Belfast Community TV Cable Channel 2

2009-12-18T07:48:00.002-05:00

Article about BCTV is published in local paper.
I was thrilled when local reporter, Ethan Andrews expressed interest in writing an article about BCTV. I was even more thrilled when Ethan came along on a couple shoots and asked me lots of questions. He then spoke with Mark Kuzio, and Rev. Joel Krueger about their experience using community TV. The result is an accurate and well researched article. Here is the link to it if you are interested. Thanks Ethan!

http://waldo.villagesoup.com/news/story/real-reality-tv/293961

2009-12-18T07:24:00.002-05:00

Tis the Season
"The Bob Hope Christmas Special", "How the Grinch Stole Christmas", these are my childhood holiday TV memories. They were traditions in my family as much as going out to choose a tree. Since BCTV is only 3 years old, its difficult to say any of our programming has gained status as a tradition, but we do seem to be developing some recurring seasonal specials. Once again we will be televising the Nutcracker Ballet, as performed by our own Atlantic Ballet Company. This performance was recorded at the Camden Opera House and features many local dancers. Also coming back this year is "The Live nativity" a performance of sorts that takes place under the stars in front of Belfast's First Church. The production is once again being presented by the Belfast Bay Ministerium. We at BCTV have rummaged through our movie collection to bring back that cult holiday classic "Santa Claus captures the Martians".
New this year is a benefit concert recorded at a local church to help raise funds for the Good Shepherd food bank. These programs will air several times during Christmas week, so our airtime will have a distinct holiday theme.
May you have a Merry Christmas and perhaps BCTV holiday programming will become a tradition here in Waldo County.

2009-11-17T09:04:00.002-05:00

Waldo County General Hospital produces new monthly program
The Community relations department at Waldo County General Hospital had gotten so much positive response to the Midcoast Womens Health Conference programs when they aired on BCTV this past spring, that they decided community TV would be an excellent way for the hospital to reach the Waldo County citizens with wellness information. Staying Healthy is produced by Toni Mailloux of Waldo County General Hospital and hosted by Andrea Walker also of WCGH. The program can be seen Thursdays at 7 pm as well as other times throughout the week. The programs have a "magazine" format in that there are various segments within each program. The first program includes segments on "fighting flu", "healthy recipes", "exercise to stay healthy", and "dealing with grief during the holidays". Having a program dealing with health issues is a welcome addition to our local programming mix. We hope it will gain a strong local following as it continues to develop.

2009-11-04T09:02:00.002-05:00

Live Election Night Coverage a great success
When Ethan Andrews , political reporter for "The Republican Journal, and Village Soup emailed me a few days ago wondering what we were doing for election night coverage and offering to help out, I jumped at the chance. Enlisting the support of Diane Wood at the Government channel, we decided to go live from 9pm on election night until the final results came in. I called Dave Crabiel, who I had worked with before on election night and he agreed to be the live anchor. Our live set was actually two chairs in the hallway outside the council chambers. We had a view of the action in the voting area, while not interfering with things. Ethan and I went around town getting short "field reports" which David could call upon to make a graceful transition from one guest on our "Live" set, to another. Diane switched between live camera and tapes. Jack Penny ran the live camera, and Denise Beckett agreed to be "producer". Her job was to coordinate the guests who would sit in with Dave. We actually ran our coverage on the Government access channel, but it was a whole community effort. We had lots of great guests, from the superintendent of schools, to the city manager, as well as the various candidates. We also got results as fast as could be. We had acceptance and concession interviews.And I think we had a lively and interesting production. I feel proud we pulled it off and I hope folks in town enjoyed the show.

2009-07-21T22:09:00.002-04:00

City Funds BCTV
This posting may seem a little late, but when city council was going through its budget and voted to fund BCTV to the tune of $10,000 for the year, we were not sure it was really going to happen, but apparently it has. Yippeee!
The city receives about $55,000 a year in franchise fees, and those fees traditionally are used to fund access channels, but in Belfast that had not been the case. After 3 years, the city council expressed its support this year by indicating that we were a valuable community resource. The vote to fund our request was unanimous. Funding will pay our rent and utilities as well as equipment maintenance and replacement. We are very grateful for the support from the city.

