They say it’s my B’day. Celebrate with me. Subscribe to @wpaatv on YouTube. Retrospective content will be cablecast on Saturdays from 8 to 11 p.m. And Mon-Wed at 7 pm. Open Studio is being discontinued.
Open Letter to Local Churches – History and Current Viewership
Content from churches has been a ‘walk-in’ mainstay of community media for four decades. For more than two of those decades, services were cablecast the week following the service. This may still be true on other community media channels. However, fourteen years ago, WPAA-TV committed to scheduling local services on the ‘same day’ it was received from at least five faith communities. This number increased to seven communities during the pandemic. The minimum staffing commitment to the Same Day Sunday initiative has been 5-hours-per-week. In approximately four of these 14 years, individuals were hired to do specific file management tasks at minimum wage. That made Sunday staff 35% of our budget. But even with Sunday staffing, senior volunteer staff needed to be on-site.
Our volunteer has been attending to the management of local church services for seven hundred and twenty days, reduced by COVID and one family emergency. But is there an end in sight. Is anybody watching?
WPAA-TV Governance
Same Day Sunday is 14 years old. It is the cablecast of video content received from several faith communities within hours of receipt. When implemented by WPAA-TV, it was revolutionary. Previously, St. Paul’s Episcopal and First Congregational Church members supported this ‘same day’ idea. Each week church volunteers spent a few hours after church compositing the service with a welcome message and video credits on S-VHS tape using WPAA-TV equipment. They were WPAA-TV volunteers because they needed a key to the building on Sunday. These two faith communities have had the same cablecast times for 30 years: Sunday at 3:30 pm for First Congregational Church and 5 pm for St. Paul’s Episcopal Church. Predictable scheduling, a unique circumstance in community media, is additional proof of WPAA-TV’s commitment to regular viewers.
According to these church volunteers, some viewers reported listening to replays, many for the music, or with bible study groups. Since cable TV is local, people out of town on Sunday could also catch up with replays. Back in the day, there were no other platforms for distribution. If we have community media viewers today, they would still be older members of these communities. The ones we knew about, however, are no longer with us. Frankly, we do not know if anyone is watching. We no longer have weekly in-person contact with the local church video production teams. Everything is handled remotely. And cable companies, the only ones with the data, claim data is proprietary. They tell legislators that no one is watching. Are they right?
During the services, we hear the pastors & clergy suggest that those in attendance share the “Peace of the Lord” with the remote viewers as comments on social. After several months as an interim pastor, we received a call asking about the reference to WPAA-TV in the church bulletin. The reply is followed by an “Oh, do we need that?” We have YouTube. To which we reply, “That is something only you can answer. Are your members watching?” Video capture and distribution continue to provide a vital service, but is community media a necessary component of this weekly content management service?
Fourteen Years of Evolution – From Hyper Relevant to Courtesy Copy
YouTube was becoming mainstream when we launched Same Day Sunday (2010). By 2016 Facebook added a LIVE stream capability. However, it was not until capture-platforms like Zoom emerged during the pandemic that the nexus of accessible media tools eclipsed the substantive value of community media for this significant percentage of our walk-in content.
Production capabilities vary by faith community. However, all community media users have transitioned to streaming on social media platforms. We can see the viewer analytics. Some streamers never use community media. They want to drive traffic to their websites. As of this writing, the DVD provider ceased sharing the content they had been rotating for decades. One submits the sermon excerpt for replay within 2 days. Four transfer files to us immediately following a service. We can manage the files within an hour or two. Sometimes they are late, forgotten by new volunteers, or stuck in slow Internet. Our volunteer is still here every Sunday but is this a courtesy copy? Is 30-plus percent of our content no longer an essential service? Can we afford this tremendous use of resources anymore? Our volunteer’s dedication, 30 % of the channel’s capacity, and opportunity costs are significant. If we did not receive courtesy copies what would be on the channel? Would anyone be watching whatever that is?
Our Cross: You may be surprised to learn!
