Edmonton Journal from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada • 17

BEST COPY AVAILABLE EDITOR: Bob Remmgton. 429-5345 i i 5 i Li W. kj V. Edmonton trio vitalize hip, hot youth program Greg Kennedy i 1 -1 U' I 'C 7 I i 1 0 i '''JfS X. above: Nil i Entertainment reporter Barb I 4 Ustina checks 1 -3 I out Another .0 A 4 'I WorldStar Monica Kim i RIGHT: Associate Uf6r Carla Nolan A little bit of Edmonton goes a long way on YTV.

While our sports dynasties may be sagging, the City of Champions sull packs a cultural punch via Canada's youth television network into more than 6 4 million homes. It all happens weekdays at 6 p.m. hen YTV hip, entertainment magazine music flagship, 28:43 sails on to the screen thanks to three Edmonton women now making their mark in the industry. Show host Monica Kim, entertainment reporter Barb Ustina and associate producer Carla Nolan are linchpins of the creative team and all grew up here, where their families still live. 23 43 made its debut in February, with a hybrid format that includes a few music videos, but emphasizes the stories and personalities in contemporary entertainment, through interviews and feature segments from Canada and abroad.

To have her own show is a hopping big break for Kim, 26, who jokes she "grew up on the north side, on the other side of the tracks" to graduate from Archbishop O'Leary High School, before copping a degree in radio and TV arts at Ryerson in Toronto. On air, she addresses teens as information consumers on their terms, using their language and pop icons with crackling positive energy, enough to convince viewers that they can achieve any dream they dare to imagine. When some of Canada's top rock guitarists gathered recently to share their trade secrets, 28:48 was there. "If you're ready to graduate from air guitar and try the real thing there's nothing like strapping it on and going for it," Kim encouraged viewers. "And remember, there's no substitute for experience." From a Muppet puppet workshop in New York City, to Top 10 album and single charts, to video requests, 28:48 named after its airtime minus commercials gets around the block.

Ustina hops jets to interview film directors and movie stars. From the world of paid personal shoppers to tire-scorched pit stops at auto races, she earns her air miles. Her personal philosophy is simplicity: "I always reach for the highest cloud I can find." Nolan functions as a sort of hightech chef, ensuring segments and elements of each show are prepped right and served piping hot, to meld seamlessly into Kim's live hosting. "Our show is done live-to-tape," she says. "Once we get in the control room to actually shoot the show and put it together all the elements have to be as close to perfect as possible.

We don't go back and edit everything." i i ii ii ii ii i -iii mi. iii nd about keeping an open mind "Toronto's kind of rude in a way. You walk down the street and, like, no one meets your eye. They hardly ever say 'hi' or anything like that Edmonton's great for a two-feet-on-the-ground kind of upbringing. Barb Ustina On TV MONICA Host Kim credits Alberta schools for part of her success.

"The West has a great education system: I see the system out here (Toronto), and once you get to high school, it's very divided. You take psychology or you take a certain science or you're going to university or you're not. "Out West, every body took a bit of everything. And that's the thing with the industry I'm in now, is that no matter what you've done, you can take a bit of something into your job. You're meeting people ho are musicians, or actors.

Or somebody will create a puppet. Or a storyteller. You meet all different sorts. The more you've learned you can bring that into your work." Self-marketing is as important to Kim as her education. "Education is great but if you're not out there promoting yourself, if you're not letting people know that you're out there, then how are you going to get the job in the first place? Being in the TV industry you can't be shy.

You CAN'T be." Born in Seoul, South Korea, Kim's family emigrated to Canada in December 1972, to Yellowknife, before moving here when she was 10. After Ryerson, she learned the news ropes as an editor and reporter at Broadcast News (the broadcast arm of the Canadian Press wire service), then joined YTV as a production co-ordinator for The Hit List video show, with Tarzan Dan. When 28:48 was in development, she didn't even apply. "I wasn't even interested in working on it, actually. I was interested in working on YTV News, the other new show that we're doing.

I made a demo tape for them. "Somehow it got to the producer of 28:48. One day he just came up to me and said: 'Monica, how would you like to audition for host of this It just kind of floored me. That was something I hadn't really thought about." Given to casual dress and blue-jeans on air, Kim sometimes incurs a bit of sartorial wrath from her mother, Grace. "It's so funny.

She called me the other day at work. I thought, 'Oh my God. My mom is calling me at work, there must be something I call her back, and what she said was: 'Dear, I don't want to i-- also completing her Bachelor's degree in International Relations at the University of Toronto, part-time. "She was very, very popular as a PJ (see below)," Dyer says. "Janis is a sponge.

She will get into a situation and she will soak as much information and know ledge and education as she can get, and ultimately does a great job." The ever-personable Green is new on-air, and joined YTV last fall as a field reporter for Rock 'N Talk, hich as replaced by 28:48. Fresh out of Ottawa's Algonquin College, he wasted no goldsmith. "I went to Ross Shep, just across the street from Westmount Mall, here in fact I spent most of my time in high school, going to the mall, and not in high school itself." After achieving a journalism degree from Carleton University in Ottawa. Ustina who describes herself as "twenty-something" joined YTV three years ago as a temp secretary, worked her way up to story editor on the late Rock 'A' Talk show, and started appearing on-air last summer. With experience comes a bag of interviewing tricks.

But "on the other hand, it's a little bit more difficult, because you become tougher on yourself. You notice your mistakes a little easier, once you have experience." Please see to people and hat they do. That was really important, and that has a lot to do with working in the TV industry. "Toronto's kind of rude in a ay. You walk down the street, and like, no one meets your eye.

