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!

New! Weekly Wrap-up

We put our heads together here, after the tempestuous time we had last week, and decided that posting a synopsis of life at GCTV each Friday wouldn't be a bad idea. (It also might be cathartic for our staff.) To that end, I bring you, (dah, dah!) the first GCTV Weekly Wrap-up:

Our week started as usual on Monday morning with a "Dukes of Sports" shoot. Producer, and co-host, of the show Russ Brown brought us a huge bag of freshly popped popcorn---for which we thanked him greatly. (Always feed the bears in our office!) The only event that marred this day was the final fallout from our technical heck week in which we found that the March 11th Greenfield School Committee Meeting's video file had been corrupted beyond saving.

Tuesday was a boisterous one around here, with about twenty students from Federal Street Elementary School in our studio to help Jonathan Mirin's Piti Theatre Company film "Salmon Falls". Piti Theatre's website describes this show as, "an interactive theatrical event where audience members ages 5 and up are invited to help us tell the Deerfield River's story with movement, song and storytelling." Tuesday evening, a different group filled our studio. The Greenfield Kiwanis Club held their monthly meeting here, and got in some camera training, ahead of their two day auction extravaganza which will be shown live on Channel 15 on May 5th & 6th.

Four shoots rounded out our production week---"Encore Body Art" & a Greenfield Town Council Meeting on Wednesday and "Local Bias" & "Healthbeat" on Thursday. The town council meeting lasted 3-1/2 hours and Alicia would like to profusely thank volunteers Jal, Donna, & Shawn for going the distance. (A belated thank you goes out to Tom Roulston who stepped in at the last minute, last week, to run a camera for two hours at the Greenfield School Committee Meeting.) Al Norman was Drew Hutchison's guest for the "Local Bias" episode that will begin airing on Wednesday and be on the lookout for April's "Healthbeat" which will focus on Advances in Obstetrics and National Volunteer Month.

So far, today is relatively quiet, though I know I shouldn't really type that. Check back next Friday for the second installment of GCTV's Weekly Wrap-up. ---Alicia