We are relevant because we exist. Within this relevance, it is our community’s responsibility to determine community needs. Community need is determined by ‘whatever walks in the door’. We schedule what we receive or help people create content at studioW #wpaatv. Like the churches, we share what is created on social platforms. It is ‘In addition to’ our channel.
We are funded in three ways. Cable fees, capital grants known as PEGPETIA, and community contributions (donations and grants for training or projects.) Cable fees are declining exponentially We could not afford Sunday staff if we did not have the volunteer. Blog Post here on that topic.
A political anomaly in community media funding has enabled several churches to install significant video capabilities for their stream and courtesy copy to other community media channels. PEGETIA funds, now in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, have benefited a handful of well-connected churches. The direct cost to WPAA-TV of this capital fund siphon over the past few years is about $100,000. If you have read this far, would your faith community have been interested in a grant covering the cost of your audio-visual recording equipment? Should the state be underwriting video capture of beliefs? As reported above, Community Media resources have been available to individuals who produce content related to their beliefs for decades. But a line has always been a line drawn regarding production support. Production was the responsibility of the faith community members. Content is distributed on community media channels because people, not organized religion, consider it good enough to share. As much as it seems like it, this is not splitting hairs. Community media is about what people are passionate about. If you can get enough people together to produce something we must provide the tools and channel capacity.
According to a common understanding of the separation of church and state grants for video equipment for churches should not be happening.
Question: When is it appropriate for faith-based organizations to receive public funds? Answer: Public Safety – Yes, Public Health – Yes, Historic Preservation – Registered as Historic Places – Yes, Spreading their beliefs – No The United States Supreme Court: faith-based organizations may not use direct government support to support “inherently religious” activities. …inherently religious activities such as worship, prayer, proselytizing, or devotional Bible study. The current Court is satisfied if government assistance is neutral — that is, nonreligious and religious organizations are equally eligible to compete for funding — and beneficiaries are offered genuine choices about where to go for assistance. All programs identified by religious organizations in compliance reports are inherently religious. What was once equal eligibility is now the direct underwriting of faith-based organizations in a manner that enables worship, prayer, proselytizing, or devotional study.
Is it time to blow the whistle on this syphon of state funds by churches?
What we are is priceless because we are you, but even you do not know that. Every town has community media resources but you can not look up your ‘town’ on the internet and find your community media resources. They could be for your town or a collection of towns. It could be available as a nonprofit or a Dept. in a cable TV company. PSSST We do not call them Cable TV anymore.
Fortune 500, or 100, connectivity companies are rebranded cable TV companies using the same public utility polls to provide contemporary services without paying for the infrastructure costs of the new stuff (i.e. streaming).
Curt Huizenga, WPAA-TV Board Member
Public Utilities Regulatory Authority has failed all CT citizens with insufficient oversight of cable. This industry was deregulated in CT because it is easier to change the minds of legislators than justify failures in court. A wise attorney & advocate of community media affiliated with a nonprofit planning to close due to lack of funds impressed that fact upon me.
Some regulations remain including the promotion of community access services.
(d) Each company or organization shall conduct outreach programs and promote its community access services. Such outreach and promotion may include, but not be limited to (1) broadcasting cross-channel video announcements, (2) distributing information throughout the franchise area and not solely to its subscribers, (3) including community access information in its regular marketing publications, (4) broadcasting character-generated text messages or video announcements on barker or access channels, (5) making speaking engagements, (6) holding open receptions at its community access facilities, and (7) in multitown franchise areas, encouraging the formation and development of local community access studios operated by volunteers or nonprofit operating groups.
As you can see, it is the cable companies’ legal responsibility to tell you how they are providing community media in every community. If you know enough to be interested in what community media resources are available, you can find some information here. But wouldn’t a search for your town providing facility location, type, and contact information be helpful? PURA is to provide consumer assistance and oversight. PURA’s role is clarified here (updated April 2024) – except you need to know acronyms (CAP, PEGPETIA) to find information about community media.
