Works in Progress

Like most television stations we have to multi-task so here are updates on some of our current projects:

Getting ready for Greenfield's Town Election---One of the three candidates for councilor at large, who will be on the preliminary election ballot on April 19th if the state legislature doesn't allow the town to put them all on the one in June, has already sent in their information and recorded their video candidate statement and the other two will be in on Monday. This way, we'll be ready to go as soon as we hear about the state's decision.

The bulk of the construction in the back room is finished---The door needs a window, an electrician will be coming in soon, and the staff will be applying paint but it definitely feels like a great space. Check out the pics below or stop in and see for yourself!



Our station manager has been upgrading the control room again---We've added a distribution amplifier, new DVD burners, and gotten the speakers over the switcher working. All of these improvements will provide a better experience for producers and a higher quality end product. Oh, and we've also replaced the old lavalier microphones in the studio. Any of you who use the clip on mics will definitely want to check these sleek new ones out when you come in for your next production.

Productions---Mayor Martin stopped by to be interviewed by Dr. Andrew Blais on the latest episode of "Local Bias" and both our station manager and our new media producer will be filming sessions at the "Creative Economy Summit" today.

Loads of Good Public Information

This was quite a week for informing the public about important local issues.

At 1PM on Tuesday afternoon Alicia was on location at the Greenfield Town Planning Offices to record the awarding of checks to representatives of Greenfield, Athol, Montague, and Palmer. The towns earned this money by participating in the Green Communities Act Grant Program. Later that same day Mayor Martin brought Greenfield's Director of Economic Development and Marketing, Robert Pyers, into our studio to record a new "Mayor's Memo" in an effort to answer residents' questions about the upcoming parking changes.

More guests were brought into the studio on Wednesday and Thursday when Joe Gochinski, host and producer of "The Western Mass Democrat", interviewed Hampden County Register of Deeds Donald Ashe and Dr. Andrew Blais, guest host of "Local Bias", sat down for a conversation with Republican candidate for state representative in the 2nd Franklin District Steve Adam.

Friday took us back out into the field to cover the Community Coalition for Teens (CCT) Youth Behavior Survey Results Press Conference and a special Greenfield School Committee Meeting.

You can be informed about all the subjects discussed in these programs by checking our Video on Demand Player (Green Grant Presentation, "Mayor's Memo", and the CCT Press Conference) or watching Cable Channel 15 next week ("Local Bias", "The Western Mass Democrat", and the Greenfield School Committee Meeting)

This was a busy week!

Following up on a terrific end to last week, having the governor here on Friday, we spent this week following local politics, improving our website, and helping several local producers get their message out to the public.

Last Friday afternoon, about 50 people packed into our studio for a taping of “Mayor’s Memo”. Various state & local officials, citizens, and members of the media were on hand not only to watch Mayor Martin interview Governor Patrick, but to take a trolley ride around town with them afterwards. Alicia accompanied them on this trip and had a blast. It was nice for her to see politicians both demonstrating a sense of humor and discussing important issues in a realistic way. She got some great footage that you’ve already seen on our homepage but hopes to get a longer, documentary style, piece from the tour up soon.

Greenfield’s mayor returned to GCTV on Tuesday to record another episode of his show, this time featuring Lisa McGuinness championing our public schools, which will begin airing on July 6th. Other interesting guests here this week included representatives from NOFA (Northeast Organic Farming Association) on “Franklin County Matters” and New England Farmers’ Union (NEFU) President Annie Cheatham on “Local Bias”. Jonathan Mark, of Fly By News, also brought in a couple of experts to discuss Big Pharma.

The last two shoots mentioned above, combined with Jonathan Mirin’s Piti Theatre Company’s production of “28 Feet”, filled our studio for the entire day yesterday. Producers were good about getting in and out on time so all the shows were able to go smoothly. “28 Feet”, Jonathan’s one man comedic play about dealing with his own medical issues, was open to the public and had an audience of about 20 people. You’ll be able to watch all of these shows on Cable Channel 15 soon and some of them at gctv.org as well.

Referencing our Video on Demand Player reminds us that we want to welcome Greenfield YMCA Programming to our online offerings. These episodes join videos of “Healthbeat”, “Local Bias”, “Valley Homegrown”, “Mayor’s Memo” and more. This is also a good time to mention that there is a new look to video content on our website.

We are now able to embed single videos from our Video on Demand Player so you can watch our top community coverage stories without leaving our homepage. This also means that producers will be able to link directly to their shows from, and even embed some of their episodes on, their own webpages.

Wow, we really did a lot this week! Oh, as promised, we also recorded Greenfield’s Inauguration Ceremony on Thursday and you can see it, along with some interviews with newly elected officials, on our homepage. Check it out!

It's All About The Governor (and the Earthquake)

What a week this was!

On Tuesday afternoon Owen, Simeon, & our Station Manager attended a session at the new Veterans' Resource & Referral Center, on Main Street, in which Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick and his staff listened to the concerns of local veterans. In addition to recording the entire event (which will air on Cable Channel 15 at 2PM on Wednesday, June 30th, and be available to watch online as part of our Video on Demand Player soon) they were able to catch a quick interview with the governor to create a short news story for our homepage.

It was pretty quiet around here on Wednesday, until 1:40PM. Alicia was sitting at her desk, Philippe & Owen were working at editing stations, when Alicia felt a rumble beneath her feet. This is actually not that unusual because there is some machinery in our building that periodically sends a buzzing up through Alicia's desk and chair. The shaking this time was more pronounced, however, so she asked the guys if they could feel it. They said they could and asked what it was. Alicia replied that she thought it was an earthquake, since she remembered feeling in Ashfield the one that occurred around Albany five to seven years ago. It was a little scary while the building was moving because, even though they were gentle, the tremors had increased from the time they'd started and we had no way of knowing how long it would last.

