Asian Culture Alliance (ACA) founder-president Cavin Fung (middle, in yellow shirt) and Asian Culture TV (ACTV) CEO Carl Magno (center) with show hosts, guest performers, and production crews during the taping of Music Asia Christmas Special filmed at the ACA Center in downtown Las Vegas.

ACTV: Making (Air)Waves Everywhere

ARTICLE AND PHOTOGRAPHY BY ZEN S. LALUNA

Surely, it is poised to create tidal (air)waves in the near future.

Asian Culture TV (ACTV), a 24/7 Asian television network on Digital Channel 30.6 (Las Vegas), is distinctly making constant ripples since its launch a year ago. And there is no stopping it from creating ripples… till it churns into a tsunami over the airwaves, or online sooner than expected.

Conceived in August 2016 by joint venture partners ACA and VAsianTV, ACTV was formally launched on January 21, 2017 with its premier telecast of Asian News, the first ever newscast dedicated to Asians and Asian Americans in the Las Vegas Valley, and now, the world.

Since its launch, ACTV has not stopped its ascent from a single television newscast to its current programming that encompasses multi-ethnic cultures, arts, entertainment, travel, tourism, lifestyle, Christian worship, and coverage of community events that impact the diverse Asian-American communities in Las Vegas and elsewhere.

Today, ACTV’s station-produced shows include the Asian News (in English and Chinese versions); Music Asia that promotes local talents; Under The Vegas Sun with Steve Schorr, a show about movers and shakers of Vegas Valley; Good Samaritan with Dr. Paul Magno, which educates viewers on how to help others with non-serious medical issues; Flags of Asia, which introduces the Flags of the 48 Asian nations recognized by the United Nations; Food Asia, which introduces four of the top dishes from each of the 48 Asian nations; Profiles, a brief introduction by members of Asian Culture Alliance; Window of Art by Chinese artist and president of the American Artist Association (AMA) Dingrong Liu; Qigong by Master Yuen; TaeKwando by Master Starry Du; Beauty by Cristina, hosted by make-up artist Cristina Jacobs; B&B Vegas, featuring the many Bed & Breakfast providers in Las Vegas; plus a host of future shows already in the can.

ACTV also prides itself of local and international content contributors that provide entertaining programs aimed at the Global Asian market. These include Living Asia Channel’s On Foot/Young Asia, Animals Asia, Asia Lifestyle and Asia Travel; Inside Taiwan, Taiwan Travel and Fall in Love with Taiwan – all travel-and-tourism themed shows; Ultimate Guide on how to live a happy life; Praze and Las Vegas Tonight – both Christian worship programs.

Asian News

Asian News airs twice daily on Saturdays at 6:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. on Digital Channel 30.6 (Las Vegas), with simulcasts on
Youtube.com/AsianCultureTV, www.actvus.com, and on the ACTV-05media APP worldwide, its own global platform. As a result, it is able to reach close to three billion smart phone users all over the world. ACTV’s platform provider-partner, 05 Media LLC, is a Silicon-Valley based entity founded by Dr. Sai Agahi.

Asian News, a weekly news broadcast, highlights activities and events that impact the lives of Las Vegas Valley’s Asian-American community. Immediately after its launch, the Chinese-American community created its own version in Chinese language.

Likewise, the Asian News-English version had attracted the attention of other multi-ethnic Asian groups in Las Vegas. Equally inspired, they followed suit and produced their own segments featuring their respective communities, local events and projects.

Mike StaJuana hosts and produces Fil-Am TV, focused on the Filipino-American community.

Joy Singphen helms the Thai-Am TV, produced by Sandy Muensouk, for the Thai-American community. Pam Phan stars and produces the Viet-Am TV for the Vietnamese-American community. The Afghan-Am TV and the Korean-Am TV segments, to be produced by Sharifa Wahab and Oliver Lee, respectively, will soon air on Asian News, too.

Daniel Wang, a TV News personality in Taiwan for over 30 years prior to migrating to Las Vegas, broadcasts the Chinese version of Asian News. Rosaline Schorr, president of the Chinese American Group (CAG), anchors the show whenever Daniel Wang is on travel.

The Asian News-English version is anchored by a team of veteran female broadcasters namely, Shannon Yang, Melody Mojica, Diana Fung and Katherina Sherman, and Asian-American beauty queens Emily Jung and Esmeralda Padilla-Gould (who also writes “Vegas Vibes” for Manila UP International Magazine based in California). Her own TV version of “Vegas Vibes” deals with music, live productions and pageants.

Shannon Yang also produces a stand-alone show entitled “Life with Style” which covers a wide range of Lifestyle topics including fashion, nutrition and sports.

Melody Mojica produces Home Sweet Home, a segment which focuses on real estate, health care, as well as government matters.