Deregulation with an Appearance of Progress
CT was the first state to ensure every community had ‘community media’ resources (a.k.a. PEG, Public Education and Government Access). But, BRAVO begins and ends with Public Act 95‐150 – An ACT CONCERNING COMMUNITY ACCESS OPERATIONS. In a forever, David & Goliath struggle, CT has failed to ensure that community media resources are sustainable, accessible, and relevant. Deregulation was codified in 2007. Concurrently, the industry was to keep legacy community media commitments in return for more tax breaks. Connecticut passed PA 07-253, described as “designed to promote cable competition by allowing telecommunications companies to provide video services without having to obtain a time-limited franchise or being subject to rate regulation. Federally, the move to allow the market to allocate resources resulted in the Cable Franchise and Communications Policy Act of 1984 (Cable Act of 1984). By 2003 it was evident that the 1996 Act to deregulate cable rates failed. Consumer cable prices rose three times the rate of inflation and even faster for ‘basic services’ for low-income families.
Deregulation lets market forces work on behalf of the consumer.
MYTH
Resources in Lieu of Taxes: The Illusive Deal
Fortune 500, even 100, companies are legally committed to providing ‘the people’ with access to media technology. Why, because they use public rights of way to deliver their services. Without the cable infrastructure, there would be no cable TV or Internet. No Fortunes.
However, they do not pay for access to you from their profits. Instead, they add a fee to your cable bill (not a tax, because it is their obligation). Community Media operators and volunteers oppose the fee. We believe in your fundamental right to tell your story, engage with your community, encourage youth to be media literate, and in general ‘people over profits’.
More than Rebranding: Legacy Terms As Weapons
Old language and changing technology add to the complexity of our survival in the public interest. Community Media income declines are escalating at a precipitous rate. Cord-cutting, or no interest in a cord by the current generation, decreases the cable TV subscriber population, the population wrongly saddled with the cost of community media. Restricting legislation to legacy terms was a successful tactic in the 2007 deregulation process. ISP protocol was not cable; therefore, the telecom industries’ foray into providing content viewed on television devices was not cable and not eligible for regulation. This use of legacy language effectively limits funds for Community Media. Less cable TV viewers = less community media income.
Technology advances every few months. With every advance, we become less relevant. Declining funds leave much of WPAA – TV and Community Media Center stuck in 2010-2015. Some nonprofit peers are using even older technology. We should be “early technology adopters for all members of our community” with an interest in conversation, storytelling, performance, and other creative pursuits. Instead, we often have less technology than what is readily available in middle-class homes. Some things did not even exist when terms and regulations were defined.
Community Media and Social Media are Not Equal
Corporate platforms & social media are not the same as community media. They are tools, not community resources. Tools that bombard you with requests to Boost. Pay Them. Similarly, we are not just another nonprofit. We are a resource for nonprofits. They have a right to media resources without cost.
The obligation to underwrite most of what we do from the profits of “connectivity” companies is lost on legislators who see themselves as business people. They see the results of an underfunded, deteriorating resource and expect outcomes that were never intended. What they see is not what we have the potential to be. It costs money, money we do not have, to provide what is possible. It takes updated laws to move us forward together. Most legislators have not seen community media making a difference so it is hard to convince them of our purpose & potential. They do not understand our obligation to serve whoever walks in the door. Many legislators have bought into the cable lobby playbook of myths. Our governor also sees himself as a businessman. He was a cable guy. The Governor and Senator Needleman, presumed to be focusing on relevance, fail to see our existence as our relevance. It is up the every community to find the relevance they need from the resources available.
We can not be your future if we have none.
HB5446: Tax Reform for Our Democracy Movement
The bill mentioned in this story will not come to the floor for a vote because it corrects our collective situation with tax reform. It stops the fees. It stops the municipal tax exclusions for these companies and it devises a level playing field for all profiting off of your public rights of way.
Will the cable companies successfully collapse the community media industry before their legacy infrastructure fails to deliver the SD signals they restrict community channels too, or vice versa
Sarcasm that proved to be vice versa for Frontier whose cable customers have not been able to see PEG channels for over 18 months.
