“You just think every day is another freakin’ day in paradise,” Paula Airhart said, in a disagreement with her friend.

“Hey—that’d be a great name for a show,” Starlene Rankin responded.

And so the name evolved into a show on the Ames Public Access Channel, which airs live each Friday at 10 p.m.

Where else are dead celebrities’ birthdays celebrated? Where else can you receive a free movie rental if you send in something to be read on the air? Where else can callers interact live with the hosts and discuss controversial issues?

It must be “Another Freakin’ Day In Paradise.”

Rankin and Airhart host “Another Freakin’ Day In Paradise,” which centers around social issues and the viewers who call in.

“I like my shows to be happenings—sort of spontaneous. I want to facilitate communication and discussion between important issues,” said Rankin, who also produces and edits “Another Freakin’ Day In Paradise.”

“There’s some sort of spontaneous quality that you don’t get on taped shows.”

Rankin said public access programming and her show’s “anything goes” type of format in particular, is “more of an art form.”

It’s not as objective like journalism, but I want it to be open,” she said. “I think people who watch our show are looking for something different.”

Rankin and Airhart come prepared with two or three things to discuss, usually pertaining to social issues.

However, the path of the show is determined by the callers. Airhart and Rankin may spend 10 to 15 minutes talking with each one on the air.

During a recent show, none of the callers wanted to talk about what they had planned, Rankin said.

“Great conversations were stimulated, though, and that’s what I like about it (their show). We have the ability to be flexible with our format. We have no one to answer to and no one is paying any money,” she said.

Rankin said she does not want to give advice, but make the show an outlet for callers.

“There could be 40 other people out there who thought the same thing and no one would’ve known if the caller wouldn’t have thrown it in there,” she said.

But what if a caller “throws in” a cuss word or two during a live broadcast of “Another Freakin’ Day In Paradise?”

“If a caller wants to talk on the air, their name and phone number are written down and then they are called back,” said Jeff Hamilton, broadcast and production technician for the Ames Public Access Channel.

“We ask what they want to talk about,” he said. “This is a way of screening who wants to get on the air and screw around and make fools of themselves, and who wants to contribute to the program.”

If a caller says the “F” word during a live broadcast, as has happened in the past, there is no way of bleeping it out, Hamilton said.

“We don’t have a ten second delay feedback system like radio stations have,” he said.

He said that cable access stations are not as heavily regulated by the FCC as the broadcast stations are.

Rankin said she “trusts that people won’t get raunchy on us. It’s illegal to use the phone for obscenities.”

“Another Freakin’ Day In Paradise” is edited after it is created, Rankin said, so it can be re-aired throughout the week.

Rankin said live interaction shows on public access channels are the wave of the future for problem solving. She would like to see more people start their own shows, which would hopefully stop so many people from watching sitcoms, she said.

“I see talk shows and think, ‘What does that have to do with me in Ames?’ It’s hard to relate to a lot of stuff on television except for the news,” Rankin said.

Rankin said “Freakin”‘ is her part in social activism to make the community a safer and better place.

“We want to encourage people to be activists in their own way, whether it be writing a letter to the editor or whatever—just not always follow the system,” Rankin said.

People can do their own social activism by starting their own show on the public access channel, Airhart said.

“If you don’t like what we say, come on down to the studio and make your own show,” Airhart said. “Who cares if we don’t agree.”

Rankin started her part in social activism five years ago with a show called “New Vision, Peace and Justice,” where she interviewed lecturers and guests who came to Ames.

She then co-produced and directed “Live From Cell Box C,” which centered around Airhart’s humorous movie reviews. The series also won a national award for public access shows.

The two also created “Friday Night Alive,” and “Sex, Drugs, Rock and Extinction,” which they decided to stop producing because of controversy . Last spring Airhart and Rankin hosted “Kickin’ It In Ames,” before hosting their latest creation last August, “Another Freakin’ Day In Paradise.”

Starting your own show is as easy as a visit to the public access station in Ames and no experience is needed, Hamilton said.

“I’m willing to work with and train people on the facilities,” Hamilton said. “All you need to do is come to the station and have an idea for a show you want to do.”

Various shows, including “Another Freaking Day In Paradise,” can always use the extra help with cameras and production. However, Hamilton said what is really required is a “tremendous dedication of time and energy.”

Rankin said she spends six to eight hours a week preparing “Another Freakin’ Day In Paradise,” which includes editing the show for play back throughout the week.

Most people, especially students, don’t have that kind of time, Hamilton said.

But Rankin feels people should realize how beneficial having a public access show can be.

“More people need to realize how fun it is. How cheap it is. How free it is,” Rankin said. “What a creative way to express yourself. Everybody loves to play around with modern technology. It’s fun.”

Airhart did not have previous broadcasting experience before she started working on public access shows and admitted she was nervous at first.

“My self-esteem has gotten a lot better,” she said. “At first I would sit in the chair and sweat. I didn’t know what to say. But now because I ask people on the phone to open up with us, I feel a lot more able to open up also.”

Airhart said she wasn’t an outgoing person before she started shows. “Some part of me was, but I didn’t have an outlet and now with public access I do,” she said.

“I let them know who I am and I ask that they do the same for me,” she said.

In the future Airhart hopes to do more piercing or tattooing on the air.

“I like to do things out of the ordinary, so people know what’s out there. So if they see it in the mall or wherever, it’s not a big shock,” she said.

“People are more excepting if they see things on TV first. I wouldn’t necessarily be encouraging them to go out and do theses things themselves.”

Rankin said she hopes to implement panels on things like alcoholism, homosexual issues, drug use and farm issues in upcoming shows.

“I’d also like to start new shows with a different emphasis— more geared toward the younger crowd. Youth at the middle school and high school level,” she said.

It costs nothing to express yourself over the Ames cable access television waves, unless you break something, she said.