2009-07-21T21:32:00.005-04:00

BCTV to go hi-def and tapeless, (Sort of).
It has been a couple years since BCTV bought a new video camera and in the technology world that's a long time. With recent equipment funding from the city of Belfast, we are buying a new high definition video camera that records to memory cards. There has been a recent breakthrough in recording to memory cards that has made the technology very affordable. Our new camera records to standard SD cards. A 32 gig card can be purchased for about $100 and can record 6 hours of video. So what are the advantages of recording to a memory card? You don't have to buy tapes. You don't have "dirty heads" and ruined recordings. There are no moving parts to break. The camera uses a lot less power, so a battery lasts a long time. The camera is more rugged without the fragile tape transports. My favorite feature is that the memory card can be removed and plugged into a computer and the files can be transfered quickly. No more real time tape tranfers. This is useful for those of us who like to record a program with a couple cameras and then using the multi-cam feature of our editing software we can create a progam that looks like it was "switched" from a mobile production truck. I also find it helps turn around an event such as a high school football game quickly. I used to film a game on a Friday night, get back to the station at 9pm and download the 2 hour game in real time. Around 11:30 pm I would do the post production and be done around midnight. If I can download the memory cards in a few minutes, I might actually get the game edited by 10 pm. In the real world of the community producer, those two extra hours of sleep are appreciated.
I mentioned that the footage is hi-definition, and at present we really transmit only standard definition. By acquiring in high-def, we will be ready when the tranmission equipment is upgraded. Oh, the camera costs about $1000, so if we like it, we may buy a second one.

2009-07-21T21:02:00.003-04:00

BCTV and Alexia's Pizza team up with artist Dave Hurley to create Mural
When we moved into our present offices above Alexia's Pizza in beautiful downtown Belfast, we notices a large black plywood panel beside our downstairs entrance. We couldn't help but think that it was an excellent location for a mural. We spoke with artist David Hurley who has created numerous murals and has a great sense of humor, and he liked the idea. In fact, he and Ted, the owner of Alexia's, had spoken about a mural with a Greek theme. Dave, who is also the star of our "Tai Chi through the seasons" program, came up with a humorous and slightly Sci-Fi mural idea. The concept includes Pizza flying saucers and a BCTV-2 Blimp. Ted agreed to pick up the cost of creating the mural, and BCTV will acknowledge Alexia's as a station underwriter for a couple months. Dave is going to be creating the mural over the next couple friday evenings during the "Belfast Art Walks". There will be a certain "Street Theater" aspect to Dave's project. He is going to wear a suit, courtesy of "Goodwill" and will be using an old briefcase as his paint holder. We will film the creation of the mural for an upcoming "Somewhere in Waldo County" episode. Stay tuned!

2009-07-06T23:17:00.002-04:00

Juke Joint Marathon scheduled
With the North Atlantic Blues Festival bringing blues fans to the area this weekend, BCTV has scheduled two evenings of the blues for Friday July 10 and Saturday July 11. These programs feature some of the many great performers who have appeared at the festival in recent years.On Friday night the marathon begins at 10:30pm and on Saturday the blues begin at 4pm. Around here catching the blues often means fishing for bluefish but this weekend it has a more musical connotation.

2009-05-26T07:54:00.002-04:00

Classic Arts Showcase and all other satellite network programs are back

It has taken us quite a while to get our satellite dishes up and running, but finally we are back with our regular programs. We presently air the NASA channel from 8-9am, then at noon we show Democracy Now! on Link TV. At 2 pm we show DV world news and at 2:30 we air "Mosaic" middle east news both on Link TV and Classic Arts showcase airs 4-6 in the afternoon and again from 4-6 am. We are pleased to offer these programs to our community and welcome other programming suggestiions you may have. Of course our focus is on local programming but we also show select programs that may not be available to our community otherwise.

2009-05-13T12:42:00.002-04:00

Come visit us in our new home at 93 Main Street Belfast

We are pretty much moved in and although space is tight, we have a great view of Main Street.

To visit us, just drive into the center of town and look for the door to 93 Main street, which is located on the up hill side of Alexias Pizza. We are on the second floor just to the right at the top of the stairs. The Bangor Daily News and Mike Hurleys' Belfastmaine.com are our neighbors, so we are a local media center of sorts. Thanks to Minuteman Signs, we have a large decal on our second floor window, announcing our location. This is an exciting move and there is definitely a vibrant sense of energy here in the middle of Belfast. It is also much more convenient to run out and get a cup of coffee.

