KRCA-TV’s El Show de Don Cheto

PRG builds solutions from the ground up — and the top down.

Challenge:
Turn a haphazard array of lighting fixtures into a smoothly functioning system.

Solution:
Since November 2005, KRCA-TV’s El Show de Don Cheto has been winning fans in Los Angeles’ Latino community with its daily mix of talk, music and variety programming. Few viewers would guess that the show’s Burbank, CA, studio was the former home of The People’s Court — one of daytime TV’s most enduring franchises.

Updating the venerable studio from courtroom to contemporary variety venue required a top-to-bottom transformation, recalls lighting designer Greg Cunningham of Cue2Cue, Inc. “Under the previous management, there had been no continuity of maintenance, and much of the equipment was in disrepair,” he says. “We needed to make it a bare studio and start all over again.”

To execute the makeover, Cunningham called on PRG and Peter Alexander, the senior account executive of lighting services. “I didn’t want to go to a bunch of companies, so I asked PRG to broker everything: all the new moving lights and other equipment, all the parts for repairs, all qualified personnel, and everything else we needed.”

Working with a master electrician from PRG, Cunningham stripped out the old set, drapes, cable and fixtures; inventoried existing equipment; and brought the wiring up to current code. Then he designed and hung the lighting for the incoming production.

Once the variety show was up and running, the station asked Cunningham to install new systems for three more studios. Again, the designer chose to work with PRG. “I have had a very good long-term relationship with PRG,” he says. “They have always been 100 percent behind me and 100 percent helpful in everything I’ve ever needed.”