News

WCCA staff member John Simakouskas writes to report that the episode of WCCA's hit show "SOAPBOX", featuring guest Mark Packard of Sterling Greenery, discussing rainwater harvesting, has gotten many more hits than others taped the end of February.

Also, an episode of "What It's Worth" featuring the 11th Worcester District State Representative Karyn Polito has also generated a lot of interest.

What are you watching? WCCA TV ha something for everybody.

WCCA TV 13 more than a TV a community resource. On channel 13 on Charter cable in Worcester or from anywhere around the world, streaming in real time with some shows available on demand at wccatv[dot]com.

Please remember to support WCCA TV a non-profit charitable community access center in any way you can.

WCCA is more than a TV station, WCCA TV is a community resource.

The other day, while discussing the important value of Public Access television with a friend, it occurred to me that one thing that seems to be overlooked when the subject of PEG TV or Pubic Access television comes up is the profound difference between Public Access/ community TV and commercial TV, a profound difference that federal, state and local legislators should be keenly aware of and take advantage of for the good of their communities.

I never understood why many cable and telecom companies have resisted franchise licencing or the mandate to fund and to support public access television. As an institution, Public Access is a community resources, building community in a way that can set the ground work needed for a sustainable commercial markets.

Our legislators have an opportunity through HR 3745, the
Community Access Preservation Act (CAP) to ensure support for Public Access as a good for their community and business constituencies.

The goal of commercial television, as it is with really any commercial enterprise, is to exploit a market. Although the commercial enterprise may wish to sustain it's ability to sell product, ultimately, it's role is to exhaust the market share.

On the other hand, the goal of Public Access/Community TV, as it is really with any non-profit community media, is to nurture, enrich and build community through media. A Sustainable public access mission, provides a rich community resource which inspires, invigorates and even encourages growth in related commercial markets in fields of cable services, television and video production and other creative economy initiatives.

Mayor Joe O'Brien's Office announces the following and WCCA TV encourages all to participate in this worthy cause:

The earthquake that devastated Haiti on January 12th has affected more
than 3 million people. The relief needs are staggering and the people in
Haiti desperately need our support. Today, people are still being
rescued and more than a million people will need fresh water, food and
shelter.

Please join us for a special event, Worcester Cares for Haiti, this
Friday, January 22nd from 5:00 - 8:00 PM at Union Station. This event
will bring together the people of Worcester to highlight the various
efforts to support the people of Haiti. Local charities such as the
United Way, The American Red Cross and Catholic Relief Services will be
accepting donations that will go to support the immediate needs of the
people of Haiti.

Music will be provided by a terrific local band, Wilbur and the Dukes,

WCCA's John Simakauskas gives us the latest on what is happening at WCCA TV 13:
link here

Keep up with all of the latest at at WCCA TV dot com.

Thanks John

Happy New Year to all !

We are looking for people interested in participating in a Food Justice media campaign project.
If you are interested and feel you have something to contribute in terms of skill, talent, knowledge of the subject, and zeal for real reform in the are of the Food Industry contact Mauro at WCCA TV 13 508-755-1880 or via email.

WORCESTER COMMUNITY ACTION COUNCIL, INC. (WCAC)

Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program-SNAP (formerly Food Stamps)

Is now operating 5 day a week!

Applications NOW taken Monday- Friday from 8:30 AM- 3:30 PM

***The last appointment of the day will be seen at 3:00 PM

Appointments are encouraged

Walk-ins are welcomed

484 Main Street, Suite 201

Worcester, MA 01608

Towns that WCAC covers for SNAP applications: Worcester, Auburn, Rochdale, Boylston, West Boylston, Holden, Jefferson, Leicester, Cherry Valley, Millbury, Paxton, Rutland, Shrewsbury, Oakham, Hardwick, New Braintree, Gilbertville, Wheelwright.

Please call 508 754-1176 ext. 124 to make an appointment

Please visit WCAC's website for more information at: wcac.net

In collaboration with the Massachusetts Department of Transitional
Assistance , SNAP Income Eligibility (Oct. 1, 2009- September 30, 2010):

Household size

Gross monthly income

Cable deregulation has failed. Some states have moved local franchise authority over to state control and are now feeling the negative results. This has lead to a substantial decrease of public access centers , while, at the same time, there has been no strong evidence to prove cable deregulation has decreased prices or improved cable services or create jobs. In fact, in numerous states, many public access centers were forced to close due to a lack of appropriate franchise funding, culminating in a loss of jobs as well as citizen access to channels and community media resources.The cable companies will have you believe consumers will have more access to providers, but that is not the same thing as the type of empowerment that citizens benefit from a PUBLIC ACCESS television community media center. Saving public access is saving your voice, your capacity for empowerment, through a public electronic forum.

Today, as I walked through the facilty, while meeting with a an HVAC tech to measure for a special air conditioning unit to service our playback room which has been recently installed with a new Telvue system server, I realized that all 14 edit suites were occupied. Community producers working on their next production. When I finished that meeting, I was anxious to get to my computer to view the last nights BandEdge video clips. I was amazed at what our partnership with WPI and audio engineer Mark Daily had produced. Four episodes of quality audio and video featuring four great Worcester Jazz bands. You will have to tune in to near future episodes as soon as we complete editing. If you love big band and jazz, you will not want to miss those episodes. Today, our board members placed the near final head count for WCCA's gala Harvest Moon Dinner Dance which will be a fabulous night for sure.

We discovered the channel was not transmitting over the cable system. We just saw snow on the return signal. In other words, for a quite a while, in the evening, on Saturday, cable subscribers, trying to watch channel 13, in Worcester, just saw black for their money.

We are not sure when the outage first occured but we discovered it around 8:30 PM ,or so, on Saturday, the 31st of October. We inspected the site and found that WCCA's equipment seemed to be working well, we were sending out our signal, however it was not coming back from Charter's return line which distribute it on cable channel 13 in Worcester, to the viewers.

We placed calls to Charter, their dispatch number apparantly was changed without notice to us, we did leave a message with one of the Charter tech supervisors, but being a Saturday night, it seems the People's Channel's only option was to leave a message.