2009-03-31T04:35:00.002-04:00

BCTV Moving

After three years operating out of the Belfast Boathouse, the city of Belfast has asked us to move out. We have found a new location for our office in the middle of Belfast, above Alexias pizza. Our transmission facilities are being moved to city hall. We are in the process of relocating the equipment and are temporarily not transmitting. We should be up and running within a day or so with local programming. The satellite dishes that provide us with programming such as NASA, Classic Arts Showcase, Democracy Now!, and Link TV will need to be reset, and that may take a bit longer. In the meantime we will be playing local programs 24 hours a day.

2009-01-21T08:36:00.001-05:00

New Boating Series

Smart Boating is a professional quality show series that informs and educates recreational boaters about a variety of topics from "How To Protect Your Boat From A Hurricane" to "How To Compare Quality Among Boats"so that they will have a more enjoyable and safer experience on the water. In between the "how to" shows are ones that focus on interesting boats: USCG boats, Electric boats, PT boats, Hovercraft, Classic speedboats, etc.. Recreational boaters traversing both inland and ocean waters will enjoy and learn from this program. Program airs Wednesdays t 7pm as well as other times throughout the week.

2008-12-31T06:52:00.002-05:00

Jack Penney joins BCTV staff

We are thrilled to have a new part time employee at BCTV. Jack comes to us as part of a federal senior employment training program. He has a had a very interesting and diverse career and brings wonderful life experiences with him. Currently when not working at the station, he is going to college. At the station he is busy learning different aspects of how BCTV operates. He is a valuable addition to our operation even if he is just a Penney.

2008-12-31T06:39:00.002-05:00

New procedure for those dropping off DVD's

Many folks mail us DVDs to air, but some folks prefer to drop them off at the station.

We have in the past left the outer door unlocked for folks even when no one was in the office.

Recent security concerns have forced us to lock the front door when no one is around.

We are at the station most days even though we do not have formal business hours. I suggest you call 323-2430 just to confirm we are around. If not, you can drop off your DVD at Ned Lightner's house at 32 Church St., Belfast or put them in the mail. Our address is: BCTV PO Box 1075, Belfast, ME 04915.

2008-10-07T08:20:00.002-04:00

Eating Healthy on a Budget

The Belfast Coop Store is producing a new series for airing on community TV stations.

Funded in part by a grant from the Maine Community Foundation, this new mini series will be the first locally produced cooking show to air on BCTV. The program is being produced by Fran Clementson who is the education coordinator at the Belfast co-op. The show is hosted by both Fran and Erica Buswell, who is also part of the co-op's staff. The programs will be a half hour long. The first episode was produced recently and features potatoes. The recipes include Julia Child's Potato Salad, French Salad Nicoise, and Indian Potato Soup. Part of the program also included useful information on growing and storing potatoes as well as cost per serving for each recipe. During these uncertain economic times a program such as this may be quite useful to our community. Video production was done by Insight Productions. The first show is scheduled to debut on Thursday October 16 at 7 p.m.

2008-09-16T18:59:00.002-04:00

Art night in to debut in October

Waterfall Arts, a local non profit arts group, will be presenting a series of films made available to BCTV by the National Gallery of Art. These programs range in subject matter from how art is created to historical and archaeological documentaries about art related topics. They are of excellent quality and viewers are in for a big treat. Programs are introduced by Waterfall Arts founder Alan Crichton, who also lets viewers know about the galleries and programs taking place locally at Waterfall Arts. It is really great to have this collaboration between BCTV and Waterfall Arts, as it is helps strengthen both organizations. Waterfall Arts will use its excellent resources to help publicize the program, and BCTV will provide publicity for the work of Waterfall Arts.

2008-09-16T18:43:00.002-04:00

High School Sports on BCTV

Once again Insight Productions is producing a series of Belfast High School games for BCTV. Eight regular season and two playoff games including football, field hockey and soccer will be televised this season. A change from previous years is that more "away" games will be covered. With the high cost of gasoline, local folks may find watching games on TV an alternative to driving. Games are taped and reshown the following days at various times. Mike Estrada and Tim Downer will once again be the primary announce team, but other folks with particular knowledge of local teams will step in as "color" announcers. So far, 3 games have been shown and upcoming game schedules can be found by clicking on the schedule section of our blog.

2008-09-03T06:52:00.002-04:00

Reigning Cats and Dogs

A new weekly series debuts this week on both Belfast Community TV and Maine Coast TV 7 in the Camden area. The half hour program originates from the two largest animal shelters on the midcoast. The program showcases animals available for adoption and provides information about pet care and shelter activities. Local shelters are noting an increase in animals being given up for adoption by owners who no longer can afford to own a pet. The program is being co produced by Ned Lightner and Craig Mathieson. "Reigning Cats and Dogs" can be seen Thursday evenings at 7:30PM in both Belfast and Camden.

