by Max Marbut
Staff Writer
Workspace: PRC Digital Media President Ray Hays
“When he was able to stop laughing, he gave me a job.”
That’s how Ray Hays, president of PRC Digital Media, remembers starting in the video production business.
Just 15 years old, Hays heard the local public television station, Ch. 7, might want to hire some freelance production help to work on a new program called “Feedback.” He made an appointment with station Manager Dan Kossoff and toward the end of the interview, Kossoff asked the teenager, “Why do you want to work in television?”
Hays said he looked Kossoff in the eye and replied matter-of-factly, “I’ve seen television and I’m sure it can be done better.”
Two years later, Hays produced and directed “On Call” at Ch. 7, a live show in which physicians would answer questions from viewers. At age 20, Hays went to Tallahassee with Kossoff and helped develop the Florida Broadcasting Network.
Hays also worked for Ch. 4 when the station was producing “PM Magazine” and with the CBS Television network’s sports programming division.
In 1988, he struck out on his own and opened an independent production company. Twelve years ago, the business had grown so much he moved to its present location on Riverside Avenue near Forest Street.
He said it’s one of the few buildings that wasn’t torn down as part of the Brooklyn redevelopment project.
Hays said the structure was an automobile dealership in the 1920s. “We’ve heard Packard.”
PRC Digital Media produces a range of products including television commercials, training and safety videos and documentaries. There’s also an audio operation that works with National Public Radio as a satellite studio, connecting local guests with NPR affiliates all over the country.
The company also translates audio from English-language videos into nine other languages and three dialects and there are graphics and 3-D animation departments.
Hays said the biggest change he’s seen in the television production business has been what he called “democratization” of the media.
“It’s gotten to the point that anybody can buy a camera for $250 and be a producer,” he explained. “I think that’s made people lose sight of the craft. The basic concepts of storytelling seem to be falling by the wayside.
“There needs to be a beginning, a middle and an end and when it’s over, if you haven’t moved someone or educated them or persuaded them, you haven’t done anything.”
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