AWCATV to be bigger, better in the new year
Big changes at the studio hope to inspire more public involvement
By Lindsay Sauvageau JOURNAL CORRESPONDENT

Matt Bourgault works on some of the editing and production to get television programs on the air for the Ashburnham-Westminster Community Access Television stations. COURTESY PHOTO

Since 2005, the Ashburnham Westminster Community Access Television Corporation has been evolving, and expanding.

Entering into its third active year, staffing and studio changes along with a stronger emphasis on community outreach are just a few of the changes that Executive Director Matt Bourgault hopes will be the beginning of good things to come for the studio.

"Since the partnership began in 2005, there have been quite a few changes," Bourgault said. "We hope in our 10-year tenure to see a lot of expansion and a lot of new volunteers and memberships. What we are really all about is allowing people in these towns to be able t o express themselves and use their freedom of speech through television."

Bourgault said AWCATV has been overhauled in the past few years, with aesthetic changes to the studio, a restructuring of the staff and other important changes that will be altering the way the studio programs are aired and how much community involvement will be necessary in years to come.

"We're basically a two man operation right now," he said. "We're doing the best we can to get the studio to where we'd like it to be and we're looking forward to people stepping up to help from the community."

In order meet the needs of the studio located at Oakmont Regional High School, 9 Oakmont Drive, Ashburnham, Bourgault was made executive director in charge of all day-to-day operations within the studio and working partner David Belliveau was made outreach and video production specialist. Helping in and out of the studio, part of Belliveau's outreach job will be to speak to local non-profits and other organizations in the hopes of inspiring more community involvement and teaching these groups the ins and outs of video production.

Bourgault said $25,000 was recently spent to upgrade the playback quality at the studio, which means Ashburnham and Westminster residents will soon see the addition of a second AWCATV station. AWCATV airs all of its community programming on channel 8 but as of Feb. 1, AWCATV will also air on channel 9.

"This is probably going to confuse people at first, but once people understand what we're trying to do it will become a definite benefit for everyone," he said.

Channel 8 will continue to operate as the station for all of the public programming, local productions, in studio productions, sports programs and also programs imported from out of town.

Channel 9 will become the station for public education and governmental programs, featuring Boards of Selectmen's meetings and other town government meetings, school committee meetings and any educational videos from within the school systems of each town.

"One of our hopes is to soon begin working with Cushing Academy to begin getting programming from them as well, getting their sports filmed and aired too. It's never been done and we're looking forward to doing it," he said.

Sometime in February, Bourgault said, the station through its contracts with Comcast and the towns will begin airing the Westminster selectmen's meetings live.

"It's to help people in Westminster see what is going on as it is happening," he said.

Bourgault said the Westminster Town Hall with soon be outfitted with a remote camera system so that the equipment just has to be turned on and the meetings can be filmed on location.

As the new year begins AWCATV will also begin offering free production classes for Westminster and Ashburnham residents and those individuals who work within each town though they may not live there. A six to eight week program, classes are on Wednesdays at 7 p.m. at the studio. These classes teach residents basic production skills, how to produce and host their own programs as well as how to run the equipment so that they would be able to volunteer and help out at the studio.

"There are a lot of great opportunities available. We want the community to be involved and informed about what is going on at the studio, that's why this year we're really starting to put an emphasis on outreach," he said. "We want to train people how they can put their ideas into motion. We want to see volunteers who are willing to say 'hey, this is an idea I've had, how can I share it with people?'"

Bourgault also said he will be working on keeping the station's official Web site, www.awcatv.org as up-to-date as possible. The Web site includes such things as a TV schedule and information about all of the studio's programming. Soon, they will be launching a new Web design that will be more user friendly, with event more information, event news and community news.

"Now that we actually have an operating budget we can plan for things and purchase what we need to make things work, which has been invaluable to us and will continue to be as the studio grows," he said. "The possibilities now are endless."

To find out more visit www.AWCATV. org. To get involved with the AWCATV's production classes call (978) 827-5089 or e-mail AWCATV@yahoo.com.