WCTV Updates

It is a busy time at WCTV. We just completed another successful television Auction and turned around a few days later to broadcast live election returns. On Thursday night at 7 p.m. on Channel 20 we will be broadcasting the Salvation Army Christmas program for the second year, a longtime traditional favorite on radio and hopefully a tradition we are building on television. And on Tuesday December 18th at 7 p.m. on Channel 21 we will be starting a new tradition by hosting Santa in a live phone-in show for kids in the Whitewater Valley to get their wish lists heard by the man in charge.

And in the midst of all of this it struck me that on December 1st I passed my second anniversary here at WCTV.

About this time last year I also stopped to reflect in an email to our mailing list. Then I was in Indianapolis, with a few other access center leaders, meeting with the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission to discuss the new Telecom Bill impacting local franchises, including ours. And I was teaching kids at Wernle about videography, and working with them to produce their own DVD. Thinking back, those two events, different in size and scope, reinforce in my mind my belief in the importance of grassroots and independent media in a community; things I have always believed in personally and am finally pursuing professionally. I hope our viewers and supporters can see, on the air, our staff’s commitment to these beliefs, and to the direction we have headed these last two years.

We are currently programming more than 16 hours a day across three channels, averaging between 75-85 programs a week, locally produced or of local interest. We have close to fifty local producers generating content for Channel 21. We expanded from six to seven nights of programming, offering a Friday night Reading Service for the elderly and the visually impaired as well as a “By Request” time slot where viewers can ask to see their favorite WCTV programs. We have expanded our election coverage and broadcast our first live parade. We partnered with Kicks-96/WHON to bring you a nightly newscast, and provided our own professionally-produced high school sports broadcasts, teaming up with high school A/V classes to provide students learning experiences alongside WCTV staff.

Our local producers have access to more equipment than before, with new cameras and new edit bays. We have offered free workshops as well as noncredit training classes through IU East, and hope to repeat those courses again soon. For producers who need help with their programs, we offer “House Calls,” where trained volunteers and professional staff come to your location and give advice on how to produce the best program for your viewers.

Equipment upgrades in our head end have improved our signal quality, and we have institutionalized procedures for troubleshooting problems with playback of our programming.

Our Board of Directors is filled out to fifteen members, and worked on developing a new Channel 21 Lottery system that is fair to everyone, as well as looking at other ongoing policies and procedures.

For those who asked for more information on what’s going on at WCTV, we updated the website, added a blog, and developed comprehensive email and traditional mail mailing lists. You can see what’s new at WCTV by going to www.wctv.info or www.wctvjournal.blogspot.com.

2008 is an important year for us. It will be our twentieth year of service to the people of Wayne County. WCTV’s first two employees are still on the payroll today, a testament to the important work we feel, as a staff, we are doing. Personally, 2008 will also be my twentieth year of working professionally in the field, and I am as excited today as I was when I left the ivied halls of college two decades ago.

2008 is also important as we see changes, and potential challenges, in the cable access landscape locally, statewide, and at the federal level. As we celebrate this milestone, we hope our friends and supporters will join us as we move forward towards whatever is coming next.