After a year of examination of nonprofit community media policies, finances, and operations in a study initiated by a Special Act of the State of CT Legislature, we anticipated solutions to serve you better. On March 7th, House Bill 5446 was raised for consideration by the leadership of the Energy & Tech Committee. It represented the potential of a transformative outcome. The Commissioner of PURA (Public Utilities Regulatory Authority) and OCC (Office of Consumer Council) testified in support. Representative Mushinsky of Wallingford, on the E&T committee, is prepared to add administrative cost-saving modifications on behalf of taxpayers. These changes would simplify annual administrative procedures in a few State of CT Depts and improve the sustainability of nonprofit Community Media, large & small. Unfortunately, the gateway to fair and equitable digital literacy, government transparency, and sustaining community media is ‘tax reform’. Tax is a four-letter word in the world of politics. On 3.21.24 we will know if we made it past the committee process.
Here is the story of WPAA-TV and Community Media Center as told by its volunteer Executive Director Susan Adele Huizenga. She believed that investing in community media could make a difference in a community and the lives of its people. If the state law is updated to ensure the obligations of “Connectivity” companies are kept, community media can contribute to making Connecticut
a place where all families can find hope & opportunity.
Governor Ned Lamont
One Volunteer’s Story | Community Media is a Democracy Movement
We appreciate the dozens of people who signed the petition started by our peers when we expected opposition, but not a battle inside the E & T committee. A direct, less public, writing campaign is in process. Please keep it going. Thank you. Less public, but truly helpful. We appreciate U and all that shared good words over the years.
Capturing Wallingford from “Where you are!’ and compiling a video for sharing on Local@5 is an initiative to bring people together and archive our community as the people see it.
Local@5 is how we share current community-contributed content.
We hope to see your view of Wallingford on TV.
#wpaatv must comply with copyright law and have permission to use something you create. We can not just take the content you publish to Facebook. Sending to the email movie@wpaa.tv solves this for us and you.
The people of Wallingford have many things in common like seeing the early sprouts of spring, the experience of winter, or beautiful sunsets in many locations in town. You also may have very unique stories to share. All are welcome.
This is called crowd casting. We hope many become familiar with it so that when we have events like Celebrate Wallingford hosted by Wallingford Center Inc. we will be able to capture it as the people of Wallingford experience it.
Until then help us #CelebrateWallingfordEveryday #wpaatv #yourtownoyourstationyourvoice #MorethanTV @followers 11 people contributed to the 1st crowd cast of 2024. Enjoy the video.
The WPAA-TV Board Member service commitment is 3 years. Attendance at six governance meetings & serve on one committee. The minimum financial contribution is made during the annual #theGreatGive.
Primary Role: Governance (setting strategic direction with operational oversight) and outreach. Outreach includes sharing or commenting on Freeman or wpaa-tv social media posts within your comfort zone.
Your committee service will align with your talents. The standing committees are Technology, Building, and Outreach. The officers are the Governance committee.
Getting to know us
Here is a link to an impromptu tour of the station done in 2017. Hopefully, you will notice some changes when you stop by. In 2018, we began publishing annual video reports which can be found here.
For full transparency, our primary documents including bylaws and policy are on the website. Our people are listed here.
Getting to know you
1st meeting introduction ritual: “What brings you here?” Please share: 1. How did you come to know us? 2. Something about yourself that may be of value to those working on behalf of WPAA-TV.
What we look for in prospective board members: Community connections, critical skills, and passion for media literacy. Essential skills include Accounting, Tech (server to video production), and facilities management. We feel it is important to have an artist, neighborhood residents or businesses, and people with families with middle school and higher children as their children are our future. Representation of underserved communities is also important to our mission.
If you are unsure about a Board commitment, an advisory role may be a gentle introduction to service. Nonboard members can serve on a committee.
I receive your invitation to gather with local arts advocates in Wallingford with mixed feelings. I am frankly exhausted by the Wallingford doublespeak about arts.
As you are aware, there is the Economic Development Council’s WACA initiative’.
Design by Middlesex Community Colege Intern: Michael Humowitz
From our lean college intern resources, we supported WACA outreach in 2020. One intern designed a logo. The gif version of the logo shows a changing color palate to reflect inclusion & diversity within this traditional art image. There were videos produced as well: a long public meeting and a pull-out from the meeting. Recording the meeting was not planned and preceded the work of interns who provided some post-production.
