News

Lights Camera , give us your BEST IMPRESSION stand off.

Gives us your best impression. Can you do Christopher Walken, Ricky Riccardo, Bill Clinton, Joan Rivers, John Lennon, or James Cagne, how about Elvis? What is your pleasure?
Male or Female, young or old, give us your best shot.

You will get about 60 seconds to introduce your character and riff some kind words in support of WCCA or recite our station ID. We’ll even give you extra time if you also say happy anniversary to the Worcester Cultural Coalition.

WCCA will videotape and later cable and web cast your impression.

“This huge, Jerry , HUGE !”

You can become the next big star. Come on down to WCCA studio’s, 415 Main Street anytime Monday through Thursday, between the hours of 12:30 and 4:30 PM, beginning Thursday, June 19, 2008

There will be a prize involved. We will be asking viewers to vote on line. The winner will get a gift certificate for a local Worcester Restaurant, and heck you’d be on TV supporting the best local television station every, WCCA TV 13, “The People’s Channel”

Donations will be welcome, of course, but no pressure. Camera and studio is waiting for your close up ! It's gonna be a bumpy ride. Summer Fun happens at WCCA TV!

Band Edge is a WCCA TV 13 production highlighting local area music. All genres are welcome to participate, solo artist, track artist, bands, and performing songwriters.

Band Edge is a half hour show which will include a showcase your music or group. At the end of the season we intend to feature clips of each performance in the form of a competition where viewers can vote on line for their favorite act.

Bands must provide their own equipment, and audio mix, WCCA provides the cameras and the channels of distribution which includes ch 13 and wccatv.com

To participate: Send an email identifying: The name of your act, the genre ( rock, folk, jazz, etc), type of performance ( band or solo ), links to your website and or samples of your music, your contact info. EMAIL SUBJECT BAND EDGE TV 13
to mauro(at)wccatv.org

You may also mail the same info, accompanied by a cd to the attention of
BAND EDGE C/O WCCA TV 13, 415 Main St., Worcester, MA 01608

WCCA TV 13 supports local music

Thanks again to the many persons who have written editorials and letters to the city manager in support of WCCA TV.

Lately , many people have come up to me expressing something like "...Congratulations, WCCA is finally all set, you have a new contract..."

No, we do not have a new contract. We have an extension of what we had signed in 1997.

As the Executive Director of WCCA, my years of experience on the job, I know how much many of you sincerely care for the station, and have also dedicate a lot of your lives volunteering here at the station, I have a duty to clarify the situation.

City Manager O'Brien has executed an contract extension with WCCA that will expire in September, 2008, unless we first come to a long term agreement prior to its expiration.

What this means:
First of all, we at WCCA sincerely appreciate that the extension will allow WCCA to continue until September. The extension, however, does not address our dire equipment needs or the support we would need to meet the increase community demands for our services, that would be supported from the capital provisions that were written into Charter's license to support PEG.

In the mean time, the City Manager O'Brien is asking a citizens cable advisory to review WCCA's public access needs. They are reviewing the work that was primarily done during the cable franchise renewal ascertainment process ( from 2004- 2008 ). During that phase of the process, community and city groups called for increased funding and support for WCCA. The City Manager has recently asked the cable advisory to look at best practices, contract length or term, financial accountability and to recommend how to allocate funding and capital to support channels 11, 12 and 13. It seems the new concern is that the city now has a five year, instead of a ten year, commitment, from Charter to support the Worcester's PEG channels. It looks like Charter did well to leverage political support and consumer complaints to get the short term it wanted. I tried to warn the city about the risk associated with a short license term, however, it did little good. In fact, after reviewing the renewed cable franchise license, we are not sure how much, if anything, of the expressed community needs that came out of the recent ascertainment, actually made it to the negotiation table. I say this because it is pretty much the same franchise deal as in 1997 minus five years commitment of cable service for Worcester and PEG channel support, and about half of the senior discount, no PEG Broadband inclusion , no inclusion on the preview guide or channel ID, no additional county wide channel for WCCA, no additional channel set asides specifically of Public Access, for example. None of these benefits are found in the rewed license.

