A Remembrance of Tom MacLean

A memorial celebration and potluck will be held this Sunday, August 29th, at 4PM at Woolman Hill in Deerfield.

Election Season is in Full Swing!

As you probably know, two debates took place in our studio on Tuesday night. The Franklin County Democratic League hosted both forums, one for the 2nd Franklin District State Representative seat and one for the Northwest District Attorney position. While the debate was going on inside, several candidates had supporters out on the street holding signs and waving to passersby. Both formal events were well attended and you can watch them for yourself at gctv.org.

We're very pleased that our recording of recent debates, including those discussed above, piqued the interest of two other media outlets. Masslive.com and Northamptonmedia.com both asked for links to our event footage, which we happily provided.

In other election news, many of you know that we updated our State Primaries page several times this week to include more video candidate statements and greater Franklin County races. If you haven't checked it out yet, now is a good time to do so. In addition, Maureen Winseck, Greenfield's Town Clerk, would like us to remind you that the last day to register to vote, change your political party, or address, for the State Primary Elections to be held on Tuesday, September 14th, is Wednesday, August 25th. The Town Clerk’s Office will be open from 8:30AM to 8PM that day. Regular office hours are Monday through Friday, 8:30AM to 5PM. If you have any questions regarding voter registration, please contact the Greenfield Town Clerk's Office at 772-1555 x112.

One final note that has nothing to do with politics: The Franklin County Fair Parade will be here before you know it. If you would like to help us record the event on September 9th please email alicia@gctv.org and let us know.

Announcements, Announcements, Announcements!

After much hard work this week, GCTV staff members set up livestreaming for WMCB-lp 107.9FM. You can now listen to this community radio station twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, on your computer. Head over to wmcb.net/Listen.html to start enjoying Western Massachusetts Community Broadcasting. Be sure to check out the rest of the site while you're there because it has descriptions of each show, answers to frequently asked questions, and the station's schedule. In case you are wondering, the hours between Midnight and Noon (when you can't hear WMCB on your radio) will be filled online by a repeat of the programming that ran from Noon to Midnight.

Keeping our election page up to date also required a lot of time and effort this week. If you go to http://www.gctv.org/StatePrimaries.html you will see that new links to important election websites, the ballot questions, and video of candidate debates and interviews have been added. We've also listed the debates we'll be airing in the future and we will continue adding content to the page as we get it.

Writing about debates reminds me that we still need volunteers to help us shoot many of the events we'll be covering this month. If you would like to run a camera, manage the soundboard, or direct during a debate, town council, or school committee shoot send an email to alicia@gctv.org or call 413-774-4288. Don't forget, we will train you! To see our upcoming volunteer opportunities click here.

All Kinds of Stuff is Going On

It's been pretty busy around here lately. In fact, while our station manager was on vacation last week we partied, I mean worked, really hard. Seriously though, many of the candidates that you will be voting on in September's primary elections have been through our office in the last two weeks and you can see the result by going to http://www.gctv.org/StatePrimaries.html.

Joe Gochinski, host of The Western Mass Democrat, has also been hard at work doing short interviews with Democrats participating in contested races for Northwestern District Attorney (DA), State Representative for the Second Berkshire District, and State Representative for the Second Franklin District. He will be editing those tomorrow and hopes to have them available for viewing soon.

Yesterday the host of Franklin County Matters, Dave Roulston, moderated a debate between the two DA candidates and that is already available to watch online as part of our Video on Demand Player.

Meanwhile, a small group from Community Action Youth Programs has been working diligently for the last few weeks producing some short pieces about racism.

Whew, that's a lot of good, locally produced, television!

What is Block Scheduling?

The topic came up this week because we are going to be switching time slots for two of our regular programs. Here at GCTV block scheduling means that we try to program certain parts of our lineup so that the same type of programming airs in a regular spot each day.

For instance, if you tune in on any weekday at 1pm you will be watching one of our Polka shows and at 2pm you can check out a variety of historical content. We hope soon to have the 9am weekday position filled with different sports and physical fitness programs. To further that goal we will be swapping the rebroadcasts of "Eaton do Ryu" and "The Greenfield YMCA Presents" beginning next week. The 9am lineup will now be: Monday-"Eaton do Ryu" (martial arts), Tuesday-"Dukes of Sports", Wednesday-"The Greenfield YMCA Presents" (aerobics & other activies), Thursday-"Eaton do Ryu", and Friday "The Greenfield YMCA Presents".

