Charlie Tabesh, Senior vice president of programming, Turner Classic Movies

What I do: Americans go to the movies every day with Charlie Tabesh.

As senior vice president for programming, he decides which movies are shown on Turner Classic Movies. “I am responsible for determining what gets on our channel,” said Tabesh, 43.

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Karl Ritzler / AJC Special

As a child, Charlie Tabesh loved watching movies and sports on TV. The TCM programmer recalls thinking, ‘If I had my own channel …’

“When we get a movie, we put it on the air in the right way so that it creates value for the cable operator,” he said.

During the channel’s current “31 Days of Oscar” programming, Tabesh and his staff have chosen Academy Award-winning and nominated films, all grouped into a common category each day.

“People who pay attention appreciate the attention we give to it,” he said.

“Because we don’t have commercials, we can do … interesting and creative stuff,” he said.

“We’re very theme-based,” he said, sitting in one of the red leather chairs on the set Robert Osborne uses to introduce the movies. “It’s always in some sort of context,” such as groupings by actor, director or genre, for example.

“We get the best classics from the big studios,” he said, and look at film history for connections to fit the themes. “The goal is a programming lineup that is cohesive and represents different parts of film history.”

The people who watch TCM tend to fall into two groups, Tabesh said: older people who remember the movies when growing up and film buffs, whom he described as cultured and adventurous.

TCM began in 1994 with Ted Turner’s extensive film library. It added many Warner Bros. films when Turner’s business merged with Time Warner, and now the channel goes to all Hollywood’s studios and overseas to buy rights for movies.

Ideas for themes and suggestions for movies come from everywhere, Tabesh said. “At the end of the day, it’s my responsibility that it all comes together,” he said.

Even as the Oscar-related movies are airing, Tabesh and his staff are lining up films for this summer.

What got me interested in this: “I grew up as an only child and watched TV all the time — movies and sports,” Tabesh said, recalling that he would say to himself, “If I had my own channel …”

Best part of my job: “I’m surrounded by some of the best art and best entertainment created over the last 100 years,” he said.

Tabesh also praised the TCM fans as “very passionate and intelligent. I get a lot from that.”

Most challenging part: “We don’t always have access to every movie ever made all the time,” he said. “Too many films are not available because of materials issues — film deteriorates or is not in video format.”

He added, “We’re the only classic movie channel out there. Because of that there’s a lot of responsibility. We have to be serious and diligent about what we do.”

It can be a balancing act between bringing audiences a broad selection of movies or showing their favorites several times a year.

What people don’t know about my job: “We have to work within a budget,” he said, noting that it’s too expensive to pay for exclusive rights to movies such as “The Sound of Music” or “The Ten Commandments.”

What keeps me going: “I’m always learning. The people who work here are intellectually stimulating and interesting,” Tabesh said. “There are a lot of film buffs. They’re here because they want to be in the movie business.”

Preparation needed for this job: “You need to know a fair amount about film history, and you have to love it,” he said.

There are also business and analytical parts to the job, such as managing a budget.

Tabesh has a bachelor’s degree in quantitative economics from the University of California at San Diego.

In college, he worked for cable entertainment and sports channels in Los Angeles and eventually worked for Starz, a cable movie channel, in Denver. From there, he came to TCM about 11 years ago as head of programming.

- By Karl W. Ritzler, for ajcjobs. Got an interesting job that you love? E-mail your story to jobseditor@yahoo.com.

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