The 2021 Annual Conference Workshops and Presentations
DAY 1 of 2
Thursday, October 28, 2021
8:00 - NOON Registration
9:00 - 11:00 AM PreConference Workshops
9:00 - 10:00 AM
LPFM Radio Meeting (Click here for the Agenda)
9:00 - 10:00 AM
Broadening Your Reach - How to get on OTT platforms like Roku and Apple TV
Your audience has never had so many different ways to watch video! There’s traditional TV, smartphones, computers and tablets. It’s critical that your programming be available to as many providers as possible to reach diverse audiences. This workshop will talk about what it takes to get your signal out there and provides examples of the different ways it can be done.
Randy Visser, East Sales Representative, Cablecast TV
Bruce Morrison, Senior Vice President, Sales, Castus
Tom Loucks, Director of Communications, City of Marshfield
9:00 - 11:00 AM
Having the Best of Both Worlds for Your Meetings
We’ll explore how you can successfully integrate remote participation into your in-person board meetings. We hope to have an interesting discussion given the variety of options available.
Jake Timm, Operations Manager, Oshkosh Media
Boyce Johnson, Digital Media Supervisor, City Channel Madison
Tom Faber, Key Code Media
10:00 - 11:00 AM
Are You Interested in Starting a Podcast? It’s Easy!
Podcasting is an easy way to offer community access to a whole new audience. According to Podcasthosting.org, there are over 2,000,000 podcasts and over 48 million episodes available worldwide as of August 2021! Learn how easy it is to create a podcast from start to finish while building a new audience for your media center.
Jeremy Crosby, Director, Fitchburg FACTv
Doug Dillman, Instructor, Visual Communications - Media Design, Madison College
10:00 - 11:00 AM
Drones!
Learn about drone rules and regulations, sUAS licensing and recertification, insurance considerations and recent changes in regulations governing the use of drones.
Ryan Marquart, Communications & Systems Administrator, Village of Pleasant Prairie
Derek Westby, Director, WTCO Trempealeau
Noon - 1:45 PM Opening Lunch and Keynote Presentation
Welcome
Jake Timm, President, WCM
Jim Knightwright, Chair of the Midwest Region of the Alliance for Community Media
Jim Owczarski, City Clerk of the City of Milwaukee
Our Lunch Sponsors
Municipal Captioning
Comrex
Cablecast TV
CASTUS
Telvue
AVI Systems
Media Control Systems
Keynote Presentation: Professor Lewis Friedland, University of Wisconsin - Madison
Public Square: The Role of Cable Access Television in a Rapidly Changing Media Ecology
Lewis Friedland is a professor in the School of Journalism & Mass Communication and an affiliated professor in the Department of Sociology. He founded and directs the Center for Communication and Democracy. His research and teaching centers on civic and citizen journalism, communication and society, communication research methods, international news reporting, and civil society and public life.
2:00 - 5:00 PM 3 Sets of 2 Concurrent Workshops (Pick 1 of 2)
2:00 - 2:50 PM
Juggling Live Streaming Platforms
There are so many different ways of live streaming in today’s market. However, which is the right platform to use? Should you use more than one platform? In this session, we will explore some of the most common streaming platforms, how to best use them, and share some success stories from our local media centers.
Alan Harper, AVI Systems
Tom Faber, Key Code Media
Paul Zwicker, Executive Director, OCA Media
Strengthening your web presence
How to improve your website or unbury it in the depths of a municipal website. Integrating all of your online media into one easy-to-find place.
Derek Westby, Director, WTCO, Trempealeau County
3:05 - 3:55 PM
Converting the People You Serve into Advocates for Your Media Center
It can be hard for media centers to work on marketing and outreach when keeping up with production demands. Our panel will share how they built relationships with local organizations and elected officials as well as volunteers and staff to make them into the advocates your media center needs — all while meeting their day to day work demands.
Jeremy Crosby, Community Media Services Manager, Fitchburg FACTv
Mayor Aaron Richardson, City of Fitchburg
Jeff Robbins, Executive Director, Sun Prairie Media Center
Will Nimmow, Monona Community Media Director, City of Monona
What’s Next for Upstream PEG Carriage?
How does Charter/Spectrum plan to carry PEG signals from local origination points to its subscriber network? Two of our speakers have been working with Charter/Spectrum locally and share their insights. We’ll also discuss what Wisconsin law currently requires video service providers to do to support local programming.
Tom Loucks, Director of Communications, City of Marshfield
Mary Cardona, Executive Director, Wisconsin Community Media
Alan Luckett, Media Services Director, Janesville JATV, City of Janesville (Moderator)
4:10 - 5:00 PM
What Works! Roundtables
Spend a ten minutes at four tables in succession to learn about some great ideas straight from the media center directors that are using them.
Yellowtec iXm Recording Microphone with automatic leveling
Derek Westby, Director, WTCO Trempealeau County
Using OBS with Hudl Cameras for television
Jeff Robbins, Executive Director, Sun Prairie Media Center
High Quality Audio Recording devices
James Wyngaard, Executive Director, Rice Lake Community Media
Mevo live streaming cameras
David Ruhland, Manager, Reedsburg Community Television
Closed Captioning - You can have your cake and eat it too!
Captioning isn’t just something you are legally required to do, it’s also an opportunity to get extra workflow benefits for your station or city. You can have your cake and eat it too! There are a variety of reasons why people have bought captioning to get other things their operation needed or wanted. We’ll also talk about your particular situation, so bring your questions! (And there may be real cake!)
