GHS Music Parents' Telethon Hits Our Airwaves!

Tonight, from 6PM to 9PM, GCTV will be turning Cable Channel 15 over to Greenfield High School Band & Chorus members (and their parents, of course) to help them raise money for the wonderful music programs taught by Paul Calcari. When you tune in tonight you will hear all kinds of music from Jazz to Broadway, solo performances, small groups, and even an interview with Greenfield Schools Superintendent Susan Hollins. Host Dan Guin will be encouraging you to call 413-774-4300 and support these amazing young people.

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!

Tonight's Board Meeting has been Rescheduled.

Due to the anticipated snowstorm, the GCTV Board Meeting has been postponed until next Tuesday, March 2nd, at 6PM. The meeting will be held in our studio and everyone is welcome to attend.

Contemplating Curling

For those of you not familiar with the sport of Curling, I think of it as a combination of Shuffleboard and Bocce---played on ice. Several members of the Petersham, MA, Curling Club were in our editing suites yesterday putting together a video PSA to show on Cable Channel 15.

The club's website defines curling as a game where, "Each player throws or slides a 42lb curling stone with a handle attached to its topside down a sheet of specially prepared ice. The immediate goal is to have your rock come to rest on the spot that the team captain or “skip” has requested. The ultimate goal is for the four-person team to have their rock(s) closest to the center of the target or “house”."

With Curling featured in this year's Winter Olympics, the Petersham Curling Club will be hosting two open house events this month. This is great opportunity to find out more about the sport and maybe even try it for yourself. Look for their PSA in between our regularly scheduled programs or go to their website: www.petershamcurling.org/pccfaq.

Blog Following

By now you've probably noticed the little box to the right where you can sign up to follow our blog. Followers of our blog get notified as soon as we post something new and snazzy. The more followers (and fans on Facebook *shameless plug*) that we have, the cooler we look. Please help us to be stylin' online.

Oh, but wait, there's more! If you are a GCTV Producer (or a WMCB DJ), and you have a Blogspot for your show, we can follow your blog too! Simply send an email to alicia@gctv.org with your blog's address. Then we can all be like Snoopy! (Joe Cool---get it?) :)

Production Contracts, Take 2

This time we really mean it! :) Due to an ongoing policy review, we weren't able to have producers and show sponsors fill out the paperwork for their programs in January. Though the policy review is still underway, we would like to have you start filling out production contracts (for your own shows, produced with GCTV equipment and training) & sponsorship forms (for shows not produced with any help from GCTV) for programs that we air on Channel 15. We are updating these annually so that we have current contact information for all of you and we can find it easily. We would like to have these done by the end of this month so please ask for the correct form the next time you are in the office, or email alicia@gctv.org if you won't be in for awhile. Thanks!

Temporary Signal Interruption

Around 1:40PM today the cable company will be doing some work in our building that will result in both GCTV and WMCB being off the air for up to 20 minutes. In addition, our phones and internet will also be down. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and hope to be back on the air as soon as possible.

New Equipment in Use

One of the pieces of equipment that we recently purchased was a new screen for our studio. This is a definite upgrade for us as it is larger and lighter than our old one. If you watch the rebroadcast of yesterday's FRCOG meeting, when it airs on Saturday at 1PM, look for the Powerpoint presentations. They look great to both the studio audience and the viewers at home.

Ta Dah!

As promised, pictures of the new editing stations:

This is the view from the door.  It looks very professional, don't you think?

Here's the view from the other editing bay.

And finally, a close up.  Enjoy!

Now we have seven editing stations available (4 Macs and 3 PCs) running Adobe Premiere.  Come on in and take advantage of them to produce your show for GCTV!

The Upgrades Continue

As part of our ongoing improvements, we are installing several new editing stations in the office. The conference table has been moved to the back room to make way for these new computers and the fax’s spot will soon be taken over by a machine, dedicated to uploading and downloading, that is on a separate internet connection. Here’s a pic of what it looks like right now. Once it’s finished we’ll post another pic or you can come down and see for yourself!

Special Election Today!

Please don't forget to vote today for your choice for Massachusetts' new Senator.

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.

New Looks For Blog & Homepage.

You may have noticed some items missing from this blog (hours, schedule, events, & volunteer opportunities). Never fear, they can all be found on the newly revamped www.gctv.org. We redesigned our homepage to give you better, and faster, access to all the news, information, and dates that you are looking for that relate to Greenfield Community Television. As time goes on, more items may migrate from this page, to our website, so that the blog can focus on being a blog. We hope you will enjoy these changes and, as always, you can comment here to let us know how you feel.

Citizen of the Year Breakfast

A good time was had by all at this morning's 2009* Recorder Citizen of the Year Breakfast held at the Yankee Candle Fitness Center in Deerfield. GCTV's staff, and members of our board, met at 7:30AM to help celebrate Ted Lewis' lifetime of public service to Wendell and the Greater Franklin County community. Thanks to Frontier Cable Access Television (FCAT) for providing us with a video of the event which will be shown on Tuesday, January 12th, at 5PM and Wednesday, January 13th, at 2PM. Tune in to learn more about Mr. Lewis through an array of tributes, including one by motivational speaker Rob Peck.

*The event was rescheduled from December 2009 after a fire at the original location, Deerfield Academy.

New Year, New Production Contracts

It's that time again, producers & sponsors of shows on GCTV. During the month of January we will be asking you to fill out production contracts (for your own shows, produced with GCTV equipment and training) & sponsorship forms (for shows not produced with any help from GCTV) for programs that we air on Channel 15. We decided to update these annually so that we have current contact information for all of you and we can find it easily. Please ask for the correct form the next time you are in the office or email alicia@gctv.org if you won't be in for awhile. Thanks!