Updated

The studios of the Venezuelan television channel RCTV used to be filled with thousands of actors, production assistants and other employees.

Today, nearly five years after the channel was forced off the air by the Venezuelan government, only several hundred employees remain, mainly producing programs for other channels.

Station executive Marcel Granier says he's hopeful the channel still may be able to return to the airwaves if President Hugo Chavez is defeated in this October's presidential election.

Chavez's government refused to renew the station's broadcast license in 2007, accusing it of having supported a failed coup against the president in 2002.