BEYOND OUR CONTROL, the half hour television revue produced by WJA-TV, a Junior Achievement Company, is in the final stages of preparation for its season premiere on Saturday, February 15 at 5:00 PM CST. The program will be presented in color each week on WNDU-TV, Channel 16, The Notre Dame Station.
While this will be the eighth year that WJA-TV has presented a program on Channel 16, it will be the first year that the company has chosen to repeat a program format from the previous year. Last season saw the company depart from its usual game and panel shows to undertake production of an ambitious weekly revue of satire, music and irreverent commentary: Beyond Our Control. The show was unique in local television, presenting satires on national and local TV programs and commercials, special features such as a parody on the Winter Olympics, and a showcase for local bands and singers. Extensive use of film took the program on location each week.
With minor changes--and the addition of full color--the Beyond Our Control format will be repeated this season. Film and videotape production of the program have been underway since late November.
The program is produced by a Junior Achievement company sponsored by WNDU-TV. A complete model television corporation, WJA-TV begins operation in the late autumn, its personnel consisting of twenty-four area high school students who work with three advisors from Channel 16. The students sell stock to raise operating capital, develop an idea fro the program and then sell commercial advertising time to area businessmen. The program is expensive to produce--particularly in light of the conversion to color--and the JA company charges rates directly comparable to those of local TV stations. At the conclusion of the thirteen-week run of the program, the company liquidates and divides the profit among stockholders.
Junior Achievement is a national organization with companies like WJA-TV in all fifty states. WJA-TV was one of the first television companies in the nation and is now believed to be the only JA company with such an ambitious weekly program. WNDU-TV sponsors the company to offer students practical broadcasting experience and a firsthand look at the American free enterprise system.