I am certain, it is a matter of generally accepted best practices, and most consultants would agree, that of the 5% Franchise Revenue a city recieves for PEG, the formula to support PEG breaks down as follows: 60% P (WCCA), 20%E (WPS channel), 20%G (Government channel). While channels 11 and12 serve city government and an arm of city government (WPS), WCCA serves the entire city including public initiatives, individuals, private schools, and enterprises and hundreds of non-profits (24/7). To diminish WCCA funding in the smallest amount would be contrary to best practices. All the PEG channels are valuable and deserve support for the important contribution they provide for our city. The opportunity to assure reasonable support may have been lost during ascertainment and proceeding negotiations. Would it be right and just if the needs of channels 11 and 12 were to be met at the expense of WCCA TV 13, after the city had invested 22 years in what has become a thriving model public access center, WCCA TV?

On May 27, the City Council had passed a motion asking the city manager to wrap up a long term contract with WCCA by the end of June.

On May 27 the cable advisory committee also met. Both Channel's 11 and 12 expressed that they would like to take a substantial portion of the funding that was traditionally allocated to WCCA, to apparently, basically, to replicate much of WCCA has been already doing since 1986. Many on WCCA's Board of Directors, and members, friends and I agree, believe that if the City Manager's Cable Advisory Committee recommends such a thing and the City Manager carries it out, that may rightly be perceived as out right thievery.

The real need the City Manager's cable committee should be addressing is what can the city do to make up for what it lost in the negotiations with Charter's cable contract other than to pit PEG against itself or tell us to go beg for it?

We will soon be coming forward with a proposal which may offer a realistic solution, which we hope the City Manager will take into consideration.

We learned that the cable advisory will be meeting on June 16 in room 310 at 5:30PM.

Please keep up your letters, phone calls, and all you are doing to support WCCA TV 13,"The People's Channel". You are WCCA TV.

Community Meeting

Housing Foreclosures: What You Should Know

Our City continues to be hit hard by the foreclosure crisis. We are all affected – owners who lose their properties, tenants who face unmanaged buildings and eventual evictions, and neighbors who see increases in crime and grime.

City Manager O’Brien, with the full support of City Council, has rolled out a comprehensive plan to lessen the impacts of foreclosure on our City. This plan is flexible so as to respond to the changing foreclosure scene.

Working on the advice of Lorraine Laurie and Green Island Residents Group, Inc., we have scheduled a meeting for neighbors to learn more about foreclosures, our City’s response, and how each of us can help ourselves and our neighborhood.

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 25TH

6:30 – 7:30 pm
25 MEADE STREET
(Health and Code Building)

Questions? Can’t attend, but want some information?
Call Councilor Barbara Haller, 508 414-0266

It is difficult to believe that this legislation is actually happening. We can not be surprised however. Strong Language discretion advised.
More about the bill can be traced to S. 2913: Shawn Bentley Orphan Works Act of 2008. Look it up on GovTrack(.)us

YouTube link

His second youTube video is more direct, beware parental discretion advised:

More

Contact your Congressman and Senator today.

So you've probably read that there's a Bruce Willis movie shooting in Worcester, based on the comic The Surrogates. Wormtown Taxi has some video of the base camp:

NECN also has a nice video (with annoying ads, alas).

Last night WCCA TV's Studio A was packed with members, supporters,and a least one City Councilor, Gary Rosen, to discuss their need for the future of WCCA's funding and to share their frustrations with the way city seems to be apparently handling the matter. The general membership and opened meeting was cable and web cast live on Channel 13 and wccatv.com.