Immigration Matters, another major segment of Asian News, is hosted by attorney Vissia Calderon, a prominent Immigration lawyer in Las Vegas.

“Asian News is primarily about Asians and Asian-Americans, and about Las Vegas, secondarily.

While it focuses on local happenings in the diverse Asian-American communities in Las Vegas it also highlights national and international issues that impact Asian-Americans like immigration, jobs, and the economy, among the current hot topics,” Carl Magno, ACTV Founder/CEO, says of his first show venture under the new ACTV network.

ACTV Music Asia and Asian News segment-hosts (l-r) Art Mendoza, Pam Phan, Esmeralda Padilla-Gould, Shannon Yang, Dr. Vissia Calderon, Melody Mojica and Michael StaJuana (Photo by Bill Bon)

Music Asia

“Music Asia, another trendy ACTV program, is a shot-as-live musical show that promotes local mainstream and Asian talents crooning familiar tunes, but singing them the Asian way,” Magno describes the now popular ACTV talents show.
The hour-long Music Asia also airs twice daily at 10:00 a.m. and 10:00 p.m. and premieres new episodes every Saturday. Music Asia has recently shown a remarkable increase in its viewership among Asians and non-Asians alike.

“Eventually, as we get more financial and technical support, we plan to incorporate Asian instruments with the musical pieces to encourage local artists to pen original musical compositions,” reveals Magno.

Music Asia is hosted by a tandem of prolific performers namely Art Mendoza (the suave Fil-Am Frank Sinatra) and the beauteous and multi-talented Mrs. Asian-Las Vegas 2014 Esmeralda Padilla-Gould. Together, they either set Music Asia on-fire on-screen, or create more ripples to attract more audience and draw more talents into the show. Nelson Alcantara, Music Asia’s musical director, accompanies performers with his superb piano playing.

Music Asia provides support to all performing arts talents by promoting their online portfolio, while providing viewers and talent scouts the opportunity to view or listen to the artists’ body of work.

“The worldwide exposure could pave the way for these artists to tap a source for paid bookings. It’s our small way of supporting local talents to gain traction in their career,” Magno adds.

Magno is no stranger to the challenges and triumphs of creating an outlet for Asian awareness in Las Vegas. Despite initial failure, he was undaunted in his mission to showcase the beauty and uniqueness of Asian culture and traditions, even as he highlights the migrant Asians’ contribution to the vibrant economy of the City of Las Vegas, County of Clark, and the state of Nevada in general.

An alumnus of Ateneo University-Davao City, and armed with a B.S. in Business Administration, and an MBA in Marketing from Eastern Washington University in Cheney, Washington, Magno was not deterred in fulfilling his childhood dream.

Growing up in Davao City, he dreamed of migrating to America, acquiring American citizenship, and settling in the city of Las Vegas, the entertainment capital of the world. Captivated by his boyhood idols namely Elvis Presley, Frank Sinatra, and the Rat Pack, Magno never wavered in his aspiration. In 2007, his dream became reality.

Magno’s biggest break came when he and CCI Asia partners in the Philippines created and launched the first-ever television channel dedicated to travel. Lakbay (Travel) TV was launched on March 19, 1999, years ahead of Travel Channel. CCI Asia (a Manila-based company Magno founded) moved on to the pan-Asian market by re-structuring and launching the first Asian Travel and Lifestyle channel aptly called Living Asia Channel in 2001. It invaded the North American airwaves through Dish Network, World TV, and TFC in 2004.

Magno moved to Las Vegas in 2007 and teamed up with a Filipino-American content group led by Guy Rendon and Bill Bon, to form Vegas Asian TV, (coined as VAsianTV) and its broadcast arm VAsian Group which included Jing Espiritu, Bob Jose and Robert Rivera. One of its memorable shows was a big hit – “It’s Vegas with Lani” hosted by Asia’s Nightingale and Las Vegas headliner Lani Misalucha.

Also under the mantle of VAsianTV were Pinoy Street USA, and VegasLifeTV. The original attempt to create a television channel in Las Vegas specifically for Asians met its untimely demise in 2013 when its TV platform KTUD Channel 25, went dark.

Co-founders Magno and Rendon went on to re-structure VAsianTV with new partners, including fashion icon David Tupaz, media star Steve Schorr, real estate broker Mark Bowman and Naturopathic practitioner David Knight. Together, they produced weekly shows and aired them locally on Cox Cable, and distributed them globally via the channel brand VegasLlifeTV.

Through the years, Magno’s strong passion in promoting Asian culture to keep the multi-ethnic Asian communities in Las Vegas united never wavered. In 2016, Vic Esquivel introduced him to Cavin Fung, whose heart and passion also revolved around Asian Americans in Las Vegas. Talking with Fung on the same wavelength, Magno was more than convinced to revive his old 24/7 VAsianTV network.

