Blog

Some of you may have seen our Social Media post on Tuesday, announcing that we were meeting with a web designer, and wondered where we are in our process. We’ve been planning this for a while; our current website design has been in place since 2011 and technology has changed a lot since then. In addition, we’ve learned more about what you want from us and we’re producing more media than we used to.

“Content is king” really is the slogan than best defines our site. We know that when you come to gctv.org, you don’t want to have any trouble finding and watching the video(s) that you’re looking for. We also want to make sure that you can easily check out our new types of shows: radio programs (currently only available on WMCB.net), podcasts, audio of government meetings (coming soon), songs from local artists, music videos, images, and 360 degree video. The design team at Yes Exactly totally gets us and their graphic artist gave us renderings of potential homepages that were clean, sleek, and easy to navigate, with content areas impossible to miss.

On Tuesday, we discussed what we liked, what could be tweaked, and what we need. We expect to see a new mock up soon and then can move on to approving design for other pages and get into how the site will actually function. We hope to finish and launch within the next six months and will keep you posted. For now, we just want you to know that we are happy with how things are going and looking forward to having an awesome new site!

Whew! Once again we are looking back on all of the productions that we had a hand in this week, and making plans to cover several high profile events in the coming days, and wondering how we manage to fit everything in.  Starting right in on Monday morning, and continuing throughout the week, The Dukes of Sports, Franklin County Varsity Sports Report, Live Spirits, Flyby News, and Greenfield After Dark (new, not online yet) all produced new episodes of their shows.  In addition, we began training representatives of two local organizations so that they can start producing content.  We also had one producer in here for many hours working on a new, as yet unnamed, music program.

In between assisting all of the aforementioned folks, our staff recorded the Franklin County Chamber of Commerce Luncheon yesterday and a public meeting about the Nash's Mill River Bridge last night.  We'll get a short break on Saturday and Sunday, and most of our staff is off on Monday, but then our executive director will be up early on Memorial Day, filming the town's ceremony honoring those who gave their lives to protect our country.  When we regroup on Tuesday, we will be filming special meetings of both the Greenfield School Committee and Greenfield Town Council in addition to hosting our monthly board meeting.  Finally, next Friday, GCTV staffers will film the Children's Advocacy Center (CAC) Breakfast in the morning and Greenfield High School's graduation festivities in the evening.  If you are unable to attend that last event, don't worry.  We plan on turning the video around quickly and making it available to watch online sometime on Saturday.

With so much going on, we feel there's something for everyone to watch.  Be sure to stay tuned to Cable Channel 15, and check out all of the offerings here on our website, for great new content.

This morning, we once again welcomed Four Rivers Charter Public School students into our studio to work on a project.  As many of you already know, for the last several years we have provided training and equipment to the school's senior class, in order to support their making of a documentary.  In addition, several individual students over those years have expanded on what they learned here and created videos of their own.  Now, one teacher has decided to incorporate video into her curriculum so that her pupils can share what they've learned in multiple ways.

The students have been studying immigration, sanctuary cities, politics, and communication.  They've been writing letters to the editors of local papers, attending city and town government meetings, and suggesting legislation to local officials.  In short, they're learning how to change the world and use all the tools at their disposal.  Helping people get their message out, whatever that message is, is at the core of what community television is for and we're fortunate that we have this opportunity show young people all that we have to offer.

First of all, we're so glad that the ceiling fixture in our studio is no longer coming apart and that the problem was not as big as we feared.  It turns out that the decoration is made out of plaster, not bronze, so it does not weigh hundreds of pounds.  Once the guys from Mowry & Schmidt got up there, it didn't take them very long at all to inspect the area and pronounce it sound.  Then they made short work of bolting the hanging piece back in place.  As you can see from this picture, there are no more scary shadows:   

In other news, you may remember that we mentioned a while ago that we will once again be hosting the Greenfield Kiwanis Club Auction in our studio and broadcasting it live.  This year's event will take place on Wednesday, May 3rd, and Thursday, May 4th.  Yes, that's next week!  One of the organizers let us know that the auction booklet, listing all of the great items that will be up for bid, came out today.  If you didn't get a copy in The Recorder, make sure you pick one up when you see these inserts around town because the money raised really helps our community.