2008-08-07T07:41:00.003-04:00

Some ideas gained from CTAM meeting
Every few months the Community Television Association of Maine gets together. I like to attend these gatherings because I get to meet with fellow community TV folks to share ideas and discuss issues common to those of us who run small town TV stations. The most recent meeting was held in Bridgeton, at Lake Region Community TV. I was looking forward to the meeting not only because they were serving lobster, but because I hoped to reconnect with their program director, John Likshis.
John and I met back in 1979 when John ran the educational access channel in Portland. Many years later John and I both worked at Maine PBS, he as the head of marketing and I as the studio manager in Lewiston. John runs a vibrant TV station and I envy his impressive studio facilities, and his many programs produced by numerous volunteer producers. John was a great help to BCTV when we were starting up, by practically giving us their old station automation equipment.
Usually I find talking with folks at the meeting as informative as the "official" meeting presentation. The formal presentation was by Karla Ficker, board president and producer of a gardening show on "Valley Vision", the community TV station serving North Conway NH. Karla told us about the many interesting programs produced at Valley Vision. Besides her gardening show, I was particularly interested in "Valley Inc" a program produced with the local chamber and featuring profiles of local businesses. I am scheduling a meeting with our chamber to explore the idea of producing a similar show. Steve Galvin of Norway community TV told me he had found an old (1961) TV series called Diver Dan on archive.org. He said it was sort of a kids show with a camera shooting through a fish tank with a guy in a diving suit and puppets. I have downloaded 24 episodes and they should soon be showing up on BCTV. Steve also gave me some advice on inexpensive file conversion software. Our server runs most happily when provided with MPEG2 files, but many programs I can download off the web are of different file types. I have purchased the software and soon fans of "Uncle Jay explains the news" will once again see these humorous and politically oriented shorts on BCTV. I had stopped showing the program when I discovered that our server occasionally crashed trying to play the mov files. So once again I got some good ideas from the meeting. I would like to thank Diane Mende, of our sister station, Bel TV for giving me a ride to the meeting. Diane is also to be congratulated for being elected as a new board member of CTAM. Feel free to contact me if you are interseted in learning more about CTAM or would like to come to the next CTAM meeting. Lucky for you, the meeting will be held right here in Belfast in late September.

2008-07-24T12:00:00.002-04:00

Wanted: Underwriters for station

An all volunteer public access channel has considerably fewer expenses than a broadcaster, but even our modest operation has operating expenses. Whether it is paying our electric or phone bills, or maintenance on our equipment, we are funded through the generosity of local individuals and businesses. At this point we do not have "memberships" like public TV, though we are exploring various avenues of funding. Presently we do offer station underwriting. Underwriters may underwrite our programming for as little as a month or up to a year, and the costs vary from $90-$200 a month depending on the length of commitment. In exchange the station will place 3, 20 second announcement within our local programming blocks each day. Those messages reach about 2000 cable subscribers in the Belfast/Searsport area. We work with the underwriter to place their message adjacent to programming appealing to their target audience. Besides supporting our station, underwriters benefit by reaching a local audience with the power of television. Similar to public television, our underwriting guidelines do not permit some things that you see on commercial TV. There are no prices mentioned, no direct calls to action and no comparative language such as the best pizza in town, however it is still possible to create an effective message for a business within those restrictions. If you would like to learn more about underwriting opportunities, please feel free to contact Ned Lightner at 207-323-2430 or nlightner@verizon.net

2008-07-10T12:38:00.002-04:00

Summer Productions at BCTV
Whether its Mark and Tim having fun with tourists, or "Somewhere in Waldo County" doing a program about Aquaculture, this is the season when its good to wind up your video cameras and get outside and create some shows. As for me, I am cranking up another season of gardening shows. This coming week I head down to one of my favorite restaurants, "Primo" in Owls head. They have perhaps the ultimate "kitchen gardens" and hopefully we'll get some cooking tips along with gardening ideas. For those of you who don't have a video camera, thanks to the Maine Community Foundation, BCTV has a camera we can lend you. Just get in touch with me (Ned Lghtner) and I can get you checked out and making TV. I can be reached via email at nlightner @verizon.net or by phone at 207-323-2430.