Daniell Krawczyk, President, Municipal Captioning
5:30 - 7:00 PM EXHIBITORS HALLOWEEN RECEPTION
Meet and talk with Our Exhibitors and join us for appetizers, drinks and Halloween Fun! Wear a Costume! Maybe you’ll win “Best Costume of the Night!”
7:00 - 10:30 HALLOWEEN GALA - HELP US LAUNCH THE WCM PROGRAM FUND!
Sponsored by Municipal Captioning, Telvue, Key West, and Media Control Systems
We’re celebrating the creation of our new “sister” organiztion, the WCM Program Fund! Everyone’s invited to have a great time! It’s a once in a lifetime opportunity to meet and greet your fellow PEG access lovers IN COSTUME. Bring an instrument and join the live “PEG BAND!” We’ve got Halloween FUN AND GAMES in store for you! A spooky photo booth and more! CLICK FOR MORE INFO AND TICKETS!
The mission of The WCM Program Fund is to connect program producers and funders with Wisconsin PEG centers to provide financial and technical support for the creation and distribution of programs of local, regional and statewide public interest. The WCM Program Fund now has 501c3 non-profit status!
DAY 2 of 2
Friday, October 29, 2021
8:00 AM - 8:30 AM Registration
8:30 - 9:45 AM Breakfast and Presentation
Sponsored by Municipal Captioning and Telvue
Are we really serving the media-related needs of the non-profit community?
Bryce Lord, Professor and Associate Director, Helen Bader Institute for Nonprofit Management, UW-Milwaukee
Professor Daniel Folkman, Associate Professor Emeritus UW-Milwaukee; Videographer & Co-founder Wisconsin Video Hub
The Helen Bader Institute for Nonprofit Management at UW-Milwaukee (HBI) has conducted research into the media-related needs of Wisconsin non-profit organization. HBI was founded in 2001 with a mission is to improve the leadership and effectiveness of nonprofit organizations through education, research and service and it offers graduate degree and continuing education programs. Professor Lord reports on what HBI has learned from its research, providing PEG media centers with ideas for future direction.
Professor Folkman is the former Chair of the Center for Urban Community Development and Unit leader of Government and Community Programs at UW-Milwaukee. Most recently he has been active documenting progressive events and distributing them via social media. Professor Folkman will share what he has learned from working with a variety of small non-profit organizations.
10:15 AM - 1:15 PM 3 Sets of 2 Concurrent Workshops (Pick 1 of 2)
10:15 - 11:05 AM
Social Media Savvy
You have a social media presence, but how can you make the most of it? Learn what other stations are doing to maximize their efforts and get everyone involved.
Michele Allen, Founding Principal, Crux Creative
Frank Caruso, Social Media Producer, OCA Media
Audio Enhancements and Fixes in Post-Production
Learn how to use various techniques in the the editing process to enhance your finished program and fix problem sections.
Ray Fister, President, 5th Floor Recording Company
11:20 - 12:10 PM
Public Policy Trends and PEG
Court cases: We’ll cover two important court cases for PEG: 6th Circuit court decision in City of Eugene v FCC largely upholding a 2019 FCC Cable Franchising Order and U.S. Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit affirming a lower court that upheld a Maine law very favorable to PEG.
Alternatives to the Cable Franchise Fee: We’ll do a deep dive into alternatives to Cable Franchise Fees (Video Service Provider Fee), which continue its multi-year downward trajectory, for stable funding for PEG and talk about the viability of taxes on streaming services and other media distributors. Which states have implemented broader-based taxes and media companies? How have they done it? What kinds of court challenges have have they faced?
Mike Wassenaar, President and CEO, Alliance for Community Media
Mike Bradley, Partner, Bradley Law LLC., Woodbury, MN
How to efficiently distribute recorded video across different platforms
You’ve got your program and now you want to make it available on all the platforms you use to distribute in the most efficient way possible! Our speakers will provide guidance on how you can deliver video over cable, VOD, YouTube, Facebook and other platforms effectively.
Derek Westby, Director, WTCO, Trempealeau County
12:25 - 1:15 PM
The Law and Your Production
Having a good handle on what you can and cannot do legally can open doors when you create and distribute programming.
There’s plenty of music and musical performances out there, but what are you legally allowed to use in your productions under the ASCAP agreement the cable industry has with it? Under Fair Use Guidelines?
What’s the difference between Advertising and Underwriting? How do political advertisements fit in?
Does the ADA require all programs to be closed captioned? Are the ADA rules different for videos distributed online vs. cable TV?
Jason Liggett, Director, Urbana Public Television
Mary Cardona, Executive Director, Wisconsin Community Media
Mike Bradley, Partner, Bradley Law LLC, Woodbury, MN
Driving Social Media Response through Videos and Sponsored Content
Learn how the City of West Bend Communications Department (West Bend Community Television) developed a marketing strategy using videos and social media advertising to support small businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Jess Wildes, Communications and Economic Development Director, City of West Bend
John Ehlke, Production Manager, West Bend Community Television
Closing Luncheon 1:30 - 3 PM
Grab an Idea!
It’s time to wrap up another great conference! However, before you go, join us for the first ever “Grab an Idea!” We’re setting aside time for table by table discussions about what you are most excited about learning from the conference and how you hope to implement the new ideas you have heard when you get home. Then we’ll go room-wide with the best ideas from every table! So Grab an Idea from your fellow stations! Share what is working at your media centers while networking! Start building an action plan and walk away from this conference with a fresh start!
