nothin Next-Gen TV Pioneer Plans Move To City | New Haven Independent

Next-Gen TV Pioneer Plans Move To City

Some shows planned to air on Copsidas’ new local station.

Paul Bass Photo

Serial entrepreneur Copsidas.

SuperFrank” cooked up a plan for James Brown: have him sing Sex Machine” on a float at Pride Parade in New York.

Now he has cooked up a new plan: Ride the next revolutionary wave in television, out of a new headquarters in New Haven.

Super Frank” is the nickname of Frank Copsidas, a man who has made a career of spinning grand plans.

A former music-restaurant proprietor, private-jet operator, radio station owner, and promoter and manager for artists including soul legend Brown, Copsidas these days is pursuing low-power television, which he considers the next wave ushered in by new technology.

By April 1 he plans to begin broadcasting a station called WTXX on Channel 34 to a 30-mile radius from a tower in Hamden.

He’s also in the process of buying a building in New Haven to house the headquarters of his company, Intrigue Group/Tyche Media, which has three low-power TV licenses, runs a sports TV operation, and publishes and promotes music. Working with city government’s economic development office, he has his eye on a building that will include 2,000 to 3,000 square feet for Intrigue plus other spaces to rent out. He’s moving the company here from Hartford, banking on New Haven’s vibrant cultural scene along with its proximity to New York City.

At first you’ll need to pick up WTXX the old-fashioned way, without cable, on your TV, using a digital antenna, to watch its programs live and all the major networks for free. Over-the-air television is finding its core audiences falling within the 24 – 34 year-old age group, Copsidas said.

It’s people over 50 who don’t get it [even though] they grew up with rabbit ears,” he said. It’s free TV.”

You’ll also be able to watch the shows from New Haven’s area station as well as the Providence and Hartford area Intrigue low-power stations on a dedicated Youtube channel as well as through Roku. Intrigue produces original shows like Just Eat It, whose host doesn’t know anything about food” but dives into local establishments; the Pop-Up Psychic, a Lucy Van Pelt-style advice-giver, and Subway Trax, which features performances by buskers in New York’s subway stations; some children’s shows; and classic horror films and musicals, the latter hosted by a Big Apple cabaret singer named Shana Farr. There’s also an affiliated streamed Bollywood channel, Diya TV.

Eventually viewers will be able to stream shows at will online through services like Apple TV.

WTXX will actually have four frequencies (34.1, 34.2, 34.3, 34.4). Copsidas and his venture-capital backers are betting that the newest iteration of TV transmission standards — called ATSC 3.0, a benefit including hyperlocal niche programming — will lead to such a mix of old-fashioned free over-the-air- low-power broadcasting and the new world of digital broadcasting …

… to stations like WTXX.

Decades after pay-to-watch cable came to dominate TV, old-fashioned VHF and UHF broadcasting is getting a second life, Copsidas said. It’s still there. It never went away. It’s coming back” in a new form.

Helen Rosenberg of the city government’s economic development officer, who has been helping Copsidas relocate his company here, said he brings a lot of creative energy and ideas to doing business in and making investments in the city.”

He’s not the kind of person who will stop by doing one thing,” Rosenberg said. He will always have his eyes open for more opportunities. He’s been able to branch off in all these different directions and be successful.”

Pride Before The Fall

Copsidas backstage with Justin Timberlake.

Copsidas has been chasing the next big idea since 1978, when he ran a fleet of 270 school buses and coaches in New York. He ventured into real estate, then operated a restaurant that had live music in Whitefish, Montana. After diving into web development and running a digital music store in Kansas City, he owned and operated two corporate jets in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, then landed in London doing public relations for tours by Dolly Parton, Jay‑Z, and the Beach Boys.

In between, he was doing radio down South, where he met the late great James Brown, and ended up serving as Brown’s manager from 2002 until the soul singer’s death in 2006.

He was a really good soul … a wonderful warm hearted person,” Copsidas recalled of Brown.

Brown also liked to toy with his entourage. He insisted that even his manager sing and dance with him on the closing number of his shows, Sex Machine.”

By his own admission, Copsidas is not a singer. But, Brown insisted, If I didn’t, I got fined $25.”

One time he left me in the middle of the stage at the Oxygen festival in Dublin. Hundred thousand people out there. We were in the middle of the stage, about to do our ending number, and he said, You finish the show.’

I said, No, no, no, no, no. They came to see you, not me.’

He said, Nope, you’re finishing it.’ He walked right off stage. The band was laughing, the back up singers. So we started what we were doing in the routine. And he walked right back on.”

Copsidas recalled suggesting that the singer and his band perform Sex Machine” on a float in the 2007 edition of New York City’s Pride Parade.

Sing, Get up, get on up now,’ and when float stops, do what you do at the concerts: Turn to the crowd and say, Turn to the person on your right, and tell them you love them. Now turn to the person on the left and tell them you love them, too. We need to love each other.’ Then, Get on up, get on up now,’ and keep going,” Copsidas recalled suggesting.

He loved that idea.” Alas, Brown died in December 2006, before he had the chance to carry the idea through.

Click on or download the above audio file to listen to the full interview with Frank Superfrank” Copsidas.

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