Asian Culture TV (ACTV) CEO Carl Magno (2nd from left) and Asian Culture Alliance (ACA) founder-president Cavin Fung (right, in yellow shirt) join Music Asia hosts Esmeralda Padilla-Gould (center) Art Mendoza, and pianist Nelson Alcantara (left) after taping Music Asia Christmas Special at the Asian Culture Alliance Center on December 14, 2017.

Cavin Fung is founder/president of the Asian Culture Alliance (ACA), a 501 (c) (3) foundation established in 2014. The meeting between two like-minded entrepreneurs turned into a fortuitous partnership and proved to be a coup de grace. ACA and VAsianTV agreed to a joint venture and created a 24/7 TV network specifically for the Asian American community in Las Vegas with plans to expand its reach later on elsewhere around the globe.

For Magno, it was a dream-come-true. He never gave up on his dream, never wavered in his passion for his Asian roots, fueled by his conviction that there is more to Vegas than The Strip and the downtown District.

So did Cavin Fung, whose fervor and devotion to the Asian American community of Las Vegas is legendary. Fung was steadfast in his belief that “The world is a wonderful place, but we believe it can be made more beautiful through sharing, uniting, and then moving forward together to create real change.” Thus, the Asian Culture Alliance (aka ACA) was born.

The ACA has its new headquarters, called ACA Center, on 333 South 6th Street, downtown Las Vegas. It moved following a devastating fire that gutted its former operations base on Valley View Boulevard last year. ACTV films all its shows at the ACA Center.

To test the market and the strength of their partnership, both Magno and Fung agreed to re-create and re-launch the Asian News, the former’s erstwhile flagship television program. Having witnessed first-hand how ACA cared for its members, providing open membership and some 40 free classes at the ACA Center, Magno’s hope for the vibrant Asian American community in the Las Vegas Valley soared.

ACTV’s main target for viewership and content are Asians. However, businesses interested in the huge Asian market, are naturally targeted, too. So, how does ACTV reach out to them?

“We have English and Chinese languages in our current programming, so obviously we are after 60% of the global Asian population – the Global Asians. We are creatively reaching our target audience through strategic and tactical relationships with people and organizations that can bring the message to our intended viewers,” shares Magno.

Since ACTV is not funded by a major corporation or a large non-profit company, it has to rely on the strength of its very own people, according to Magno. “We carefully select the people who run the station, especially the hosts of the programs who are also our Ambassadors of Goodwill. It is a must that they believe in the ACTV mission, that they possess the heart for honest-to-goodness service to mankind- looking beyond themselves, and believing that when we all do good, we will all be doing well,” Magno explains ACTV’s philosophy.

“ACTV is still in its infantile stage, so everyone’s investing in its future. Some like-thinkers provide financial support, others expend time, while others burn the midnight oil and provide the much-needed technical and creative effort. Because we are not funded by an angel investor, the process of reaching our desired audience is a slow and tedious one,” reveals Magno matter-of-factly.

ACTV’s Asian News anchor Esmeralda Padilla-Gould preps with producer-director John Magno (center) and camera man Ian Bon (right) before actual taping of the weekly TV news program.

ACTV has a lean organization. John, Magno’s youngest son, directs the Production and Programming department. Bill Bon heads the Broadcast Design and Graphics department. Nathan Golden leads Post Production and assists in the production of station-produced shows. Kosta Bakalas guides the Program Acquisition. Eva Ren handles post-production of Chinese content. Guy Rendon continues to provide technical and technological support. ACTV’s Chair, Cavin Fung, Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Rosaline Schorr, Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) David Knight, and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Carl Magno, fill in all the other positions critical to operating a 24/7 broadcast and online network.

The shows are currently funded by station sponsors, Go Global Realty, and F10 Inspection, plus a few advertisers. Fung and Magno themselves also dig deep from their own pockets. He acknowledges support from hundreds of active ACA members who benefit from the free classes and other assistance programs at the ACA Center. They in turn donate time and money to ACTV’s partner – the Asian Culture Alliance (ACA) – which helps support the network.

On top of its multi-faceted programming, ACTV also features on live television the various ACA free classes being offered at the ACA Center. “The rationale behind this,” according to Magno, “is to allow more people worldwide to benefit from the free classes on-air or online.”

Depending on where one lives in Clark County, Nevada, Digital Channel 30.6 is easily accessible on FreeTV/over-the-air, by using an indoor (rabbit ears or amplified) or outdoor antenna; online or via live streaming at ACTVUS.com and YouTube.com/AsianCultureTV, as well as, on major social media platforms.

ACTV can be reached at:
(702) 979-1388 and/or
(800) 281-2849