Belfast to debut community TV station

BELFAST – A team of media-savvy volunteers is putting in place the final pieces of a new community television station that will broadcast from the Boathouse at Steamboat Landing.

Belfast Community TV is scheduled to be up and running on Channel 2 for all subscribers to Adelphia cable television on May 1.

The channel will be overseen and operated by a local non-profit organization, the Belfast Institute of Lifelong Learning (BILL) to provide a non-commercial, locally produced television station for local viewers.

The city has offered the use of the Boathouse attic for two years to help the fledgling station get on its feet.

“We want to do something completely different,” co-program director Susan Guthrie said Saturday. “This is kind of a hybrid of what other communities have been doing. Our focus will be local and communicative.”

The arrival of Channel 2 means the city will soon have three local access television stations. The city-produced BELTV 7 airs live City Council and Planning Board meetings and lists public notices.

The SAD 34-produced BAHS TV5 shows high school events, including sports, and public notices of school-related activities.

Guthrie and fellow program director Ned Lightner have extensive backgrounds in television. Lighter, who will oversee production, is the founder of the Augusta community access station, Augusta 12, and served for many years as a technical director and executive producer for Maine Public Broadcasting.

Guthrie, who will handle the bulletin board, worked at public access stations in the western states, studied television production, worked in the news department of WLBZ-TV in Bangor and as promotions manager for Down East Magazine.

Guthrie said Belfast Community TV, or BCTV2, already has a number of productions on tap that it will begin showing next month.

Last month’s Waldo County Fiddle Contest, the New Vaudeville Revue at the Colonial Theater, the Waldo County Pie & Story Festival, the Mid-Coast Summer Video Guide, and the documentary, The Last Year of Peirce School, are just some of the all-new, locally produced television shows that will be unveiled on its prime time schedule.

BCTV2 will also start each morning with a family-friendly, convenient, colorful and animated community bulletin board.

This service will also display the time and give a constant spoken local weather report through the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration or NOAA Weather.

They also have planned competitions and awards for locally produced video, photography and poetry, as well as public affairs programming and roundtable discussions on issues of importance to the community.

Guthrie said national programs, such as Classic Arts Network, that are broadcast by satellite will also be aired on BCTV2

“It should be a lot of fun and the community should enjoy it,” said Guthrie.

The mission of the station is to reflect and strengthen the spirit and character of Belfast in order to enrich the lives of residents and visitors in the Midcoast region by fostering communication, free speech and artistic expression, as well as creating opportunities through television and other electronic media.

Channel 2 was originally part of the franchise contract Adelphia Cable entered into with the city when the community was wired for cable television.

Local public access was mandated by the U.S. Congress as part of the cable franchise. The city provided $11,500 in franchise money earmarked for equipment purchases to help BCTV2 get on the air.

“Congress gave us the right to those channels,” she said. “This cable channel belongs to the people.”

Guthrie said that will all change as Congress is in the process of changing the cable television regulations that will eliminate those franchise fees that allowed local access to operate.

Although Adelphia provided the initial funds for the necessary equipment, BCTV2 will not be funded by the Adelphia franchise agreement, or by Belfast taxpayers, she said.

The new station, which has little overhead, will be completely self-funded through volunteers, grants and local business underwriters.

Community members will get a chance to see the new animated bulletin board and a sampling of upcoming shows at a free presentation at 5 p.m. Thursday, April 20 at the Abbott Room at the Belfast Free Library.

For a sneak preview of BCTV2 the public can check out the station news blog at belfastcommunitytv.blogspot.com. There the public can obtain more information as well as add input.

For information on programming, Lightner can be reached during business hours at 338-6161.

For information on the bulletin board and becoming an underwriter for the station contact Guthrie during business hours at 338-6140.