If all goes right this fall, a local businessman who independently produces a television show that covers just about every kind of racing on wheels will air his program on a national network that boasts more than 30 million viewers.
Mark Mensch would be the first to say there are more than a few big "ifs" to get past before his
DMX Motorsports makes it on
MavTV, but those hurdles never seem to slow down the effervescent promoter of all things that run fast and roar.
And even if DMX Motorsports doesn't pass the finish line of MavTV, there isn't a doubt that Mensch has provided an opportunity for local college students and others to get valuable experience at producing a television show -- just the kind of opportunity that Michigan hopes will foster a major industry for the state.
It's ShowtimeTuesday nights will find Mensch huddled with his team in second-floor editing studios of
WKTV, the community television station in Wyoming.
Grand Valley State University senior broadcasting majors Attila Bokor, 36, from Szekelyudvarhely, Romania, and Mike Delavan, 23, from Troy, are helping Mensch to put together the next 13 episodes of DMX Motorsports by editing a couple hundred of hours of racing film.
The DMX Motorsports show is a little over a year old, and both Bokor and Delavan worked with Mensch editing the initial dozen episodes and filming this season's installments of the show. The work is painstaking, done from film taped last year using a Sony camcorder, but the team hopes to use a high-definition digital camcorder for future shows -- a necessity if it is picked up by a network.
Mike Grant, of 45-Video Productions, Inc., in Grand Rapids, shot the initial episodes, and Mensch is hoping to bring him back for filming this year. The show airs on WKTV, Channel 25, at 12 a.m. and 2 p.m. Saturdays.
"We're not in this to make a lump of money," says Mensch, 41, a graduate of Hudsonville High School. "We just want to do the show." Bokor points out the show's production values are professional and high-ebb with an ongoing, consistent focus on quality. The upcoming episodes will have a "completely new" feel, he says, reflecting the improving quality of the show.
Those efforts are underlined with the hiring of two 23-year-old co-hosts, both avowed motorsports fans chosen through a mid-February casting call that drew about four dozen candidates, Mensch says.
The co-anchors-to-be are Christina Reynolds, a Portage resident who works in a Meijer, Inc., pharmacy and who has motorcycle drag racing experience, and Sarah Borgman, a Holland resident and bartender who has done some modeling.
Hey, It's for GuysIt appears Mensch can use the help -- all of which adds to the freewheeling and fun quality of DMX Motorsports. In one episode, Mensch forgets the name of one of the people he is interviewing, just points to the guy so he can give his name and deadpans for the camera: "Joe and George, Joe and George, OK we've got to say that ten times fast."
Numbers pepper most interviews: foot-pounds of torque, who got to the 330 mark first, engine sizes, miles per hour, split-second times. New products plugged on the show "for the sports you enjoy" include a kit that converts a snowmobile into a motorized three wheeler for year round use. People talk about being "treed" -- beaten off the line when the traffic light-type signal nicknamed the Christmas tree turns green to start the race.
The Dorr Township businessman hopes to start filming this month for his shot at MavTV, Inc., an Englewood, Colo.-based cable network launched in 2004 by four former Showtime executives targeting 18- to 54-year-old men.
One major hurdle is lining up sponsors for the program, Mensch concedes. To secure a possible spot with MavTV, Mensch figures he needs to raise at least $350,000 in advertising sponsors for 13 episodes of a 22½ -minute show with nine 30-second commercials. "I've got folks in California, Ohio, Michigan looking for sponsors," he says.
Exuding his characteristic enthusiasm, Mensch hopes to build on his experience at obtaining sponsors similar to the way he garnered support for his drag motorcycle racing team. The effort morphed into a multi-media, multiple-event program with offerings including a Web site, eight-page tabloid, video shorts and local radio spots and promotional appearances for bike nights across West Michigan.
The Kentwood resident thinks he has a winning formula with the DMX Motorsports show, where he was able to tap into his broadcast background honed as a disc jockey, on some commercial production work and studies at Grand Valley State and Colorado State universities and Grand Rapids Community College.
Lots of Pitches
Enthusiasm aside, competition is tough to get on a national cable network -- but it is possible. While it may get more than 45 pitches a month for new shows, the MavTV network uses independent producers for a sizable amount of its programming, says Rob Stevens, the network's senior vice president for programming and advertising.
"It's a component of our programming," he says of independent productions. "We have, perhaps, a quarter of our programming that is done by truly independent producers." As an emerging network, MavTV's new programs are added to its schedule on a rolling basis.
With a potential audience of 33.8 million households, MavTV is not currently available in West Michigan, but is available in the Detroit area on
Comcast Corp. and is currently found on
DISH Network, Inc. By comparison, WKTV is available in about 70,000 households on cable in Wyoming, Kentwood and Gaines Township, General Manager Tom Norton says.
Mensch says he is fortunate to have culled some interest from MavTV, considering his non-traditional directing and production background.
Mensch figures his location in West Michigan will help sell the show since motorsports is a popular Midwestern pastime, and his team can act as a film crew to support other MavTV offerings. DMX Motorsports has covered events at
Kalamazoo Speedway,
Crystal Motor Speedway,
I-96 Speedway in Portland,
Winston Speedway in Rothbury and the
U.S. 131 Motorsports Park in Martin.
Kalamazoo Speedway owner Gary Howe says Mensch is "a go-getter, no doubt.. For a while, he used to come by and say he had these ideas for promotions, for a show. … And I thought, 'Yeah, yeah. Right.'
"But he knows a lot of people and has a lot of strings. He's become an unofficial promoter for the sport."
In addition to four-wheeled sports, Mensch has competed in snowmobile races and, as a youngster, raced catamaran sailboats and go-carts and drove dirt bikes. "I am deeply into racing," he says in, perhaps, a slight understatement. "I enjoy the feeling of just holding on."
Rick Martinez reports on business and other topics. His work has appeared in newspapers including The Grand Rapids Press, South Bend Tribune, The (Fort Wayne) Journal Gazette, The (Angola, Ind.) Herald-Republican and USA Today and on assorted Web sites and has been distributed by The Associated Press.
Photos:Mark Mensch (2)
Mike Grant
WKTV Studio (2)
Photographs by
Josh Tyron -All Rights Reserved