A community of concerned citizens shared and expressed their questions, concerns, and shared their opinions wanting to know why this process is taking so long, after the city had already spent nearly four years in a public process that included substantial and detailed review of community media needs including that of WCCA TV. Many were also questioned and condemned of the Research Bureau apparent continued attacks on WCCA and other fine community resources such as the Senior Center (WCCA members who produce Senior Speak).
Following my update on the status of WCCA which included a communication relative to the city manager needing more time to re-review the four year community assessment process, which has also appeared in todays Telegram, Community members shared dynamic and passionate views asking the City Manager, through City Councilor Rosen, to step up the pace so WCCA TV operations, which is in dire need of new equipment and building upgrades, can properly move forward with it's charitable mission to provide for public access community media needs and to build community through electronic media while making community empowering communication resources available ona non-discriminatory basis.

I want to thank ALL who time to attend the meeting last night. Your comments were stunning, eloquent, articulate, and direct. People of all ages, a diversity of socio-economic backgrounds and ethnic heritage, came together in a unified spirit. The meeting demonstrated, without argument, that there is a strong community need, care and concern for the continuation of WCCA TV and for the city administration and city council to make assurances to ensure WCCA TV's capacity for increased growth to meet community media needs in all platforms of communication technology.

Those who attended last night's cable cast meeting, and also those who had written support letters, editorials, sent a strong message that you care and that WCCA is important to you. Your message has been well noted and will remain documented and archived on tape and on line for the record, the people's record. Keep it up. Will our efforts to call attention to saving public access be fruitful? That remains to be seen. Thanks for your continued patience.

WCCA will also be re-cable casting the meeting soon. Stay tuned for the new program schedule.

EVERYONE in this city knows WCCA TV is important and should be supported. Either this empowering community resource is nurtured or it is compromised. What does that mean to YOU ?
Thanks for your support.
Wormtowntaxi writes more on the subject.

Photo by Jeff Barnard

Thanks to all to have been writing letters, making phone calls and blogging concerning WCCA TV and the continuity of its future operations. Your help continues to make a difference.

This week the City Manager announced to the city council that he needs additional time for his Cable Advisory Committee and his Administration to conduct necessary due diligence, finalize funding allocation recommendations for the city's PEG channels which includes WCCA TV. Once that is completed, he said he will then be prepared to negotiate a new contract with WCCA TV.

In his communication to the city council, the Manager stated that his Cable Advisory Committee is in the process of researching best practices, determining the specific capital needs of each entity, recommending contract terms and length of contract, performance standards and strategies to ensure financial accountability. This analysis includes review of the contract with the public access television provider WCCA, Inc. which, he wrote, "will form the basis of the upcoming contract negotiations".

He stated that given the importance of the Cable Advisory committee's research and recommendation to the overall allocation process, and the reality that finalizing a new contract with WCCA prior to June 15th is unlikely, that he has decided to extend the contract with WCCA to provide continued funding through September 15, 2008.

Although WCCA appreciates the consideration and sensitivity given by the city to extend continuity of WCCA, the last extension did not address current capital needs or increased cost of meeting current community needs. Many WCCA supporters and community members are concerned with the possibility of the city expending excessive time and expense on this matter as it has already been throughly reviewed during the ascertainment process which began in late 2004.

WCCA agrees and respects a process for due consideration, and it has requested a full opportunity to brief and provide materials to the Cable Advisory Committee. However, whereas the City has conducted extensive ascertainment of need, that began in 2004 and ended in April of 2008, and has received numerous comprehensive assessment reports from a number of public and community sources, including both the Cable Advisory Committee and the Public Service Committee, WCCA and the stations staff and Board, will continue to respectfully request that the Cable Committee and City Manager give due weight to materials already submitted when considering the needs of WCCA and the formulation of a new contract with WCCA. During the recent franchise renewal ascertainment process, materials already submitted called for and demonstrated a need for increased support for WCCA. In addition, in light of this public record, the City Manager had conducted the renewal franchise process with sensitivity to WCCA's needs, and we are hopeful the newly constituted Cable Advisory Committee will act cognizant of this history.

With that said, WCCA is very grateful for the scores of encouraging letters, post cards, editorials, blogs, phone calls, of support. Your help and support in this way is working. Congratulations to YOU.
Our work is not finished with this respect. I look forward to seeing you Wednesday May 21 at WCCA Studio for our open meeting relative to our future.

Sincerely with thanks,
Mauro