Video Voice #12
As the autumn season descends upon us, and the last of the colorful leaves fall, I thought I’d bring my readers up to date on some recent goings on at MATV. The value of writing this column is that I have this wonderful forum to not only update folks on the activities that happen at Malden’s Media Center, but I get to comment on any subject that is related to telecommunications, emerging technology and community media.
First of all, I’m very happy to report that our local cable provider, Comcast and the City of Malden have successfully negotiated a 10-year renewal of the cable license with the City. Mayor Richard C. Howard has shown incredible leadership in arranging additional revenues that support Malden’s communication needs and enables the City to continue the valuable work that Malden Access Television provides.
After a tough year of stalled talks, level funding and some very creative negotiating strategies, Comcast and the City agreed to $375,000 in capital improvements for our facility as well an operational grant consisting of 4.5% of the gross revenue that will help support the public, education and government programming for the Malden community. This is a good contract for the City and we are grateful for the Mayor’s guidance and his very professional team of Debbie Burke, Charlie Toomajian and attorney, Peter Epstein.
The Mayor was quoted as saying, “We’re pleased that this renewal continues between the City and Comcast. The additional revenues will enable the City to support various cable-related initiatives…and allow Malden Access Television to continue to provide quality access programming to the residents.” I couldn’t agree with him more and we are thrilled that MATV can now get on with our ten year plan to build and implement the best media center in the Northeast region.
The other topic I would like to discuss is the upcoming local election. As has been done it the past, the resources of MATV were open to all the candidates to take the opportunity to share their vision and concerns with the citizens of this great City. Led by our Government Access Coordinator, Brian Biggie, MATV not only covered the debate of the Ward 4 candidates at the Heritage building last week but we went to the homes of all the candidates for contested races and put together a video called, “Meet the Candidates.”
The idea of the project was to show the “person behind the candidate” and not just some kind of campaign rhetoric. The viewer was shown the personal side of each candidate from their own home as they spoke of their family life and their connection to Malden over the years. It proved to be a very popular program and both programs will be shown on Channel 16 right up until Election Day. (Meet the Candidates” will be shown on Fridays at 8pm, Saturdays at 7pm and Sundays at 7pm. and for the times and dates of the cablecast of the debate check our Community Bulletin Board on Channel 16.
Several candidates also took advantage of our Community Bulletin Board and posted electronic billboards for viewers to see. We know that people watch the CBB because we get comments on the music that is playing underneath the pages. Any candidate not using this forum is missing out in connecting with voters.
MATV takes its mission very seriously. We believe we should be the conduit for the people of this City to express themselves, share ideas and present solutions. It is during election time that candidates can take advantage of this incredible resource and provide the voters with as much information as possible so that they can truly make an informed vote on Election Day.
MATV is also delighted to announce that we will be providing Election night coverage of the returns as they come in as well as commentary from local politicians and leaders. The program will begin at 8:30pm on Channel 16 and continue until the returns are in. We welcome all candidates to come down to the studio to be interviewed about the campaign. This should be a lively night of political entertainment.
In closing, I want to thank everyone who has offered their support of MATV over the past year. Your letters of support were very helpful in convincing the Mayor’s office of our role in the community and how much we have become an institution within the City. We are grateful and encouraged by your comments and we are comforted by you joining us in creating quality community media, whether it’s on one of our channels or is streaming on the internet. We are MATV…where members make it happen.
