You may have flipped through the channels one night and caught a glimpse of NYC TV on channel 25. The station caters directly to the New York City community, and one of its shows, Cool In Your Code, has not only been seen by numerous city-dwellers, but the folks over at the New York Emmys have taken notice as well. For the third straight year, Cool In Your Code has racked up an impressive number of nominations. Hank Wasiak, host and one of the Executive Producers of the show, beams with pride, “It was nominated twice in ’04, five times in ’05 and six times in ’06.” As the nominations continue to roll in, more and more people take notice of the program. This only seems appropriate since taking notice of the goings on in New York City is exactly what’s made Cool In Your Code so popular.
Shirley Rumierk, one of the co-hosts, explains, “We go to different zip codes throughout the city, different neighborhoods, and talk about history, fashion, food, local shops of interest. What we try to do is avoid the national chains and focus on the mom and pops, the boutique shops, those places that you can only find there or that make them unique to that particular place.”
The show was the brainchild of the team at The Concept Farm and really gained steam in 2003 when Wasiak and another Executive Producer, Will Morrison, were reading about a recent speech by Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Wasiak remembers, “[Bloomberg] said we have all these communications assets that the city owns and runs, and they are just that: assets that we’re not utilizing fully. So my mission is to change the way people look at municipal broadcasting.”
Wasiak picked up the phone and dialed the mayor’s office. He quickly got in touch with the right people and made his pitch. “We said, ‘you’ve got a network and we’ve got ideas and production, let’s shake hands and create a show.’ Three months later we were on the air.” There was one catch, however, but it was one the team was more than happy to oblige. “The only creative direction we had was that the show’s gotta be a positive postcard for the people of the city of New York.” Filled with ideas and a love of the city, the team was off to work.
Between the 230 zip codes in an ever-changing city, the folks over at Cool In Your Code will never run out of material, but zip codes aren’t the only “codes” the team deals with. Within the show are a number of smaller segments, many of which are dubbed with a “code” of their own, including features like “Dress Code” (fashion), “Bar Code” (night life), “Vocal Code” (music), and so on. In addition to the many “Code” features, the show has a segment called “On The Spot,” during which they go to locations where films were shot in New York and tell the backstories of those films. “Back On The Block” is a segment where Wasiak brings New York celebrities to their old stomping grounds. According to Wasiak, “The emotions that come out are incredible.”
With so many different “codes,” Rumierk ends up getting quite the cultural workout. “I never know what I’m going to be doing,” she explains, “I could be horseback riding, kayaking the Hudson, playing tennis in Washington Heights, learning Kung Fu from a seventh generation Kung Fu master down in Chinatown; the show always has me doing different things. It almost makes me feel likes Jules Asner, ‘Wild On E!, Wild On New York.’” By contrast, Rumierk also takes a tip from another TV tour guide, Dora the Explorer. Rumierk jokes, “I take a page from Dora’s book. When we hit certain neighborhoods, we always try to incorporate certain words from the native language of the restaurant or the neighborhood.”
One language the Cool In Your Code team took on in 2006 was that of hip-hop when they did a feature on one of the culture’s founders, Grandmaster Caz. This segment accounts for one of Cool In Your Code’s six New York Emmy nominations. Caz recalls, “Basically they came to me, or us, as in Hush Tours, which is a hip-hop sightseeing tour that we do in the city, and we took it from there. I took ‘em down to see the park right up the street from the birthplace of hip-hop and told them a little bit about this culture and how it came about, where it started, and pretty much talked about the things that I was up to, and it got nominated for an Emmy.” Caz is still floored by that last fact. “I’ve done so many interviews and so many documentaries, and a lot of people commend me on my interviews and stuff like that but never anything like an Emmy nomination. I’m honored.”
Cool In Your Code took home two New York Emmys last year and if they take home an Emmy or two this April it will only continue their momentum. According to Morrison, the nominations have been a great source of publicity for the show. He explains, “Early on, before we were so known, people still wanted to be on, but you had to explain what it was. Now we call up and places are ‘oh we love that show, we definitely want to be on it!’” The local shops and eateries aren’t the only places wanting to be involved with Cool In Your Code. NBC picked it up last September as a part of NYC TV on NBC.
While more Emmy statues would be a welcome addition for the Cool In Your Code team, Rumierk points to the reaction they get from New Yorkers as the true measure as to how well they’re doing. “I’ve had people tell me, ‘I live in Manhattan but I trekked out to Long Island City because you talked about that restaurant and it’s amazing.’” Wasiak adds that the phrase, “that’s so cool, I never knew that” is his favorite prize. “When we hear that we know we hit the spot.”
Cool in Your Code airs Tuesday nights at 8:30pm on channel 25.
For more info check out www.coolinyourcode.com.
Posted by The Rooster