When the logo was sent to the EDC WACA team, the only reply was from the library representative. She said, ‘I love it’. It was later sent to the Social Media Manager for Wallingford Magazine. Again, a positive affirmation. However, Wallingford Mag ran the WACA story without it.
None of the WACA leadership even acknowledged receipt of the logo which left me feeling like I failed the intern who is a Wallingford resident. The intent was for the interns to have portfolio items. All three interns felt I let them down with the assignment to provide WACA support. This left a bad taste, in me, for working with the community people involved. They did complain about the long video which was produced gavel-to-gavel style because it was a public meeting by a quasi-government agency. The pull-out was never used. Our interns were never acknowledged or thanked. We all learned that memorandums of understanding are a critical 1st step to extending services.
WPAA-TV has been the unrecognized arts location in Wallingford since 2015. With public art (mural) by ARCY, a #socialactionart gallery, as a host for theater and award-winning films & animated children’s stories. Our award-winning seriesMakingIt Artisan$tories also hits a wall locally.
We have been a safe creative place for those who find us since our doors opened in 2010 as intended – to all – after decades of being less than even a traditional public access station. Ironically, I needed to remind the Community Foundation of Greater New Haven, and even you, that we are #MoreThanTV. That performance art is the richest kind. That #socialacionart amplifies advocacy.
You may recall that I even reminded you, during your mayoral campaign, that we were an arts space. And then, from behind the camera at the WACA gathering of artists, I expressed the same absence of awareness from everyone’s sight. Of note, not one artist in that room, who was previously unfamiliar with WPAA-TV, most of them, made their way to the station.
Frankly, I have not seen much in the way of acting ‘collectively’ among artists even preceding my involvement with WPAA-TV.
And I am struggling with how to say this nicely. Even your invitation to chat fails to acknowledge 10 years of investment in the creation of an art space in Wallingford at WPAA-TV. Yes, I would love to be part of a thriving creative community. Yes, I would like to envision something bigger. Yes, I will make time, and even space, for conversation. But I will say up front I will not commit to anything that does not fully recognize the past 10 years. Reinventing the wheel is never a good choice. I have a full plate with our arts-full strategic plan. It looks beyond Wallingford for impact because that may be the only way to make an impact.
In 2023, we engaged @Gallery53 artist in Meriden to create a mission mosaic for our outreach. It is in our foyer. The video story is here. On Martin Luther King Day, (Jan 2024) WPAA-TV leadership authorized the naming of the gallery in honor of the fine artist Nelson ‘Carty’ Ford. Nelson Ford would have been 90 on Jan 18th, 2024. Nelson and his wife Ruthie served with Founder (2006) Wilbert ‘Robbie’ Robinson in the minority rights organization Wallingford Coalition for Unity an organization that openly supported the work of WPAA-TV as it sought to find an in-town location.
Information and civic literacy are the community education focuses of community media. Community education is provided in collaborative support of special video programs, engaging in community forums with questions for clarification, transparency, or fact-finding, and social engagement tagged #civicliteracy #informationliteracy.
This tag was on all candidate videos produced in 2023.
Collaboration with Users: Citizen Mike News & Commentary Since 2010
Municipal elections, held every odd year in Connecticut, have the potential for the greatest impact on everyone’s life. Yet as you will hear in this Citizen Mike interview with the Secretary of the State, Stephanie Thomas, turnout is much lower than in Presidential Election years. Our community of Wallingford is specifically identified.
You, the participants, and Celebrate Wallingford attendees hold one of the keys to a crowdsourced movie in your hands: Your cell phone. And you are probably going to post pictures on social media, right? But what if you could be part of something more celebratory as a community media maker? Would you do it?
What is Crowdsourcing, and how does it apply to making a Celebrate Wallingford movie?
Crowdsourcing is the process of obtaining data from a large number of sources in order to generate a representative outcome. It is often a public project managed by a trusted organization.
