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Saturday, June 10, 2000
By Ron Weiskind, Post-Gazette Movie Editor
The Federal Communications Commission created the low-power TV spectrum in 1982, in part to increase diversity in broadcast ownership. Nancy Hahn of McMurray was one of those who took advantage of the opportunity.
That doesn't mean it became easier for a woman or a member of a minority group to get into the business -- or that it is any easier now, says Hahn, who has owned WNEU-TV since 1985, two years before it began broadcasting on Channel 63. It was the first low-power station in the Pittsburgh market.
"What didn't change was the plight of the woman and minority entrepreneur," she says. "When you pursue venture capital and systems operations, most of the people across the desk are males, and you're an enigma."
But that perception eventually dissipates, she says.
"It gets easier when people know you. But the bottom line is that it's up to your own perseverance and tenacity."
Hahn said her background as a former Miss Teen Pittsburgh, who went on to become a dancer, a TV personality and a mother of two, also raised questions for those people on the other side of the desk about whether she could succeed as a TV station owner.
WNEU has gone through a number of format changes, from international programming to home shopping. Cable coverage, a must in this area even for full-power stations, has been spotty at best. But Hahn has kept it going throughout.
She is gratified to see women achieving higher positions of power in other areas of the television industry, particularly as heads of cable networks. "That's the promise. That's the motivation. It's a good sign. Young women my daughter's age see it and say, 'It can be done.' "
Hilary Hahn is 16 and wants to own a record label someday.
"Will it be easier for her?" her mother wonders. "I don't know."