The long awaited launch of Buck-iTV has arrived — yesterday marked the first day of original programming for the Ohio State television station.

The planning for the station began about a year and a half ago. The first original show, the “Collin and Joe Show,” premiered yesterday at 8 p.m.

“It’s basically a sketch comedy show. They’re two guys who go here (Ohio State) and do funny things on tape,” said Frank Sasso, a junior in marketing and general manager of Buck-iTV. “I wouldn’t be surprised if some other station wants to pick it up.”

Following “Collin and Joe” was “Kollege,” a soap opera about college life.

“We look at college life, the stuff outside of class, the fun stuff,” said Pat Dwyer, producer of “Kollege.” Dwyer said it will be like a soap opera with its rolling story lines and characters, but it will have comedy, too.

“Kollege” was a group effort, Dwyer said. Dwyer, along with fellow students Chris Langer and Nate Hahn, created the show together. The three were brought together on the recommendation of Buck-iTV adviser Dan Boord.

Dwyer said the actors all volunteer for the show. They used advertisements in The Lantern, Buckeye Net News and the show’s Web site, kollegeshow.com, to gather the cast. He said the show could possibly offer credit to students in the future.

Buck-iTV has faced obstacles to get on the air, the largest of which was money.

“We haven’t gotten much money. Obviously with the budget, it’s a tough time,” Sasso said.

He said an ideal student television station would have a start-up capital of about $500,000. Buck-iTV had a start-up capital of $10,000.

“We kind of realized that we have to start small. About a year and a half ago we were dreaming real big. We’ve been making it more realistic as we’ve gone along,” Sasso said.

The biggest contributors to Buck-iTV have been the Undergraduate Student Government, the Residence Hall Advisory Council and Coca-Cola.

The station has gotten assistance from UNITS, which gave them channel 19, and a Cleveland studio donated a news set. Sasso and a friend brought the set from Cleveland to Columbus, where it will be used for a news show, “Buck-i-Live.”

“It’s at the top and bottom of every half hour,” Sasso said. It will be a two-minute news brief. “Eventually, it will become a typical 30-minute newscast.”

When Buck-iTV moved into the Drake Union, the electricity was unusable, Sasso said. The room, which had formerly been a bowling alley, was just a “shell,” Sasso said. Student Affairs helped to cover the cost and assisted in the rewiring.

Buck-iTV will be releasing more shows in the future. Next up will be a political talk show titled “Straight Talk Live.”

“It will be two conservatives, two liberals and a moderator,” Sasso said. “It’ll be our first live programming.”

He said the guests will discuss political issues of the day.

A music video show will be released next quarter, said Buck-iTV director of programming David Plantz.

Another obstacle has been the lengthy time period in getting Buck-iTV on the air.

“Some people have said, ‘We’ve heard of Buck-iTV, what have you done?’ ” Sasso said.

People have expected things to happen faster than they have, he said. Tasks such as purchasing studio lights for the newscasts take time and planning.

He said he feels the crew is making progress.

“I feel like we’ve kind of slowly jumped over the biggest hurdle,” Sasso said.

Buck-iTV has signed a three year contract with Zilos Inc., a New York based company that produces syndicated shows for college television stations, Plantz said.

These programs will also air in prime time. The first one, titled “Exiled II,” will air at 8 p.m tonight.

“It’s college-based, very MTV-esque,” Plantz said. He said Zilos will also have a comedy tour with such stars as Michelle Branch.

Buck-iTV will also offer OSU Access, a segment with a semi-public access feel. Any administrative group or student organization can submit a tape, not more than an hour in length. The tapes will air from 1-5 p.m.

“We aren’t a public access station since we have regular programming,” Plantz said. “(Yet) we wanted to do some kind of public service; plus it fills time for us.”

Sasso said he was inspired to help form Buck-iTV by his love of OSU.

“We have so many things that are good at Ohio State, but TV was one of the things that was lacking,” Sasso said. “It was something that could make it better.”

“The nice thing about Buck-iTV is its broad appeal. We’ve kind of got the right people from across the university,” Sasso said.