They hardly ever say 'hi' or anything like that. "Edmonton's great for a two-feet-on-the-ground kind of upbringing. No one there is too special. You never get the impression you're head and shoulders above the rest of the crowd, hich is important, I think." Her mom, Astrid, still lives in the same house she grew up in. One sister.

Judy, is a psychiatrist, hile another, Melanie, is a homemaker ho teaches school from time to time. Her brother, Grant, is a roadcast superstars cutting their teeth i i i -1 jf I. put you down or anything. But could you wear something a little more sophisticated to show that you're more of a "Mom, my audience is 14, maybe 16! 'But you don't have to dress like she said. So, yeah, she's very much a mom.

She calls all her friends and says: 'She's Kim takes her future a day at a time. In no headlong rush for glory, she has an older and a younger brother to keep her humble. "This is my first, big, on-air job. time in winning one of the top jobs at YTV in a tough audition. PJ does NOT mean pyjamas at YTV.

'Program Jockeys' Jenn (Jennifer Beech), Rockn' Chan (Chandra Galasso), Fresh Phil (Phil Guerrero) and Aashna (Aashna Patel) deliver entertaining and educational live links between YTV's programs daily with segments from 30 seconds to six minutes. The PJs share the air with The Grogs Muppet-like puppets with wickedly hilarious attitudes with names like Filth, Warren, Iffer, Gidian, Rosencrantz, Sorbet, Jasper, Chigonk and It's a lot of fun. I'm learning something every day, whether it's about production or about being on-air. I'm not really sure where I'm going next." BARB Entertainment reporter Ustina says: "Coming from Edmonton was good for me, in a way, because everyone's so friendly. I learned immediately, growing up there, how to go out to people and start talking to them, right off the bat.

Cupcake. These furry critters sing, dance and pal around. Heck, they were the house band at the Gemini Awards this year. "The PJs and The Grogs get phenomenal amounts of mail," Dyer says. The Grogs' creators and puppeteers, Jason Hopley and Jamie Shannon, just happened to "come by to see a PJ friend at YTV, and they were invited on the air, with a couple of the Grogs that they had in hand.

"Everybody went crazy. They just loved them. Kids absolutely love them, as do adults, because they all have such different Mint's OV CONCERT: The Edmonton Symphony Orchestra's Magnificent Masters series features guest violinist Gil Shaham and guest conductor Steven Sloane performing works by Berlioz, Korngold and Schumann, 8 p.m.. Jubilee Auditorium, 11455 87th Ave. For tickets call 451-8000.

THEATRE: Nexus Theatre's production of The Parallax Garden starring Joy Coghill ends tonight, 8 p.m. For ticket information call the box office at 429-3625. Union Theatre presents Rosencrantz and Gilda Radner Are Dead, 9 p.m., City Media Club, 8906 99th St Rock band Big, Inc. will perform an opening set Admission is $7, $5 members, at the door. FILM: Metro Cinema presents Entre La Langue et L'Ocean, 8 p.m., Colin Low Theatre, Canada Place, 9700 Jasper Ave.

The Princess Theatre presents One of Our Dinosaurs is Missing, 1:30 p.m.; The End of the Golden Weather, 7 p.m.: Othello. 930 p.m.; 10337 Whyte 433-0979. The Space and Science Centre presents in Imax Theatre: Tropical Rainforest, 11 a.m., 1, 3, 5, 7 and 9 p.m.; Fires of Kuwait noon, 2. 4 and 8 p.m.; Zeidler Theatre: The Sky Tonight 11 a 2 and 5 p.m.; The Mars Show, noon, 3 and 7 p.m.; Listen to the Whales music laser matinee. 1 and 4 p.m.; Music Laser Light Shows: U2.

8 p.m.; Red Hot Chili Peppers, 10 45 p.m.; ZZ Top. 9.25 p.m.; 11211 142nd SL, 452-9100 pooi or emerging laient is percolating at YTV. With its youthful orientation, it's very likely some of Canada's broadcast superstars of tomorrow are the fresh-faced, on-air personalities your children watch today. Based on phenomenal fan mail, YTV publicity co-ordinator Ruth Dyer believes the following stars are on the rise: Tarzan Dan, one of the zaniest and most creative personalities on the dial, pumps up the videos and counts down the week's Top 30 tunes on The Hit List, a one-hour show (7:30 p.m. Tuesdays, repeated 5:30 p.m.

Saturdays). A top radio personality in Vancouver, Calgary and Toronto's hit station CFTR, Dan has been named Canadian Announcer of the Year for three consecutive years by The Record Magazine. YTV News show cases anchors Janis Mackey and Marrett Green, ho cover national and international news, as well as consumer and lifestyle issues, in a unique production that pools YTV with CTV News resources. The weekly, half-hour show airs Sundays (1 p.m.) and repeats Mondays (8 p.m.) Mackey, a poised presenter at the Geminis, has an impressive resume that could gag a hippo, and has been with YTV ever since RecRoom, a hang-loose basement show that preceded Wayne's World by years. She's i i ABOVE: YTV news anchors Janis Mackey and Marrett Green LEFT: PJ and the Grogs RIGHT: Tarzan Dan personalities.

"Jamie and Jason have created new characters that were featured on Santa Calls, a phone-in show for kids at Christmas time. They also did a Christmas special. The Grogs' First Santa Claus Parade, here they discovered ho Santa Claus really was and went on a search for the perfect gift to give to him.".