It’s nice to know when there is some sense of certainty in life. Don’t get me wrong, uncertainty can bring exciting opportunities and a heightened sense of beneficial urgency, but knowing what lies ahead brings with it a sense of comfort.

Since I’ve been at FRCTV our future had been uncertain. Since 2002 when the Fall River cable television contract first expired and went into limbo in 2005, we were not sure whether we would be involved with continuing to provide community media services to the City of Fall River.

Despite all we had accomplished, there were good reasons for us to feel that way. Under the terms of the old cable television agreement, there was no funding set aside for the public access television operation for Fall River and Bristol Community College stepped forward in 1999 with the understanding that dedicated funding from a new contract would stabilize the operation (if the City chose BCC to continue to house the program).

As the years passed and BCC bore the financial burden of maintaining the operation through tough economic times, few would have blamed the College for cutting ties with FRCTV.

To its credit, BCC never did.  In fact, under the leadership of President Dr. John Sbrega, the college saw the benefits FRCTV provided for the community and supported us through the grinding process of what turned out to be a protracted cable contract renewal process.

With the announcement last week by Mayor Will Flanagan ensuring that FRCTV receives dedicated funding from the new cable television contract with Comcast, we now know that our immediate future is somewhat secure.

I want to personally thank Mayor Flanagan for his diligence in examining the issue and deciding a fair resolution to funding FRCTV,  the FRED-TV and FRG-TV operation at Durfee High School, and a start-up program at Diman Regional Voc-Tech.  In my opinion all parties came out as winners.

Even though we have some security, it in no way means we are to rest on our laurels.  With the new funding comes great opportunities for FRCTV to better meet the communications needs of the people of Fall River.

We have some ideas.  They will take some time to implement.  But we are committed to continue to make FRCTV a respected and valued communications resource in Fall River.

I ask for your help.  How can we do what we do better?  Get in touch with me with your ideas.

Thanks to all of you who have supported FRCTV through the years.  Now let’s get back to work!

It’s been a little over a week since the end of the 2009 Fall River Election season and we here at FRCTV are assessing the outcomes and our role in providing Fall River residents with comprehensive coverage of the candidates and the issues.

Since I have been the Director of FRCTV, I have been made it a priority that FRCTV plays a lead role in getting the candidate’s names and platforms out for the community to see and judge.  Since 2001 we have allowed candidates to take part in our Meet the Candidates program where each candidate can use up to five minutes of air time to speak directly to the voters.  Over time more and more candidates have taken advantage of this opportunity.

With the re-tooling of the FRCTV website this past year, we decided to allow candidates the chance to use our site as a portal to their runs for office.  Some candidates used our blogging tool to enhance their online presence while others used our site as their Internet home throughout the campaign.  Candidates who taped a Meet the Candidates segment had their piece displayed on their page following tapings for the preliminary and city elections.  Like our television product we helped the candidates create their online space but it was up to them to update the material on their individual web page.

2009 saw FRCTV cover more political forums than ever before.  The candidates for Mayor, City Council, and School Committee who took part in these forums had another chance, through our channel, to share their vision on the future of Fall River with the voters.

The 2009 election cycle saw us take some chances when it came to some of our coverage.  In working with the Herald News on telecasting the two Mayoral Forums from Kuss Middle School prior to the November 3rd election, we attempted to use Internet technology to telecast the forums live.  Those experiments came with mixed results.

In attempting to telecast live we were using VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) technology as provided by Skype, arguably the leader in this field.  Because of our limited resources, using this free technology allowed us to do something we had not done before, cablecast live from a location not at our BCC studios.

We tested the signal before the first forum and things looked like a go.  For those of you not in the know, delivering streaming video using Skype comes at the expense of the quality of video and audio that we eventually put out over the air.  That’s the nature of the technology.  We knew this going in and balanced that fact with the importance of getting this forum out to viewers as it happened.

The first ten minutes or so of the first forum on October 13th yielded promising results.  The video and audio quality were passable and things were going well.  Soon, however,  we lost the Internet connection at Kuss and when it was restored, the video signal was fine but the audio was not acceptable.  We stayed with the forum despite the poor audio in the hopes it would improve.  It did not.

Undeterred we returned two weeks later for the second forum on October 27th.  This night the video signal was poor but the audio was strong.  People had problems seeing the candidates but could hear them with no problems.  We considered the night a success.

Our coverage of the election returns on preliminary and general election nights proved challenging on a few fronts.  Again we were looking to provide remote coverage of the results from Government Center and speeches from the campaign headquarters of the Mayoral Candidates using Skype.  Again the video and audio was not of high quality that night but it was passable.  I would say that part of the night went fairly well.

Our biggest obstacle has been, and continues to be, the reporting of the election returns itself.  The system of reporting at Government Center allows for updates to reporters and residents in bunches.  The first group may have 12 precincts of numbers, the next 21 and the the third the entire 30 precinct count across the city.  All this happens within a matter of 10-15 minutes once the count gets downtown.

The challenge of television is to not just provide the numbers aurally, but also visually.  The reporting of the numbers from Government Center comes in the order that the candidates appear on the ballot, not the current order of finish.

So our crew (which is already being pulled in multiple directions just managing the telecast) is forced to re-input the numbers into a spreadsheet, sort them in the order of finish, then re-type them into our graphics computer for display on the air.  In the span of time to accomplish this, the next set of numbers are being reported downtown.  We are always trying to play catch-up.

