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.

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.