UTV call-in show livens up the midnight hour

Three students host the live 'Midnight Hour' Sunday nights. Two years ago, during a 13-hour UTV13 marathon, the student-run television station created Penn's first call-in television show. And campus late-night entertainment hasn't been the same since. Entirely improvisational, Midnight Live has given many students a reason to watch television Sunday nights at midnight. Since the installation of Resnet in several hundred rooms in the Quadrangle last summer, Midnight Live has accumulated a large viewing audience, according to co-host and College junior Brad Taicher. Anything goes on this show. And the three hosts say Penn students are taking advantage of the opportunity to express themselves on the call-in program. Caller topics have ranged from questions about sex to flambeed bananas with mustard and ketchup. The hosts -- Taicher, College senior Sara Stumpf and Wharton sophomore Art Canning -- take it all in stride. "We're out to have a good time," said Taicher, a Biological Basis of Behavior major. Hosting such an interactive show requires the ability to think on one's feet, Taicher said. Midnight Live is divided into three segments, with two hosts simultaneously answering on-air phone calls. The show receives various types of calls -- from group phone calls to callers who address the hosts specifically to callers who respond to each other -- and the hosts have no idea what the subject of the calls are going to be beforehand. Different plots develop throughout each show, and "resolution depends entirely on the callers," according to the hosts. "We take most of the funny stuff from the callers," Canning said. Stumpf, a Psychology major who plans to go into a field related to consumer behavior, added that "the most exciting part is wondering who's going to call." Although the hosts admitted that callers are occasionally sexually offensive, they are prepared to deal with anything and rarely get shocked. Stumpf noted that she and the other hosts are not the callers' focus, and usually remain relatively protected from ridicule. "I don't think they're as excited to see us as they are to hear themselves talk," Stumpf said. Taicher attributed the increasing number of callers to the safety of anonymity. "[Callers] can say anything they want to because they're protected," he said. But although the show is watched by students from across campus, Taicher admitted that their callers are not a diverse group. "We have a lot of dedicated viewers and a small percentage of cult callers," he said. He said many viewers are too intimidated to call -- and he insisted that they should not be. The nature of Midnight Live has changed dramatically since the three hosts took over this year. Canning, Taicher and Stumpf revamped the show and created the free-wheeling atmosphere it has now. Previously, the show dealt with weightier issues. "What makes our show different is that in the past, they were really serious. They were pretty conservative," said Canning, who is currently interning at the radio station WPLY-100.3 and is making demo tapes in hopes of becoming a dejay. One caller announced his obsession with cooking unusual concoctions, like brownies with baked-in scallops. Canning then promised that if the viewer made the brownies he would eat them on the air. The viewer arrived at the station half an hour later with the brownies in hand. The dynamic provided by the interaction between the three hosts and the callers is what makes the show interesting. "Viewers like it when we yell at each other," Canning said.