Blog

Here at GCTV we don't just talk about camera terminology, we demonstrate it!

We wouldn't say our staff is food obsessed. Well, maybe a little. But when we work in the middle of a downtown area with a plethora of good restaurant choices, can you really blame us? We're also lucky enough to periodically host events that involve food and sometimes our producers and DJs bring us baked goods.

Lately, one producer in particular has been really good to us in this area and we want to publicly send a big THANK YOU to Sofi. She's hard at work on a TV series highlighting local artists of all kinds, and regularly checks out our field equipment, but she also has a day job. Thankfully for us, her job involves selling baked goods at a nearby establishment. Whenever those pastries go past their prime for selling but aren't yet ready for the trash can, Sofi drops them off at our office on her way home from work. It started with just a few really good cookies but, yesterday, she brought us a small bag containing a couple of delectable pecan rolls, an almond croissant, assorted cookies, and more.

While this may not sound ideal for our waistlines, it was a welcome surprise and our stomachs were certainly not complaining.  Really, the only problem with this arrangement is that our staff may get spoiled and expect treats all the time! Oh well, even if they do, that's a nice problem to have.

Whew! If you were to peruse our calendar for March 18-22, you'd see us involved with important events every day.  In addition to WMCB DJs coming in to do their live radio shows throughout the week, we've got productions booked both in and outside of our studios.

On Monday, we have the group behind Live Spirits scheduled to pre-record their radio program, Franklin County Continuing the Political Revolution is planning on taping a new episode of Democracy Here, and our staff will be filming the Greenfield Planning Board Meeting at 7pm at the John Zon Community Center.  As many of you know, we don't normally cover planning board meetings but we recognize that there is quite a bit of interest in this one because it will feature the board's deliberation on zoning changes related to the proposed compromise to build a new Greenfield Public Library.  We can't broadcast the meeting live but we will work to make it available to watch online on Tuesday.

Something else we'll be working on, this Tuesday, is the 2019 Greenfield High School Music Parents Association Telethon, which will be taking place at Greenfield High School for the first time.  From 6pm to 9pm, band and chorus students will take the stage to raise money for new uniforms, competition trips, and more.  There are a lot of moving pieces involved in this endeavor and our production coordinator, Philippe, will probably be over at the high school for much of that day.  Following the fundraiser, Philippe will bring all of our equipment back to the office and get it ready to go out again for our live broadcast of Wednesday night's Greenfield City Council Meeting.

But the fun doesn't stop there!  The Richards Group will be holding a free OSHA training in our TV studio from 8am to 2:30pm on both Thursday and Friday.  Our office coordinator and our executive director will both be attending as part of a packed house, since registration for the class is full.  Meanwhile, Philippe will be over at Terrazza Ristorante, at the Country Club of Greenfield, capturing video of the Franklin County Chamber of Commerce Breakfast on Friday morning.

If you can't keep up with our busy schedule, don't worry.  You'll be able to watch most of these events on Cable Channel 15, and www.gctv.org, soon after they happen, so be sure to tune in or check back!

As the old saying goes, "Failing to plan is planning to fail."  Here at GCTV, we like to minimize the number of things that can go wrong when we're in the middle of a live shoot.  To that end, we spend a lot of time working out details, anticipating problems, and testing equipment beforehand.  Unfortunately, sometimes we encounter things we can't prepare for.

This Wednesday was one of those times.  Evidently, some electronic gremlins got into the system and we were unable to livestream this week's special Greenfield Ways & Means Meeting, though we were able to broadcast it live on Cable Channel 15.  As far as we can tell, this was a one-time thing but we will be running a few more checks today to be sure.

In the meantime, we've been doing advanced planning for the Greenfield High School Music Parents Association Telethon, which will be held at Greenfield High School for the first time, on Tuesday, March 19th, and the Greenfield Kiwanis Club Auction, which will take place in our studio in May.  For the telethon, our executive director has had several meetings with school officials, to delineate responsibilities and ensure internet access for us, and our production coordinator will be getting in on the action soon.  In regards to the other fundraiser, Greenfield Kiwanis Member Chris Sexton just contacted us to set up a date for his folks to come in and organize their auction item database.  We're especially excited about this bit of pre-production work because the Kiwanis always bring pizza to share with our staff!

That's it for this week.  Check back next Friday to read more about what's keeping us busy!