Additional block programming segments include rebroadcasts of recent town meetings, or large public events, on Saturdays at 1pm and a full day of religious and spiritual programs on Sundays. We also focus on bringing you new and ongoing content, from active producers or local sponsors, in our prime time slots from 5pm to 10pm Monday through Friday.

Election Season isn't over yet!

This week we began contacting all the candidates who you'll be voting on in the primaries on September 14th. That may seem like a long time from now but, with five candidates in the State Rep. Race for the Democratic Party and other contested races on both sides of the aisle, voters will need all of that time to make an informed decision. Within the next couple of weeks we'll be debuting a webpage at gctv.org that will feature pictures, bios, links to official campaign websites, and a video statement from each candidate. This is similar to what we did for Greenfield's Town Election on June 8th, that was so well received, but this will include not only Franklin County races but statewide ones as well.

Weekly Wrap-up

A couple of interesting topics were discussed on shows recorded here this week:

On Tuesday, WMCB DJ/Host of "Channeling the Muse" Opeyemi Parham, MD came armed for her show with a book titled, "Lies Men Tell Women and Why Women Believe Them". The episode which will broadcast tonight, and Sunday, at 6PM on 107.9FM, features an interview with the host's significant other and some good music to boot.

The following day we changed gears from love to money when Attorney David Roulston brought in three local businesswomen to discuss Greenfield's participation in the 3/50 project. If you aren't familiar with this campaign, which encourages people to buy local in an easy way, check out the story we did on it awhile back. Then tune into Cable Channel 15 on Monday, July 19th, at 9PM for this episode of "Franklin County Matters".

That's it for this week. Keep checking back here for the inside scoop on GCTV/WMCB!

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.

Whew! What a Whirlwind of a Week!

Continuing our theme from last week, a lot of work in our office revolved around Greenfield's Town Election on Tuesday. Monday was spent in frenzied activity putting the finishing touches on our on our website and pre-produced pieces. Owen & Simeon spent some time over at GHS, on Tuesday, talking to candidates and volunteers who were forming the gauntlet voters had to walk through before entering their polling place.

Election returns were delayed on Tuesday night because of a morning power failure at the polls and the breakdown of Precinct 2's vote tallying machine. Both of these technical issues combined to cause a large number of ballots to require hand counting and the unofficial totals weren't delivered to our studio until after 9PM.

Joe Gochinski & Drew Hutchison did a phenomenal job hosting our election returns show. They were informative and really integrated well with our pre-produced segments. GCTV's staff and volunteers would like to send up a shout out to Joe for providing snacks that also kept our energy up at the town council meeting the next night. Yummy!

The Greenfield Middle School Band's Spring Concert also took place on Wednesday night and we covered it too. Since it couldn't air live, it will air tonight at 7PM on Cable Channel 15.

Thursday night we were back out in the community broadcasting the Greenfield School Committee Meeting live from Greenfield High School. The staff who weren't working on that shoot spent the day cleaning up, helping producers edit their shows, and generally winding down.

Today has been less hectic so more cleaning up and organizing has been accomplished, along with some catching up on work that didn't get done over the last week and a half.

Make sure to check our Video on Demand player for anything you missed this week and tune in tonight for Sunday's GHS Graduation at 5PM.

Ramping Up for Election Coverage

We've been toiling away here all week getting ready for Tuesday's election. Philippe produced a story about the ballot questions that you can watch on our homepage right now, our intern Simeon has been diligently gathering b-roll, graphics are being laid out by Owen as this post is being written, Alicia designed a page for our website that will display the returns, and Scott is working on several short pieces to be shown on Cable Channel 15 between segments of our live studio results show.

We're very excited to be changing the way we bring you the vote tallies this year and hope you will find our coverage interesting and accessible as well as informative. Check out gctv.org on Monday and Tuesday to find out more about the election itself and our coverage of it.

On a lighter note, "Plan 9 from Outer Space" has finally arrived on GCTV! Now that this cult classic is definitively in the public domain we will be showing it as part of our "Movie Mayhem" series at 12AM on Sunday, June 6th, and following "The Public's Domain" (around 1AM) on Saturday, June 12th.

What a week it's been!

"Valley Homegrown" started off the week with a very interesting musical group called "Lalit" that played Indian Jazz Fusion. If you missed it, when it aired live on Monday night, be sure to catch the rebroadcast tonight at 9PM on Cable Channel 15.

