1998 Annual Report

Plymouth Community Channel 3 Committee
1998 Annual Report

Plymouth Community Channel 3 (PCC3) is the public, educational, and governmental access channel for FrontierVision Partners' subscribers in Plymouth and several adjoining towns. The PCC3 Committee, inactive for a number of years, reports to the Plymouth Board of Selectmen. PCC3's Cablecasting Center is located at Pease Public Library. The Center has an Amiga computer for generating a continuously repeating, electronic bulletin board with accompanying radio. There is equipment for automated airing of prerecorded video programs submitted by members for the Plymouth public, schools/college, and government. The Center also has an S-VHS video camcorder and mike for taping governmental and other programming for cablecast on Channel 3. The channel has no set operating budget. However, the Plymouth Board of Selectmen and FrontierVision Partners did cover the cost of purchasing some replacement hardware and other miscellaneous items needed by the Channel in 1998. PCC3 depends totally on volunteers to create and run its programming. By stipulation of the franchise agreement with State Cable TV, PCC3 is non-commercial.

In calendar 1998 through December 15th, 265 new messages were run on PCC3's bulletin board. This is down 22% from the 339 run in 1997. The drop can be attributed to the decrease in volunteers to a single person to enter messages into the computer. Over 450 more messages were received, but were not run.

In calendar 1998 through December 15th, prerecorded video programming totaled 169 shows. This is a 63% increase over 1997's total of 107. The numbers of program contributions from each of the 3 categories of access users are: Public -- 42, Educational -- 118, and Governmental -- 9. For the third year in a row, the access user submitting the greatest number of taped programs was PSC's Meteorology Department. Their 6-minute, PSC PM WEATHER local forecasts ran on 115 evenings. The second most prolific producer programming was Public Access User Jerry Larson who contributed 37 Sunday services of the Plymouth Congregational Church. Two consecutive evenings of live programming were produced by the Plymouth Chamber of Commerce. These shows were the Chamber's TV/Radio auction, their major annual fund raiser.

PCC3 volunteers who deserve many thanks are John B. Bowen, Jr. and Ken MacDonald. The staffs of Pease Public Library, Plymouth Selectmen's Office, and FrontierVision Partners were always most helpful.

Submitted by
Wallace Stuart
Access Manager