Janice Newman
A few years ago, Janice Newman started producing The Y? Why Not! Show in the public access studios of Comcast TV in the Chicago suburbs. The show seeks to inspire people to pursue their goals. Her goal is to communicate that message to as many people as possible. Last year Janice joined Wisconsin Community Media as an Independent Producer to get into the Wisconsin PEG market and to enter the Best of the Midwest Media Fest, where she received top level Excellence Awards for several episodes of The Y? Why Not! Show and a Best in Show for the Best Virtual Public Access Show (amateur level).
Janice is no stranger to awards. She received first place with the show in the Illinois Woman’s Press Association in both 2020 and 2021 and took third place in the National Federation of Press Women in 2020. How Janice became a top producer in the public access field is itself an inspiring story.
In 2008 Janice enrolled in a television production certification class at Comcast Cable in Homewood, Illinois. As her class project, she produced a show about teen issues, bringing in several teens to do a roundtable discussion. She was very proud of the result and Comcast ran the program now and again for three years, but she got interested in other things and stopped doing production work, although she stayed on the Comcast waiting list.
In 2016 Janice had a major health reversal that caused her to look at life in a new way. She underwent brain surgery and while recuperating in the hospital, a nurse accidentally dropped her and she banged her head. She suddenly lost all ability to communicate. If she wrote something down or spoke, it came out as gibberish. “I would think one thing and it would come out all wrong. I’d be asking for more blankets, say, and it would come out ‘mokin mokin,’ which everyone thought was milk. I got a lot of milk!” After three and a half days, her ability to communicate returned and with it a newfound appreciation for her voice. “All during that time I just prayed and prayed and as I did, I realized just how important my voice is and how important it is to help others.”
Two years later as Janice celebrated her birthday in 2018, she made a decision. “I decided I wanted to get out and help people achieve their goals,” said Janice, “and I wanted to do it through television so I could reach more people.” It had now been ten years since she had done any work at Comcast. Since 2008 several suburban studios had closed and only two remained. The waiting list to get into those was long. Nevertheless, three hours after she made her decision the phone rang. It was Comcast offering her a space in a certification class, which she had to retake since it had been years since she had done the last one. “I believe that when you do something for God, God will help you achieve it. For me it happened just like that,” said Janice. She was in and she was on her way.
Getting prepped for a show in the Comcast public access studio.
Once certified, there was competition for studio time. Access producers doing series programs for Comcast were given permanent timeslots, so newcomers often found it hard to get on the schedule. Ultimately, a ten-year veteran producer, Greg Struss, shared his Tuesday night four-hour studio time block with Janice. Class members became crew and Janice developed a group of about ten or so who regularly helped on the show. The regulars included Mike Mikrut, a 20-year veteran of public access television, who became her studio director. Once she got to the top of the waitlist for a spot on the program schedule, The Y? Why Not! Show debuted on a Wednesday night at 6:30 pm on channel 19 in Homewood. Then she applied to be on the schedule in the three other Comcast regions and got on. “We are now on every night of the week somewhere in the Chicagoland area, including the City of Chicago where we are on CAN TV (the non-profit public access channel).”
Now with more than 70 shows in the can, she has interviewed a wide range of guests. Ministers, marriage experts, television producers, personal finance consultants –- all have had good compelling conversations with Janice. Theresa Knipe, Director of the EXceL Center in Gary, Indiana, came on the show to talk about the value of an adult high school diploma and why following it up with a certificate degree from a college makes you more employable. Diane Blust of the Children’s Home and Aid Society talked about foster care and inspired Janice and her husband Philip to become foster parents. “We weave in social issues or how they found their career path, or overcame a difficulty,” said Janice. “Most often we talk about how their faith in God brought them to where they are today.”
Janice’s next move in reaching her goals is to leave a full-time special education teacher position with the Chicago Public Schools to put more of her energy into three things: managing her successful real estate appraising and brokerage business, expanding a summer youth program she began two years ago at the Cornerstone Christian Center in Chicago Heights into a year-round program and ramping up the production schedule for The Y? Why Not! Show. “During COVID, we only produced about 30 new episodes. We want to do three or four episodes a month,” said Janice. The show is now a family affair, with both her husband and son, Jemilo joining in the work. Jemilo is the director and editor of the show while her husband runs audio.
“I created the show to encourage people to try – try to reach your goals. You have nothing to lose if you try -- you only lose out when you don’t try. I want my audience to let go of their excuses and reach their goals.” Janice is never short on inspirational guests with wonderful stories to tell.
The Y? Why Not! Show can now be seen in about a dozen public access TV channels throughout the country from Berkeley to Brooklyn. You might catch it on a WCM member station, too!
Renewed Life with Guest Jerry Davis-El (Season 3 Episode 15). Jerry is a formerly incarcerated man whose daughter was murdered on his birthday. He grew in faith with God and was inspired to do more with his life. Jerry went back to school to become a mental health care professional and graduated with a masters degree, all within a matter of less than 10 years. He now leads a support group for recently released prisoners.
