University of Alabama graduates Frank Thagard and Robin Rains have put their telecommunication and film degrees into action with their new biweekly television show, “Tuscaloosa Monorail.”

“Tuscaloosa Monorail” is a television show produced by Thagard and Rains and hosted by Zach Travis, featuring local and regional music acts. The show airs every other Tuesday at 8 p.m. on Comcast channel 21. The episodes are uploaded to YouTube after they air for anyone who is unable to catch the show on television.

The show began when Thagard and Rains found they could put television programming on Comcast 21 through Charter Cable. They won an auction for some old WVUA film equipment, and with help of many people, they now have five episodes, three of which have been aired on television.

“It’s really coming together, and I am pretty proud that it’s all local people doing it,” Rains said.

Rains graduated from the University in 2009. She is currently back at school at UAB to pursue another undergraduate degree in structural engineering.

“There is no other feeling like seeing people respond to your work,” Rains said. “It’s like being interested in a work of art, and there is like a million steps involved. Just to see people watch an episode, and they get it, it’s the best feeling in the world.”

The shows are filmed live at Green Bar for free every other Thursday, then put to tape and edited.

Thagard graduated from the University in 2010. He is currently doing freelance videography work for the Tuscaloosa and Birmingham areas.

He said people tuning into the show will get to see a charismatic host, creative intros and outros and hopefully something that is a little different from the typical television experience.

“It will be something that is familiar — there is nothing more familiar to TV than a music show — but hopefully they will also get something that is a slightly skewed spin on that,” Thagard said.

Thagard and Rains knew Travis, the show’s host, from Mallet Assembly, an independent living community on the UA campus.

“We love working with him,” Rains said. “He does a really great job.”

Travis, a senior majoring in telecommunication and film, said he has really enjoyed working on the show.

“It’s always a blast to have folks coming through,” he said. “I enjoy being on camera, and I like the creative aspects a lot and coming up with jokes and bits. The creative aspect is a lot of fun. I like trying to figure out what questions to ask bands because they are all different and they all have different stories and they all react differently to being interviewed.”

Travis said the trio is still learning what they want the show to be.

“We decided early on that we didn’t want it to be a serious round table discussion,” Travis said. “We only have 30 minutes, and I don’t think anyone is going to get any major insight into the lives of the band members that way. We decided we wanted to have as much fun as possible.”

Mitch McSteamy from the band Red Light District Attorney, who was featured on the show’s second episode, said he thoroughly enjoyed being on the show.

“It was great having fun with Travis and getting that exposure as well as helping out our friends on the show,” McSteamy said. “I think it provides great exposure for bands that aren’t as popular, and it exposes people to different types of music.”

However, “Tuscaloosa Monorail” is not the end-all goal for Thagard and Rains. They hope it will lead to more opportunities for creative television work down the road.

“I love doing this,” Rains said. “But I hope it’s a step in the direction of some bigger, more narrative projects.”

Thagard and Rains both have an interest in doing a show that is an anthology of short films and sketches that would be a mix of comedy and more surreal and serious short films.

“We kind of wanted to do some stranger stuff,” Thagard said. “That is really more of where our heart is.”

They decided to do a more conventional music show like “Tuscaloosa Monorail” to show sponsors they were reliable.

“The music show is fun to do, and it’s true there is a music scene in Tuscaloosa, but not a whole lot of people know about it or are very interested in it,” Thagard said. “But there is a lot of talent in town, and we thought that doing the music show might be a way to get more exposure to that.”

Thagard hopes people will watch the show and then go and see some of the bands on the show perform.

“Right now, Tuscaloosa doesn’t have a really reliable aggregator of the talent that is going on in Tuscaloosa right now, and hopefully the show will be a kind of touchstone for people when they are looking to go out at night,” he said.