The Lone Shark - Trouble at Soundview Television

Trouble At Soundview Television

Sharky and Haffner’s initial relationship with the Station Manager had been excellent (as demonstrated when he asked Haffner to speak at the SoundView Grand Opening ceremony). Just minutes before the very first episode of The Lone Shark began broadcasting from the new SoundView studio, the Station Manager entered the studio and personally cleaned the top of Jim Sharky’s desk, in preparation for the evening’s broadcast. He would also regularly watch the production of The Lone Shark from inside the studio’s control room. However by July 2001, as the anniversary of the first year of broadcasting from SoundView Television passed, Sharky and Haffner had begun butting heads with the Station Manager of the year-old SoundView Television Studios.

The Station Manager began making phone calls to Haffner, saying that he ”… wanted to express (his) concern” over the strong language, adult themes and content of The Lone Shark. Haffner’s response was to confront the Station Manager and question whether he was attempting to influence or censor the content of the program (something which was not allowed by the Federal regulations governing local-cable television stations). The Station Manager denied that was the motive for his phone calls. Haffner told the Station Manager that he understood his concerns, but that he and Sharky would not make any attempts to change the content of The Lone Shark. Haffner was informed that programs containing adult content and themes were supposed to broadcast after 11 p.m., but SoundView’s studio facilities closed down at 10 p.m., making it impossible to broadcast a live program after that hour (The Lone Shark broadcast live from 9-9:30 p.m. EST). Haffner rebutted that changing The Lone Shark’s broadcast time slot to 11 p.m. or later would mean the program would no longer be live and therefore the interactive viewer phone calls would not be possible. Also, the SoundView Television station management could not affect the program’s content, so he questioned the Station Manager’s motives. Haffner asked the Station Manager why these recent phone calls were even being made to him, as they were unnecessary and would not result in any changes to the content of The Lone Shark. The Station Manager’s only response was to reiterate to Haffner that he was ”… only expressing (his) concern”, so Haffner decided to end the phone call. Haffner relayed the Station Manager’s concerns to Sharky, but both Sharky and Haffner considered the phone calls nothing more than the Station Manager attempting to tamper with the production of The Lone Shark.