasting executive notes that Tru Vu's business plan envisions selling advertising and charging a subscription fee to generate money, but for that to work, he claims, the company will have to offer established, well-known acts --- and it can't do that from McKeesport.

"Having live capability from L.A., New York, and other locales worldwide will be a must to attract the entertainers needed," he says.

And he adds that Tru Vu's suggested 32 kbps rate is "too low for quality streaming." (Smith replies: "It's not HDTV, but we never claimed it to be.")

. . .

Smith has launched two previous Internet TV operations --- one called IM2K in Tennessee in 1999, and Rave 2000 in Florida the following year. An actress and disc jockey who worked at IM2K as an on-air host or "VJ," JoAnn Vickers Wilburn, tells Tube City Almanac "it was cool, a very good experience."

Although Wilburn, who lives in Tennessee, says she never met Smith, she says the setup at IM2K "was beautiful ... (it had) nice broadcast-quality equipment, an engineer for the VJs and a couple of cameras, (plus) a nicely furnished (set). We were given a lot of room to develop our own show. I got myself a co-host and did a mix of music, comedy shorts, and (had) some of my actor and musician friends as guests. It was a blast."

She began doing her show two nights a week in mid-July or early August of 1999. "By the middle of December they closed their doors," Wilburn says. "I think they spent too much money up front and didn't think about operating capital."

But she notes that web streaming technology wasn't as reliable then as it is now. "And if (Smith) plans to do it again, he might make it this time," Wilburn says.

. . .

Smith's bio on the Tru Vu website calls his 40-year business career "illustrious," but an extensive search of online databases for information about Smith, IM2K and Rave 2000 turned up only two news articles --- one from a trade publication for music teachers and another from 2000 in the St. Petersburg Times. According to the Florida Division of Corporations, Rave 2000 was founded by Smith in July 2000 and was declared defunct by the following year.

Rave 2000's failure was caused by the collapse of the so-called "dot-com" bubble, which scared investors away from any Internet or web companies, Smith says.

Although Samuel, Smith & Bosse has laid off all of its employees, Smith says the setback is a temporary restructuring. State and federal job-creation money that he was promised has not materialized, causing four investors to back out, he says: "Our business model was based on a lot of programs that we thought would still be in place."

. . .

But the political upheaval caused by the 2010 election --- which is forcing state and federal agencies to cut their budgets across the board --- has hurt Tru Vu and its related companies, Smith says. "We got caught in the cracks," he says. "Right now, everything has been put on hold."

His companies aren't looking for "some humongous tax abatement," but they do need start-up capital to provide on-the-job training for new employees, Smith says. "We're not looking for handouts," he says.

Rumors being spread about the company's solvency have also hurt his efforts, Smith says, but he's "not threatening to leave." In fact, he plans to launch an interactive Web portal to promote the area that will be called "McKeesport Now," but without an infusion of either private or public money, his companies are being forced to retrench.

"We have a lot of people who are working here even though the negativity is kind of rampant," Smith says. "The truth of the matter is, their souls are invested in McKeesport. We keep getting asked, 'Why should you do this in McKeesport?' I think they should be asking, 'Why shouldn't we do this in McKeesport?'"

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