More specifically, Crowdsourcing a ‘Celebrate Wallingford’ Movie is the submission of images and videos taken by the participants and attendees of Celebrate Wallingford to a folder in the cloud to be edited by the youth team at WPAA-TV. Most submitted content will be from a cell phone, but users of drones and photographers are most welcome to join in. WPAA-TV’s youth team TeenTigerTV will be the movie editors but you must be the camera crew. Together the community can create a shared memory of Celebrate Wallingford 2023.
We encourage everyone to participate. Submission of an image is concurrently giving permission for its use. The movie will be as good as we collectively make it. You can start by documenting how you get ready, setting up your booths, and preparing your giveaways. We anticipate many pictures of hugs, shaking hands, smiling with friends (maybe even Freeman), and eating comfort food for good causes. All of this is to be celebrated. One person at a time. But a crowdsourced film is celebrating Wallingford collectively as a community.
Community media is different than social media. Social media is you expressing your view from your portal to everyone. Community Media is being part of something bigger than you. It is the coming together of neighbors. Community media has the ability to bring everybody’s ideas and activities together. You may eventually see the movie when it is edited on social media and it will definitely be cablecast on WPAA-TV. It will be made available to the public for immediate enjoyment and archived as a community memory.
Please consider submitting the images and videos you capture during Celebrate Wallingford. We prefer horizontal but any way you take them is fine.
You hold one of the keys to community media in your hands.
What WPAA-TV is doing during Celebrate Wallingford
Beginning at noon on both days, studioW is open for GreenScreen Fun Holiday Message Making
The #TeenTigerTV young people may be escorting Freeman Penny Quinn, 1st Free Speech Ambassador for photo opportunities for the young, and young at heart
And maybe best of all: Making the 1st ever, maybe to be annual, Crowdsourcing the Celebrate Wallingford Movie.
While we encourage you to visit and use the resources of WPAA-TV and Community Media Center at its location at 28 S. Orchard St., there are other ways for you to be the “commUnity” in media. This project and Local@5 are among the ways.
Our purpose is to serve our viewers, producers, and contributors in the production of content that matters to them and ultimately the public. By providing our tools and stage as a free resource on a 1st, come, 1st serve basis, WPAA-TV celebrates Wallingford every day. Community media encourages local dialogue increases discourse around policy issues, fosters an understanding of local cultures, and shares information to improve our lives. In Wallingford, we have a space to be brave and safe for all of this but Unity begins with U. Let’s share the joy of enjoying everything Wallingford has to offer in the Celebrate Wallingford Movie. Let’s begin a tradition.
Will you accept our inaugural offer for the production of your Wallingford small business story by our #TeenTigerTV crew under the guidance of a professional filmmaker?
Community Funded Youth Program
For a minimum tax-deductible donation of $750 designated to our youth media program the #TeenTigerTV, the #TeenTigerTV team will produce a ‘non-commercial’ story about your connection to Wallingford. Our direct costs for your story will likely be $450. The balance will support staffing Media Mingles Mondays (funding dependent) and community stories produced by the same team. The youth team has access to all the tech resources of WPAA-TV and Community Media Center available to community producers at no charge. Multiple versions of your story or the inclusion of drone footage can be discussed if desired for a larger contribution.
Last year’s award-winning summer youth program was recognized in three national festivals and the public service PSA ‘Call 988 It is Never Too Late‘ is approaching 30,000 views. Have you seen it? Pls, watch and share. You can save a life.
WPAA-TV must raise $15,000 per quarter to cover operational costs for all aspects of the #TeenTigerTV program. This includes extending part-time positions to two qualifying youth from the summer Workforce Alliance program. That program has economic and/or social criteria for participation.
For a minimum tax-deductible donation of $750 designated to #TeenTigerTV your story can be our youth media-makers story.
When making a difference is a win.
Support & Training Only (WPAA-TV is not a media production house or news agency)
WPAA-TV does not produce TV except through this program. Community Media is made by and for the people of Wallingford with our shared resources and technical assistance. Local short stories are cablecast during Local@5 weekdays beginning at 5 p.m. These business stories by #TeenTigerTV will be featured in Local@5.
You can also submit video footage you capture on your phone as a local story. The criteria for submission can be found here.