I understand that viewers want the numbers.  And believe me, we want to give them.  It’s the organization of the numbers and the need to display them graphically that gives us problems.  I am open to ways to make this process easier for all of us involved.  Any ideas, let me know.

The other aspect to this year’s election was our ability to stream our live events out over FRCTV.org.  This allowed for those who did not subscribe to cable, or those from outside of Fall River, to view our coverage.  This proved to be very popular and will be a staple of our coverage going forward.

Thanks go out to our FRCTV staff and volunteers who helped out this election season.  Thanks also to former Mayor John Mitchell for serving as our election night analyst, providing the appropriate comments on what was happening in the election and, more importantly, what it all meant.

We learned a lot from the coverage of the 2009 election.  We took gambles.  We made mistakes.  We will continue to innovate.  In the end it was all worth it in terms of giving the voters of Fall River the information they needed to make informed choices at the ballot box…

All of us here at FRCTV are still excited over being named by the Alliance for Community Media (ACM) as the winner of the award for Overall Excellence in Public Access for 2009.  The ACM Awards are the equivalent to our industry’s Emmy’s so being recognized as one of the best in the country is a big deal.

We will celebrate our accomplishments for a while but we know that to build upon that success we cannot rest on our laurels.  We do what we do because we all believe in the value community media adds to our quality of life.

Granting those in our community a voice through media breaks down walls and creates a dialogue that benefits the entire community

FRCTV plans to look toward the future by continuing to do what we do best, providing Fall River residents with access to media and producing quality community media programming.

I want to thank the FRCTV staff and all our producers for making our success possible.  Now let’s get back to work!

In these times of uncertainty it’s always good when we can donate to worthy causes.  FRCTV does that each spring by producing the annual Fall River Rotary Club Auction.

This past Saturday marked the 36th year the Rotary Club held its auction, and the seventh year that it was telecast live on FRCTV.   FRCTV staff works in the control room while the Rotarians man the cameras, answer the phones, and provide general oversight of all auction operations.  The process is well organized with proven results.

In terms of the success of this year’s auction, the down economy, combined with pre-summer-like weather, did impact the amount of money raised by the club this year.  The Rotary Club will still put that money to good use in aiding dozens of local area charities.

FRCTV can be an effective vehicle for non-profit organizations in the greater Fall River Area to promote their fundraising events.  We always endorse the use of our community bulletin board for that purpose.

For organizations who wish to duplicate the effort of the Rotary Club by holding their own televised auction or telethon, keep in mind that such an event is a monumental undertaking.  Other than providing the airtime and staff assistance (which is paid for by the Rotary Club), FRCTV does not get itself involved in the operations of the auction.  The Rotary Club has the advantage of having dozens of volunteers who work on the event year-round.  It’s that organization and cooperation that make the auction a success.

FRCTV is proud of its commitment to help non-profit organizations in promoting their events.  Get in touch with us to find out more.

For quite some time now there have been changes made across the regulatory landscape when it comes to cable television.   States across this nation have approved new laws that make it easier for cable companies to secure licenses to provide service.  Unfortunately most of these laws have come with consequences to community television stations…mainly in the form of funding cuts and poor channel placement and delivery to subscribers.

Fortunately none of these changes have been adopted in Massachusetts.  But there have been efforts to try.  In 2007 a bill was introduced with the support of Verizon to take control of franchising cable television away from cities and towns and place it into the hands of state regulators.  Such a move would have had detrimental effects in local communities’ ability to determine its local technological needs.  Due to strong opposition from community television advocates and local cities and towns the bill never came up for a vote.

2009 brings with it another attempt to change the landscape of cable television franchising in Massachusetts.  A second bill, once again supported by Verizon, attempts to make more subtle changes to state law.  Under the bill filed by State Senator Steven Pangiotakos of Lowell, control over franchising cable companies would remain with local municipalities.  What would change is the time communities have to approve or deny a cable TV application.  The bills calls for the process to last around 90 days.  Current law allows for the process to take a year.

There are other parts of the bill that would also impact the licensing process and community media, the minutiae of which I will spare you.  You can read the entire bill here.

The current way cable licenses are negotiated has worked for years.  There is no rational need to change the rules.  In 2007 Verizon had approximately 35 cable television contracts.  Today they have 100.  If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.  This ain’t broke.

I am a strong advocate of the Alliance for Community Media (ACM).  The ACM is a national organization which advocates for the advancement of Public, Educational, and Governmental Access TV.  I currently serve on the Boards of Directors for the Massachusetts Chapter (aka Mass Access) and the Northeast Region of the ACM. 

Mass Access is about to embark on a valuable collaboration with Governor Deval Patrick and other State agencies which produce video programming.  At a press conference set for next Wednesday (January 14th) Mass Access and the Governor will announce the development of a website dedicated to video programming produced by the Commonwealth.

The site is being called My Mass TV and will be a “You Tube”-like site where anyone can view videos coming out of the Governor’s office or any other State agency.  Local cable access stations (like FRCTV) will also be allowed to download the content for playback on their cable channels.

This is an exciting announcement which will allow all the PEG stations in Massachusetts to expand their coverage of state government.  I’ll have more after next week’s announcement.