2006 Annual Report

Pemi-Baker Community Access Media
2006 Annual Report

In FY’06/’07, the Town of Plymouth raised and appropriated $15,000.00 from a 2% franchise fee collected from Plymouth cable subscribers. Over $1,000 in additional revenue was generated from duplications and memberships from December 2005 through November 2006; more than triple the previous year.

On April 17, 2006, the Plymouth Selectboard approved the name Pemi-Baker Community Access Media (pbCAM) as our overall identity, Pemi-Baker Government Access Television (pbGOV) as the name for channel 3 and Pemi-Baker Public and Educational Access Television (pbACT) as the name for channel 20. The PCC3 Advisory Board became the pbCAM Advisory Board.

Bulletin Board
Bulletin board use continues to increase though only a couple more volunteers have come forward to assist with the bulletin board maintenance. Templates have been designed for some pbGOV slides making it easier to copy and paste government notices onto the pbGOV bulletin board.

See below how the 2006 total of notices run compares to seven previous years. Please consider that the 2004 total is not complete as some information, such as notices submitted by email prior to October, was not available. It is estimated the total number of announcements cablecast in 2004 is in excess of 1,000. Information on the number of notices in 2003 was not available.

Video Programming
PSU meteorology students produced weekday weather forecasts during spring and fall semesters. Public Access Users submitted programming produced by four area churches. Volunteers and staff produced videos and live cablecasts of regular meetings of the Selectboard, Planning Board and Zoning Board, as well as various other budget hearings, annual meetings, special hearings and informational meetings.

In addition to prerecorded programming, a Public Access User for the Plymouth Chamber of Commerce produced two evenings of live programming. These shows were the Chamber’s 13^th Annual Broadcast Auction in November 2006. Another Public Access User produced and submitted a weekly live talk show titled “Plymouth Today.”

See below how the 2006 total compares to four previous years. The figures for educational access in 2004 are estimated as an exact number of PSU Weather forecasts was not available.

Programming on pbACT amounted to over 170 hours of unique programming, and a total programming cablecast time of just less than 520 hours. Programming on pbGOV amounted to over 180 hours of unique programming and a total programming cablecast time of just less than 2,000 hours.

Grant Writing
pbCAM attempted unsuccessfully to write for two local grants in the hope of providing separate production equipment sets for pbACT and pbGOV. The $3,205.28 carry-over was used as a contribution to a project that would have incorporated two grants totaling $6,033.00 for a grand total of $9,238.28 in new equipment. Neither grant was approved and thus the carry-over was used to purchase new cameras and DVD playback decks to reduce the impact of government access productions on limiting public and educational access.

Future Development
The Executive Director and pbCAM Advisory Board are currently in the process of drafting three-, five- and ten-year plans to address the growth and continued prosperity of our community access media.

Continued attempts to include surrounding towns in pbCAM operations have not yet yielded additional support. Furthermore, our current operations are primarily focused on supporting only Plymouth. The limited 2% franchise fee is proving insufficient to fund Plymouth’s community media needs.

Progress has been made toward converting pbCAM to a digital facility. We are now capable of very limited digital production and post-production. A digital playback option has been researched that will allow not only playback of digital files but also encoding of analog formats to digital formats, integrated bulletin board solutions, remote access and emergency notification features. In the coming year we will be partnering with the Fire Department, Police Department and other town departments to apply for grants to bring digital playback and emergency notification to pbACT and pbGOV and consolidate operations in the cablecast center at Pease Public Library.

Thanks
Volunteers who deserve many thanks include Peter Adams, Nathan Bieniek, Jim Bleyle, Ben Conte, Brendon Hoch, Andy Kniskern, Joanne Koermer, James Moriarty, Donna Plante, Forrest & Beverly Seavey, Wallace Stuart, PSU meteorology students and members of the pbCAM Advisory Board. The trustees, staff and volunteers of Pease Public Library deserve special praise for all time and resources they contributed to pbCAM. The Selectboard and office staff were extraordinarily supportive. Advice and assistance of Adelphia and Time Warner Cable staff were very much appreciated.

pbCAM FY ‘06/’07 Operating Budget

Submitted by,
Jamie Cadorette
Executive Director
Pemi-Baker Community Access Media