Friday, February 25, 2011

Short But Busy Week

Once we re-opened on Tuesday, after the Presidents' Day holiday, we had producers coming and going at a hectic pace. Three crews had taken out equipment over the weekend which then needed to be checked back in, "Franklin County Matters" edited their latest show with help from our staff, one of our producers recorded the Greenfield Planning Board Meeting, and our monthly board meeting took place.

On Wednesday, local artist Brent Eaton spent the afternoon filming in our studio while the folks from "Luz en Las Tinieblas" (Light in the Darkness, formerly "Iglesia Pentecostal Luz de Salvacion) edited their weekly worship service on one of our PCs. At the end of the day, members of the Greenfield High School Music Parents Association (GHSMPA) met up with our station manager in preparation for their telethon next week. Each year the parents of GHS musicians take over our airwaves for an evening to raise money for the great programs that Paul Calcari runs. The kids entertain while the parents answer the phones and take your donations. It's a win win! This year's event will take place on Wednesday, March 2nd, from 6pm to 9pm on Cable Channel 15. Be sure to check it out and "pitch" in.

Thursday brought staff and volunteers from both the Greenfield YMCA and Baystate Franklin Medical Center ("Healthbeat") into our studio for shoots. In addition, an employee of The Body Shoppe received training on one of our Macs so that he could put together the first episode of their new series. Finally, our staff headed over to Greenfield High School in order to broadcast the Greenfield School Committee Meeting.

Today while you were hopefully reading this at home, warm and dry, the intrepid folks from "Healthbeat" ventured out into the weather to edit the show they recorded yesterday and additional phones were installed for the GHSMPA telethon. Keep an eye out on our homepage for a story about the music parents' fundraiser and next week we'll let you know how it went.

Friday, February 18, 2011

Productions in Full Swing!

Our studio was in use Monday through Thursday this week providing a location for five shoots, several tours by prospective producers, and a couple of meetings.

"The Dukes of Sports" started off the week with Director Sam Pyfrom filling in for co-host Mike Cadran and showing off his knowledge of, and enthusiasm for, professional wrestling. Just after "The Dukes of Sports" crew left, Joe Gochinski was joined on his "The Western Mass Democrat" set by State Senator Ben Downing for an interview about the local impact of state politics.

Tuesday began early in the morning for our station manager who arrived at nine for a meeting and then at eleven gave a tour of our studio and production facilities to a producer who hadn't been here since we were manually editing VHS tapes. In the afternoon, the crew of "Franklin County Matters" taped a show with local singer/activist Quickchange about her life and featuring her latest work.

Wednesday saw us setting up for the Greenfield Town Council Meeting using our new set pieces. They seemed to be well received by the councilors and we hope the audience liked them too. Recently promoted to full time Production Assistant Philippe Simon found that the new tables allowed him to get things ready for the town council by himself and much more quickly than before.

Finally, on Thursday morning Fred Goldberg shared his ideas about education with Dr. Andrew Blais on "Local Bias".

With all of these folks in our studio, lots of equipment going out, and several programs being edited, it was a very busy week and our staff is happy to be going into a three-day weekend.

Friday, February 11, 2011

New Programming Highlights

Our producers were busy this week and one of the results of their work was that a new live episode of "Valley Homegrown" aired on Monday night. If you missed it, be sure to tune in tonight at 9 to hear St. Mix vs. the Industrial Revolution.

Another result of our producers' prolificness (ain't alliteration awesome?) is that our station manager was able to assign regular time slots to some programs that either didn't have enough episodes or weren't completed on a regular basis until now. "Kid Trivia", a jeopardy style game show for middle school students that was written about in last week's blog post, can now be seen on Wednesdays at 5pm and Fridays at 10:30am; "Student News", produced by Amherst High School pupils for the wider Pioneer Valley audience, is on at 10:30am on Wednesdays and Saturdays; and "Sacred Spaces", a contemplative show featuring music and the natural world, created by our very own Philippe Simon, will be airing at 8pm on Wednesdays. Check them out on Cable Channel 15 and enjoy!

Friday, February 4, 2011

Snow Problem At All!

Though the storms limited our hours in the office this week, we were still working hard. Several news stories are in production for our homepage, producers were able to continue editing their shows, and a very special episode of "Kid Trivia" will be recorded this afternoon.

Greenfield Middle School Principal Gary Tashjian will visit our studio today to participate in a takeoff of "Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader?" The producer of "Kid Trivia" is very excited to have Mr. T as a guest on the show and many of his students will be watching to see how he does when this episode premieres on Cable Channel 15 at 8PM tonight. Tune in and check it out for yourself!

On a sad note, GCTV would like to extend our condolences to the family and friends of Ed Targonski, who passed away on Sunday. "Polka Time with Ed Targonski" is a favorite of viewers and one of the longest running shows we air. Mr. Targonski was a great friend and fan of public access television, a prolific producer, and loved sharing his favorite music with everyone. You can find out more about his amazing life by reading Masslive.com's obituary.

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

GCTV Will Be Closed Today

Due to icy road conditions our office and studios will be closed all day today. The town of Greenfield would like you to know that town hall will also be closed.

Tuesday, February 1, 2011