Good-Bye to Mark

STTV says good-bye to Mark Migliore who resigned on Friday, February 26th to work for Electric City TV (ECTV). Mark had worked for STTV since 2004 and was perhaps best known for Graffiti, a collaborative effort with Tom Blomain which highlighted poems read in local and often unusual settings. Please join us in wishing Mark the best of luck in all of his future endeavors.

NEPA-PAP Complaint

The NEPA Public Access Project, one of the competing entities that submitted proposals to manage channels 61 & 62, has lodged a complaint with the City of Scranton.

Dear Fellow Citizens:

The Board of Scranton Today is surprised and, certainly, disappointed with the recent decision by the City of Scranton not to continue its services as operator of the City’s public, educational, and government cable-access channels. But, Scranton Today accepts this decision, commits itself to continuing its mission to help foster “a more informed electorate and engaged citizenry,” and pledges to do all that it can to insure a smooth transition as we move forward. To do less would be a violation of the public trust Scranton Today has so careful tried to develop and maintain.

The Board of Scranton Today wishes to thank its founders, Scranton Tomorrow and The Scranton Public Library, whose vision, administrative expertise, and generous financial support helped to successfully launch the station’s efforts. The monies, they invested and helped raise, allowed Scranton Today to open-up government meetings in an unparalleled fashion and to permit citizens to use the medium of television to engage the community around common interests and concerns. The Board of Scranton Today is proud of these past nine years of service to the citizens of our community.

While some may identify Scranton Today solely with municipal and other governmental meetings, in fact, this has represented only 28% of the station’s programming. Over the years, literally thousands of hours of air-time have been devoted to public and educational programs rich in their diversity and richer, still, in the vital portrayal they have given of life in Scranton and Lackawanna County. A comprehensive outline of these many programs can be found in Appendix B. of Scranton Today’s proposal to manage Scranton’s public, educational, and government cable-access channels available on the Scranton Today website, www.ScrantonToday.org.

Scranton Today wishes, also, to thank the many organizations that have generously supported its mission, chiefly the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the City of Scranton, the Scranton School District, and the County of Lackawanna. They have demonstrated their commitment to open government by providing access to their meetings, and have backed up this commitment with both their encouragement and their financial support.

As important as this has been to the station’s development, nothing has been more gratifying to the Board of Scranton Today than the support provided by the very citizens it has endeavored to serve. Whether in response to direct appeal or by participating in one of the Scranton Today fundraisers, you have made this station yours through your contributions. This past year, the first year of independent operation, Scranton Today raised $100,000, 42% of this from non-governmental sources. Even if Scranton Today had had access to some portion of the franchise fee, maintaining this level of community “buy in” and “public ownership” would have continued to be important to its success.

As we continue cable casting our scheduled programs, we invite our many supporters to share with us their ideas on how Scranton Today can continue to meet the mission crafted for it by the community over ten years ago. These suggestions can be emailed to us at ScrantonToday@albright.org or mailed to us at Scranton Today, 500 Vine Street, Scranton, PA 18508.

Under such circumstances as these, thank-you always seems so inadequate. Therefore, the Board of Scranton Today both expresses its gratitude and offers this pledge. We will do everything possible to honor your trust and to vigorously move forward to develop new and creative ways to fulfill the mission you have given us.

Stay tuned, as it were, and, together, we will write a new script and begin the next production in our season.

The Board of Scranton Today

Letter from Commissioner Munchak

Read a letter from Commissioner A.J. Munchak on the STTV / ECTV transition in the Times-Tribune.

Thank You and Stay Tuned!

STTV wishes to thank all the supporters who signed our petition. STTV will remain on the air and continue to present programming during the transition period. Stay tuned for updates.

Lackawanna Legal Delayed

Due to a delay in the City Council replay (originally scheduled for 1PM), today's replay of Lackawanna Legal has been rescheduled from 4PM to 5PM. We apologize for any inconvenience.

Compare the Proposals!

Compare our proposal to manage Channels 61 & 62 with the proposal submitted by ECTV.

Channels 61 & 62 Granted to ECTV

We regretfully announce that the commission appointed by Mayor Doherty to select a manager for Comcast Channels 61 & 62 has selected Electric City TV (ECTV). This isn't the end, though. Please keep checking back for updates.

STTV Intern Recognized!

Congratulations to Anthony George – Scranton Today intern and recipient of this year’s Martin Luther King Commission Young Leader of the Year Award!

Decision Day!

According to the Times-Tribune, the panel charged with reviewing proposal for managing Channels 61 and 62 will deliver its recommendation to Mayor Chris Doherty sometime today. Please keep checking back for updates.

"Bonus" Council Replay

Due to last night's partial outage, we will replay the City Council meeting tonight at 7:00PM.

Another Outage Update

This is from Comcast:

We had a piece of equipment malfunction in our headend last night which caused the issue. That piece of equipment has been replaced and everything should be working at this time.

Sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused our customers and viewers. Please let me know if you see or hear of any other issues.

Outage Update

Here is an update from Karen Bazzarri, President of STTV Scranton Today:

STTV staff worked on this issue as soon as it was reported to me last night and we confirmed it was a Comcast issue.

The issues started with viewers using a high def "box" not being able view CH61, but viewers with standard cable were able to view it.

While Comcast was correcting this issue there were brief outages of CH61 on the standard cable as well.

Thank You for your patience!

City Council Outage

Dear STTV / Scranton Today Viewers,

We have received reports of an outage during last night’s live cablecast of City Council. There is some question as to whether the source of the problem was Scranton Today or Comcast. I personally monitored the meeting at my home between 6:45 and 8:05 and was able to watch it. Others, living in different areas, were unable to watch the meeting at this time. This leads us to believe that the outage was limited to specific areas and was therefore a Comcast issue. Please help us track down the source of the problem by commenting on this posting. (See below.) We just need to know when you tried to watch, where, in general, you were located when trying to watch, and whether you were able to view the meeting.

Thank you!

Scranton Today in HD?

We are sometimes asked if and when STTV Scranton Today will be migrating to High-Definition (HD). There are several reasons why there no immediate plans to do this. The first is the most important. We want to make sure that our programming remains part of the "Basic" cable channel offerings and that it can be viewed even with older TV's; no need for digital cable boxes or for purchasing a HD set. Also, STTV programming, which is made by you and your neighbors, does not cry out for HD. I don't know about you, but I wouldn't want to see myself in HD!

City Council Replay Postponement

Please note that due to today’s inclement weather, Scranton Today’s office was closed. Because of this closing, our regular programming could not be updated, and this evening’s airing of the Scranton City Council meeting will be postponed until tomorrow evening at 7:00 PM. We apologize for the inconvenience.