As soon as it was over, Alicia picked up the phone and called WMCB DJ/Host of "Let it Rip", and GCTV Volunteer, Reba Rasbury. Alicia told Reba what had happened, and about her theory that it was an earthquake, and asked Reba what she thought. Reba hadn't felt anything but gamely hopped online to check it out. At first, she couldn't find reports of an occurrence but she did explain why it would make sense that we felt the effects on the third floor while no one on the ground floor did. Her opinion is that, as our structure was built by Masons, the foundation of this edifice is solid and deep allowing vibrations at lower depths to be picked up. As the oscillations traveled upward, farther away from the anchored portion of the building, their effect increased.

A few minutes later, Reba called back to let us know that a 5.5 Magnitude earthquake had been reported in Canada that was close, and powerful, enough for us to have felt it. Philippe suggested that Reba call into the radio station (476-4266) so he could interview her on the air. They talked for several minutes about the science behind earthquakes and how far their effects can be experienced. At 4PM, Reba discussed the earthquake, and other environmental issues, on her show. If you'd like to hear a segment of it, check out our website or listen to her rebroadcast on 107.9FM today at 2PM.

Later today we will welcome Governor Patrick back to our studio where he will be Mayor Martin's guest on "Mayor's Memo". They will be signing the solar farm contract here in front of an audience made up of town employees, councilors, and other officials. Before that, however, Alicia will be accompanying them on a trolley tour of Greenfield to record that event for posterity. Look for footage from all of this to be posted on our website late this afternoon or early this evening.

Whew! That's about it for this week. We'll let you how things go when we check in next Friday or maybe we'll even have a special post here on Monday.

This Week at GCTV

Monday night's "Valley Homegrown" shoot was interesting. If you watched the live broadcast, and wondered why it was shorter than normal, we have the answer. One of the musicians broke a guitar string and the show had to stop so she could fix it. In addition, there were some audio issues during the program so we will be airing an old episode of the same band, Lovewhip, tonight at 9PM.

On Tuesday, the mayor came in to record his show but decided to change things up a bit. Instead of his honor answering questions from the public, and then speaking with a guest about Greenfield events or government, Mayor Martin was himself interviewed by none other than WHAI Morning Show Host Jay Fidanza. It was a no-holds barred interview where Jay was allowed to ask whatever he wanted inspiring the mayor to reply in a frank, and sometimes humorous, way. You can watch this discussion on Monday at 2PM, or anytime on our Video on Demand Player. Be sure to listen for the moment when Mayor Martin describes himself as a "moderate radical".

The Town Council Meeting broadcast live from our studio on Wednesday night. This contained the capital budget votes and was the final meeting for some councilors. On Thursday, July 1st, the winners of the recent election will be sworn in and new council officers will be elected at an organizational meeting on July 7th. We'll have more information on both of these events soon so make sure to check our homepage regularly.

Drew Hutchison would like folks to know that his guest on "Local Bias" next week will be Franklin County Register of Probate John Merrigan. Mr. Merrigan will handicap county & statewide political races and discuss the fallout from our recent town election. They had a good time in the studio on Thursday morning, when they taped this show, ably assisted by Susan Laing & Jimmie Bailey.

Today is fairly quiet, Drew will be in to edit "Local Bias" this afternoon but mostly we'll be catching our breath and getting ready for next week.

Alphabet Soup---GEF & GRF

Don't know what those acronyms stand for or why they are in the title of this week's wrap-up? Well, let me tell you about the three events we covered this week.

On Monday, Philippe & Scott followed up on our story from March 17th by attending the grand opening of the new Veterans' Resource & Referral Center on Main Street. In addition to filming all of the ceremony, they recorded a second set of interviews with Mayor Martin and Director of Veterans' Services Charles Loven.

Continuing this theme, yesterday was a busy day around here. At 3pm, the brand new Greenfield Education Foundation (GEF) held a live press conference in our studio to introduce themselves to the general public. The President of this endeavor, Robby Cohn, explained that he and the other members of the board had already raised around $22,000 to assist the Greenfield Public Schools. (Now is probably a good time to say that GCTV is a great place to hold a press conference. Think about it; lots of space, the ability to broadcast your message LIVE on television, and the public can watch your event online anytime they want. Oh, and did I mention the fact that we're FREE?)

Later, Owen attended the Green River Festival(GRF)'s press conference revealing the music line up for this summer. He got a chance to listen to one of the bands play and speak with some of the event's coordinators. We hope to have that story on our homepage this evening.

The other two pieces are already on our website, and the full events will be rebroadcast on Cable Channel 15 this weekend, so be sure to check them out if you haven't yet.

Have you checked out www.gctv.org lately?

If you haven't, now's a really good time to do so. We added a new feature on Thursday so that the four most recent community coverage pieces can viewed as soon as you reach our homepage and Mayor Martin has begun recording a brand new show---the description of which can be found on our "Locally Produced Shows" page. Click here to find out more about "Mayor's Memo" or just head on over to www.gctv.org and check out all the new stuff!

Local Bias' Triumphant Return!

Dah, dah! Make sure to tune in to channel 15 tonight at 5:30PM for a brand new episode of "Local Bias" featuring Greenfield's own Mayor William Martin. Host Drew Hutchison and his crew are back, after after their short winter break, bringing you a wide variety of interesting interviews with new episodes every two weeks.