Holiday Open House

Volunteers and board members enjoy the holiday spirit.

Live On Tour

John Schuerman gives a studio tour to staff from the City of Richmond and some of the people from Kicks 96.

Full House

John Schuerman surveys a full house.

Holiday Open House Farewell

We send Tom Bivens off in style with a good-sized cake that we ate off of for a few days.

Lurking

Me closest to the food, as usual.

Open House Wrap-Up

I'd like to thank everyone who turned out for our Holiday Open House yesterday. We had steady crowds all afternoon long and sent off Tom Bivens in style. I hope to be able to post some photos from the event after the holidays.

Speaking of the holidays, I just learned from Jim Russell that we have a little over 25 hours of holiday programming to air on Channel 21 beginning at 4 p.m. today, including program contributions from our local schools and churches as well as many other offerings. I hope everyone enjoys this programming "gift basket" from WCTV to your home.

Enjoy the holiday weekend, and feel free to write me at jodalton@indiana.edu.

Silent Night, Tally Light

Today we were a bit shorthanded for a studio shoot, so I jumped behind the camera for the first time since arriving here at WCTV. I first ran a studio camera at WIPB on a gospel music show in probably 1982-83 and have logged quite a few hours since, off and on. Running a studio camera is just like riding a bike, if your bike had a focus ring on one handlebar and a zoom control on the other.

We were shooting the "Ask Alan" show, a public affairs-style show about financial concerns. It was the first time I had met the host, Alan Spears, who I think is probably one of the most recognized faces in Richmond. It has been a popular show and is well put-together. You can learn more about "Ask Alan" right here.

Feel free to write me at jodalton@indiana.edu.

Now Showing

I have been on the job just over two weeks and am still learning so much about Whitewater Community Television. I try to save a little time at the end of each day to pull a couple of shows off the shelf and look at what kind of product we are putting out there. I've seen that we showcase a lot of diverse local programming, from bluegrass music to politics to religious offerings to poetry readings and many, many other subjects all up and down the spectrum. That's the power of public access; so many different voices. We are hoping to show even more diversity of programming in 2006.

Feel free to email me at jodalton@indiana.edu.

Let It Snow

Yesterday we had another big snow, and another flurry of calls to our "Close Now" service. I have a feeling the burst of winter we've seen so far means we will be especially busy with providing that feature over our channels in the coming months.

Some of you know that last year I sat on the Media Arts panel for the Indiana Arts Commission and judged applications. I would especially encourage our WCTV program producers to look into the Individual Artists Grants. They will fund up to $1,000 for media projects that reflect personal growth as an artist as well as provide some worth to the community. I saw a lot of people last year who had good luck getting funding for production and post-production costs.

The deadline for these grants is in February. You can read more about them here.

Feel free to email me at jodalton@indiana.edu.

Lights, Camera...

I got to see a public affairs program taped in the studio today for the first time. I have worked at a number of broadcast and educational media facilities over the years, and seen quite a few more, and I think the WCTV studio is comparable to anything out there. Really nice little setup, and I look forward to seeing a lot more work done in there...and maybe getting behind the switcher myself now and then.

I went to my first board meeting yesterday. Our board members have a lot of great ideas for the station and are eager to see WCTV do well. It's a good group of people to be around. I think we will see a lot from this group in 2006.

Feel free to write me at jodalton@indiana.edu.

WCTV Holiday Open House

I would like to invite all of you to WCTV's Holiday Open House on Thursday, December 22 from 2-4 p.m. As I have only been here a short time, I hope I will get to meet a lot of you there.

We will have snacks and drinks in the lobby of WCTV in Hayes Hall at IU East. We will also be bidding interim director Tom Bivens farewell as well as good luck in his future endeavors.

Until then, feel free to email me at jodalton@indiana.edu.

Winter Wonderland

We finished our head end upgrade with the addition of "Close Now," a feature that will show viewers closings and school delays at the bottom of the screen. And we finished debugging it just in time Wednesday, as about eight inches of snow was dumped on Wayne County yesterday. We've had a busy morning with people phoning and emailing closings.

Thankfully, I left a trail of breadcrumbs from the station to my Farmland home that I could follow back this morning.

You can read about me, courtesy of Rebecca Helmes, in the Richmond newspaper right here.

Feel free to email me at jodalton@indiana.edu.

My first appearance on WCTV

This morning I went to the Wayne County Council meeting and was introduced all around by one of our board members, Jeff. What I thought would be a simple "stand up and wave" moment turned into an opportunity to address the group and also appear on the broadcast, taped by our production crew. I hope the camera caught my good side, if I have one. It was a nice welcome.

Afterwards, I had a chance to speak with a reporter from the Richmond Palladium-Item about my new job. I also spoke to a number of people who informed me that once I appeared on WCTV, it wouldn't take long for people to recognize me around the area. It really struck me how much the station means to the community.

Until next time, feel free to email me at jodalton@indiana.edu.

Homework

I brought a thick folder of information home and spent some time this weekend reading over a lot of things about the station, from its rules and regs to its membership info to news about the upcoming programming "lottery" and more. It was really interesting to read a history of WCTV that somebody had put together. WCTV has grown so much in the last fifteen years or so, and I think the station is poised to make another leap forward. It's a neat time to be involved with the station.

More to come...until later, feel free to write me at jodalton@indiana.edu.

Sophomore Jinx

Today I got a call from a community member who wanted to introduce herself and also ask where her favorite programming had gone. I let her know that we were doing a system upgrade to improve our video and audio signals and would be back on by 4 p.m. Fortunately we were able to keep that commitment and finish a few hours ahead of schedule. The up side of this station downtime is that I got to learn right off the bat that there are a lot of people in Wayne County who enjoy WCTV and count on it being there. It has been really exciting meeting so many people in just the first two days.

I signed up for my email account today. Give me a yell at jodalton@indiana.edu.

A First Step

Today was my first day as WCTV's Station Director and as good a day as any to start this blog. Today was a bit of a whirlwind with meeting so many people and seeing some of the exciting things going on at the station. Perhaps I'll just start with introducing myself.

My name is John Oak Dalton, originally from Muncie though I now call beautiful Farmland, Indiana, my home. I graduated from Ball State University with a BS in Telecommunications and an MS in Information and Communication Sciences. I previously held television production positions at WXOW-TV and WIPB-TV before getting involved in educational media production at Ball State, and later managed an Information Technology subunit at the university. I have also served as an adjunct instructor at the university, teaching media writing and video production.

But I have had an interest in cables access, community TV, and grassroots DV my whole adult life. I have produced many programs for cable access on my own and have been involved in microcinema, 'zines, and other forms of independent media. This past summer I had a great opportunity to be involved with Microcinema Fest in Palatine, Illinois, judging entries, doing some MCing at screenings, and leading a "Film Boot Camp" for aspiring filmmakers from all around North America.

As soon as I figure out my new phone number and email address, I will post it! And I hope to hear from all of you.

John