Council Replays

Due to the holiday weekend and the nice weather, we were not able to monitor Channel 61 this weekend. Today we learned that some of the City Council replays did not go off as scheduled and that the tape containing City Council had broken during playback. These problems are occurring because our tapes have been reused many times, the length of City Council meetings requires us to use 3 hour tapes, and fresh 3 hour tapes are impossible to purchase (even on Ebay). We apologize for any inconvenience.

Response to 5/20 City Council Meeting

This is in response to some comments made during the 5/21/08 City Council Meeting...

Zoning Board Meeting of 5/14: We neglected to tape this meeting because the volunteer who oversees daily operations was unavailable and was unable to remind our student assistant to tape the meeting. We apologize for this.

Taxpayers Association: In April, after the departure of our Station Manager, we informed the Taxpayers Association that we can no longer provide staff to tape their meetings. We did, however, train a volunteer from their organization, and the volunteer has been taping the meetings and providing us with the finished tape. This is in the true spirit of public access television.

Repeat Programming: Our equipment is in poor condition, and we do not have funding to replace it. As a result, we are forced to dub multiple programs onto a single tape for replay. This is a time-consuming process. Since we are limited to volunteer help and a student assistant, we can only update our schedule once-a-week (usually on Friday). In addition, there is no variation from day-to-day. Also, we no longer program Channel 62, and we longer program between midnight and 6AM. An average show will be repeated approximately 21 times. Our proposal included some modest funding for equipment improvements which would have allowed us to present different programming each day.

Wall-Mount Cameras Removed from Council Chambers

At the May 13th City Council Meeting, it was announced that ECTV would be taking over operation of Channels 61/62 sometime in the next month. In preparation for this, we have removed the two wall-mounted cameras from Council Chambers. We will still be able to cablecast live and taped governmental and non-governmental meetings with the one remaining camera. Since the ECTV takeover appears to be imminent and inevitable, we decided to remove the cameras while we had volunteer help. Please keep checking this blog for updates.

What's Happening with Channels 61/62?

In January, a panel appointed by Mayor Doherty requested proposals for an entity to manage Channels 61/62.

The proposal submitted by Scranton Today! STTV, the long-term operators of Channels 61/62, was not chosen. ECTV's proposal was accepted.

ECTV's proposal stated it would be operational within three months of receiving Phase 1 funds - $313,207.46.

Scranton Today has operated with no funding from the City of Scranton since December. Scranton Today needs money to keep Channels 61/62 from going black.

At the May 13th City Council Meeting, a motion to release $20,000 to fund Scranton Today was defeated on a 3-2 vote. Please ask City Council to reconsider this motion or Channels 61/62 may go black.

Scranton Todayʼs Proposal

Startup Costs: $0

ECTVʼs Proposal

Startup Costs: $313,207.46

Scranton Todayʼs Proposal

1^st Year Operating Budget: $107,981

ECTVʼs Proposal

1^st Year Operating Budget: $158,055

Scranton Todayʼs PEG Management Experience: 9+ Years

ECTVʼs PEG Management Experience: 0 Years

Scranton Todayʼs Commitment to Airing Unedited Government Meetings: Undisputed

ECTVʼs Commitment: Untested

Whatʼs wrong with this picture?

Update on Signal Problem

We were notified that Comcast has replaced a piece of equipment. It appears to have resolved the problem with signal degradation. Thank you for your patience.