Our staff was very excited on Tuesday to welcome our new intern, Simeon. He was put to work right away creating a community coverage piece about what the Franklin Regional Transit Authority (FRTA), and the town, are doing to help people with physical disabilities, no transportation, or who aren't going to be in town on election day, cast their ballots on June 8th. You can watch this short news story on our homepage.

Then, of course, Wednesday night happened. As folks left our studio, after the Greenfield Town Council Ways & Means Committee Meeting, the sky lit up with flash after flash of lighting. There was no thunder or rain at that point so we had no idea what was coming next.

Arriving on Thursday morning to discover that a State of Emergency had been declared, our Station Manager & New Media Producer/Director put their heads together to figure what we could do to help. Mayor Martin's office put us in touch with the Greenfield Fire Department and they provided us with street closings and other public safety information that we immediately posted on our website. Later, the mayor and Fire Chief Winn took time out of their demanding schedules to sit down in our studio and give the public a thorough rundown of the situation in a new "Mayor's Memo" episode that aired last night. One of our WMCB DJs, Corey Bellows---Host of "The Wire", spent the morning walking around town taking pictures of the storm's aftermath. He was nice enough to share them with us and you can see his slide show on the upper right corner of this blog. As Corey said, "these pictures explain why we're in a State of Emergency".

Today, we've mostly been playing catch up and continuing to update our State of Emergency page. Obviously, we won't be able to update it over the holiday weekend but you can see the most up to date information on the town's website.

Enjoy your (non-stormy) Memorial Day Weekend everyone!

Expanding Greenfield's Knowledge Base Through Informative Programming

Two interviews were conducted in our studio this week. Late on Monday afternoon, Dave Roulston, Mary Drew of Clinical Support Options, Greg Grueling of Green River House, and Susan Howell also of Green River House sat down together for “Franklin County Matters”. The purpose of this roundtable was to highlight the 8th Annual Wellness Fair, celebrating the empowerment of people with mental disabilities, at the Energy Park in downtown Greenfield. On Thursday, Glen Ayers, host of “The Enviro Show” on WMCB, was Drew Hutchison’s guest on “Local Bias” and the two of them discussed the ramifications of pollution. Their talk was wide ranging but included Biomass and the ballot questions that voters will be deciding during Greenfield’s election on June 8th.

Writing about “Local Bias” reminds me that we have a new producer in our midst thanks to the crew of that show. As I type this post, former guest (and local author---“First Comes Love, Then Comes Malaria”) Eve Brown-Waite is sitting at one of our computers editing her own show for broadcast on Cable Channel 15. She was excited to discover all the opportunities we offer when she appeared on Drew’s show and he encouraged her to use us herself when she came to him with another project.

All three of the programs described above should be shown soon. Please check our schedule for days and times.

If you’re looking for something to watch right now---and you’re interested in dinosaurs, geology, or local history---check out independent producer Reba Rasbury’s piece on Vimeo. She says that it’s a, “work in progress”, but it showcases both her humor and the amazing Jurassic treasures that our valley holds.

Finally, a note about our board meeting for this month: our board is going on a field trip to Athol-Orange Community Television on Tuesday evening, to tour their facility, instead of having a regular meeting here in our studio.

A Week of Empowerment

This week began with women helping women. Opeyemi Parham, MD, host of WMCB’s “Channeling the Muse” organized a co-operative learning session for her fellow female DJs. First thing on Monday morning the group discussed their needs and then proceeded to teach each other what they knew. Some of them were familiar with producing live shows, others only pre-records, some upload their shows to air on their own, others don’t. During this time they were each able to share the parts that they knew and help each other to become fully versed in WMCB procedures. If you missed this session, don’t worry, they will be having another one on June 14th and Opeyemi will be sending out an email to current DJs soon.

Knowledge continued to be passed on the following day when volunteers from the Greenfield YMCA arrived at our studio for a camera training session with our station manager. In one hour they learned how to use our new HD field cameras, Manfrotto Tripods, and studio cameras. The YMCA is ramping up coverage of their many activities and now has regular timeslots for the shows they produce. Tune in to Cable Channel 15 on Mondays at 11AM and Wednesdays at 7PM, beginning May 24th, to see these great shows.

Lastly, we welcomed a new producer to our ranks this week. Hope Schneider, of the Friends of the Greenfield Public Library, was taught to edit her footage of this year’s Poet’s Seat Poetry Contest using Adobe Premiere on one of our PCs.

We’re very happy to fulfill our mission, to help expand Greenfield’s knowledge base, and this week was a wonderful example of what we (and you) can do.