2008-06-30T07:57:00.002-04:00

New Promo now on BCTV
Thanks to Mark Kuzio, we now have a new promo encouraging members of the community to produce programs for BCTV-2. Mark who with Tim Woitowitz produces the Mark and Tim show, began producing their show using BCTV camera equipment made available to the community by a grant from the Maine Community Foundation. Soon they bought their own camera and editing equipment. They found numerous local underwriters who help defray production expenses. They now distribute their program to several other community TV stations in Maine. The current show has Mark and Tim goofing with tourists in Camden, but programs have taken field trips as far as India and England. Their program can be seen Tuesdays at 7:30 p.m. and other times of the week on BCTV-2

2008-05-29T11:58:00.000-04:00

Program Director’s report 5/29/07

Facilities: We have been dealing with some server issues, which were affecting not only the quality of images as well as the reliability of the server. With a great deal of effort Bob Nichols was able to fix the problem. I am very thankful that Bob was able to help us out.
The utilities (electricity and Dish TV service) have remained relatively stable and average about $100 a month. Insight production has donated the phone service so there are no phone bills.

I have made arrangements to barter some vests, caps and shirts from the “”Maine Thread” embroidery business. Insight productions is donating the production cost to create an underwriter message. The vests will be provided to crew people during productions to clearly identify them as Belfast Community TV crew. I have found vests preferable to other clothing items, as they can be worn over outerwear, and fit many different sized people.

Programming: I recently made arrangements with the Camden Conference to show the 2006, 2007, 2008 Camden conference presentations on our station. We aired their “China” conference a year ago and it was very interesting and well produced. I imagine the other conferences will be just as interesting.

A program entitled “Maine Social Justice” has also begun airing on our station it is produced by Pete Sirois at Madison public access but includes subject matter from throughout Maine. This week for example the subject was about a recent mock funeral for Sears Island.

“Math Education our youth and you” is a 4 part series produced by an educator in Rockland who is created these programs hoping to assist parents in improving their children’s math skills.

I continue to produce “Somewhere in Waldo County” and believe I will be producing new programs every other week. Other programs in the pipeline include:
The 2008 Summer Video Guide, which highlights businesses and events of interest to visitors and local folks alike and is seen several times daily between mid-June and September.
Gardens of Waldo County has been renamed “Coastal Gardens” due to its expanded distribution, however local gardens will continue to be featured this season.
I am also working with a producer at Rockland public access to develop a “pet adoption” program from Knox and Camden animal shelters. I have been unsuccessful in interesting our local shelter to become involved, but many area people adopt from the shelters in Rockland and Camden.

2008-05-21T08:40:00.004-04:00

Perils of Pedestrians debuts on BCTV
When speaking with other community TV station managers I always ask whether they have discovered any interesting programs that serve the needs of their community. That is how I learned about "Perils of Pedestrians". It is a monthly television series promoting awareness of issues affecting the safety of people who walk and bicycle.The program interviews advocates and government planners about problems such as missing sidewalks and crosswalks, dangerous intersections, speeding traffic, and obstacles to wheelchair users and people with disabilities; and solutions to such problems. This may not at first seem very interesting but I found the show quite interesting especially when it showcased innovative solutions that some communities have found to solve problems that we in Waldo County might be facing.

2008-05-21T08:07:00.005-04:00

Somewhere in Waldo County debuts this week

A new program has begun airing this week on BCTV. "Somewhere in Waldo County" is produced by Insight Productions and as its name implies, focuses on places of interest in Waldo County. Although Belfast Community TV has a wide variety of interesting shows, there are still not very many programs that are created specifically for the local community. This new program uses a"point of view" production technique. This technique has the camera operator also serving as interviewer and viewers seem to be watching the program through the eyes of the interviewer. There is a sense of informality that this technique creates and hopefully viewers will find the approach engaging and enjoyable. The premiere program is about a small alternative high school that began operation this year. The river school has only 5 students this year, but has hopes to grow while offering an alternative approach to learning. The program tours the school and interviews teachers and students. There is also a visit to the Waldo county probate court where students are creating a mural as part of their art curriculum.
Producer/Host Ned Lightner hopes to create 2 programs a month. He also hopes to find a local underwriter to offset production expenses. Future that are being developed include a visit to Jody Johnstone's Swanville pottery, a program about the new Goodwill store opening in Belfast, and a visit to Northport Music Theater.