“Everyone can get national news from about anywhere, but when it comes to knowing more about what is happening in the community, that’s where community television comes into play,” said City of Marshfield Communications Director Tom Loucks.
The City of Marshfield is located in the center of the state and has an estimated population of 19,500. At the turn of the last century, Marshfield was known as “Hub City” because as many as 38 passenger trains rolled through the town on a daily basis. Overt the years, people have found Marshfield to be a great place to live and raise a family. Part of its success has been due to the city’s unflagging interest in making sure residents are well informed.
Current Communications Director Tom Loucks and former MCTV manager Dan Kummer goofing around in 2013 at the annual WCM Board retreat.
Back in the 1970’s when cable television was just starting to roll out across the country, the City of Marshfield was wired for cable and had a PEG (public, education and government) access channel on the line-up. Marshfield Senior High School Learning Resource Director Mr. Markwardt, spearheaded the use of the channel. He taught his students an array of skills as they produced programs for it. After that station management was turned over to the first of two contractors, Dan Kummer, who operated the studio until his death in 2016.
Today, Marshfield Broadcasting, formerly Marshfield Community Television (MCTV), provides a wide range of local programming. From church services, polka music and dancing, concerts, graduations, high school sports and municipal government coverage a local will find it all on 989, 990 and 991 on the Spectrum Charter cable television system as well as on Roku, Apple TV Amazon Fire and online. Its brand new call letters are MFLD-TV.
Nearly 22% of Marshfield’s population is over the age of 65 and the city believes cable television reaches this demographic most effectively. “We know that our older residents want to be able to just sit down, turn on the television, select a channel and watch TV. They don’t want to fiddle around with getting to an OTT channel or figure out how to watch a program online, especially when polka programming is on,” said Communications Director Tom Loucks. But these other outlets each have their own audiences, too, and so the programming produced by the station is also distributed in these other ways.
During the pandemic, the volume of church services on the channels ballooned. Residents couldn’t venture out but wanted to be able to watch their local church services from their living rooms. Tom said, “We reached out to several local religious organizations by offering them space to broadcast their services on cable channels 989 and 990. Also, during that time Marshfield Broadcasting was also instrumental in developing a “Hope Line” for residents who needed help and someone to listen to, which helped us connect our communication efforts.”
Now over a dozen local churches use the cable TV broadcasting service on a weekly basis. Every church produces its own program and has a regular slot on the Sunday and Wednesday schedule. “With all the new requests from church programs, we couldn’t fit them all in at the prime times they wanted, so we started using our educational access channel 990, which was no longer being used by the schools,” said Tom. In the near future, all church services will be broadcast “live” on all platforms including some local high school sporting events, too. “We need to stay innovative and be able to give local residents what they want,” said Tom.
But the channels are not just being used for religious programming, they’re also used to broadcast city government news and information, too. The communications department produces all the programming such as gavel-to-gavel coverage of meetings, previews of upcoming meetings and local information happening within City government through short informational videos.
The Council meeting is covered live every two weeks as well as the meetings of four committees: Board of Public Works; Finance, Budget and Personnel Committee; Fire and Police Commission; and the Planning Commission. On a monthly basis, City Administrator Steve Barg and assistant Police Chief Pat Zeps do a local show called “WDLB Insight” for both the local radio station and the MFLD TV community stations.
“For a local broadcasting service to be successful, we know the community needs to be involved and want to use it,” said Tom. “There must also be an interaction between the non-profits, businesses, council and city staff. If we think we can come up with all the ideas and do all the work, we are not being realistic. There is no way our staff of two can produce all of the programming. I want the ideas and the programming to come from the community.”
The staff at Marshfield Broadcasting has developed a process for supporting local program development. When a resident brings Marshfield Broadcasting an idea for a program, staff helps flesh it out and then provides the producer with a list of local residents who are capable of helping them get the show off the ground. Staff encourages program makers to spread their message to a diverse audience by using whatever means they have of getting their message out, too. “We just want to help them reach their audience,” Tom said.
“Our channels reflect the interests of our community and much of what people see on our broadcasting platforms are produced by the community with the exception of city government programs,” said Tom.
Since 2019 all of the channels are under the management of the City of Marshfield. The department is still in the process of building up after the City lost the rights to use the station’s original name, Marshfield Community Television, to a contractor who refused to relinquish the name when the City brought the operation in-house. “Building a new city department from scratch isn’t done every day and it’s going to have a few bumps in the road along the way,” Tom said.
Tom, who has been with the city since 2019, has been getting out into the community and talking about the opportunities for good communication that Marshfield Broadcasting provides. “If I want to be successful in getting the message out that we are here and available, I need to be a part of the community, I can’t hide in an office setting”, said Tom, who had a twenty-year career working as a photojournalist. “When people get to know what we’re trying to do with the department, they realize it makes sense to use the service as a part of their promotional toolkit and watch our channels to learn about their community.”
The city communications department isn’t just responsible for broadcasting services, they also handle the city’s website and its social media platforms. “I also serve as the public information officer and media contact along with doing public relations oversight,” said Tom. A full-time communications specialist handles the day-to-day tasks from uploading and scheduling of programs for broadcasting as well as recording city meetings and producing government programs. “We have a lot on our plates and that means we can’t dedicate much of our time to producing programs outside city government,” said Tom.
Marshfield’s drive through graduation was a highlight of 2020.
One of the things Tom is most proud of is being able to offer Marshfield High School graduates a video of their drive-thru graduation in 2020. “We were able to bring graduation into people’s living rooms. I know it meant a lot to the graduates, their families and friends.” It was a collaborative effort between staff and local community producer Chris Kelly.
“I’m also very proud of our government coverage. Because of what we do every day, Marshfield has a level of government transparency that makes it possible for our community to know what’s going on. People may not tune in on a regular basis, but every time there is a big issue we are there for them.”
Today the media landscape has changed with more options for viewing than ever before. One thing that hasn’t changed along the way in Marshfield is its interest in providing residents with local programming. “Providing local programs and keeping the community informed is key for a community our size,” said Tom. “Our community can trust us, We’re here for them. Every day, even if it’s in a small way, we work to get that message out.”
