There’s no telling where a star will be born, but the student crew behind “Ellensburg Extreme” can testify it takes a lot of work just to take that first step on the air.

    Central Washington University students Kevin Tighe and Steve Allwine started kicking around the idea of a student television show last spring, started working on it during the summer, and got serious about getting it on air in the fall.

    “It took quite awhile to get it approved. That finally happened at the end of April,” Tighe said.

    New episodes of “Ellensburg Extreme” air every two weeks at 7:30 p.m. Fridays on Ellensburg Community Television (cable channel 2), and then repeated throughout the week. The crew will produce six shows before taking a summer break.

    It’s kind of like ‘Saturday Night Live’ and ‘Almost Live’ with some sports mixed in,” Tighe said.

    The show features a newscast by Chad Wixom done in the spirit of Jon Stewart on the “Daily Show.”

    Other reoccurring segments are a skit called “Secret Asian Man,” and “Campus Cribs,” during which the film crew visits the home of a Central student.

    “Campus cribs is a takeoff on MTV,” Tighe said. “Quite a lot of people are interested in doing it.

    CWU communications professor Michael Ogden is the adviser for the program. The students are not receiving credit for taking part in the program because they have not yet met university requirements.

    “The most important thing is they need a screening committee to take a look at sketches,” Ogden said.

    Ogden said a committee might have raised objections to “Secret Asian Man.”

    “I thought it was yet another perpetuation of racial stereotypes,” Ogden said. “It was right on the border of poor taste.”

    Ogden gave the crew a yellow warning card for the skit. They received a red card for allowing someone not trained on the equipment use a camera in the studio. The studio in Bouillon Hall recently revived a $500,000 upgrade to all digital equipment.

    Right now the show is more of an Ellensburg Community Television production than it is a product of the university, Ogden said.

    “I’ve been working with them more on the technical side,” Ogden said. “At some point I’ll have to put my foot down.”

    Although they are not getting course credit, Tighe and Allwine said they are gaining valuable experience.

    “Everything we learn we’re able to apply directly in the classroom,” Allwine said.

    There are about 20 people involved in the production, most of them communications majors. Tighe and Allwine are on the same track to finish with a year of film studies next year.

    Tighe said they are open to working with people from other disciplines, such as a theater student experienced in lighting.

    Some of the “Ellensburg Extreme” graduate this spring, but most of the people will be back in the fall. Tighe said the hope is to have the program established enough to continue year to year.