Trempealeau County is located in a uniquely beautiful part of southwestern Wisconsin known as the Driftless Area -- the part of Wisconsin that was spared from the massive glaciers that covered the rest of the state during the last ice age. The area is full of undulating hills that plunge into valleys. The challenging terrain is why telecommunications companies historically shied away from serving the area. In the end, it was a cooperative that brought telephone service to five towns in the area in 1966 and a cooperative, with the help of a grant, that built an early cable TV system here in 1980 and put a local PEG (Public, Education, and Government) channel on its system in February 1981. Residents here know what it took to get telecommunications services and they highly value both the cable television system and their local PEG TV channel, WTCO.
“The best way to describe it is that our media center is a staple here,” said Derek Westby, Director of WTCO. “We’re THE hub of information for a whole lot of different people in the county. People live in small towns spread out over an area of 742 square miles. The station helps keep everyone connected.” Derek took over as director just about a year ago and as he introduced himself to people, he was stunned by the reaction he received when he told them he worked at the local community TV station. He said, “Immediately they would know exactly what I’m talking about. They know the station. They know the channel number. They tell me they seek it out or they tell me about a favorite show or how they like the meeting coverage.”
Derek likes to tell a story about a comment made in jest during a county board meeting. One of the county board members was explaining to a department head why their budget request was too much, and he jokingly said that the county would have to shut down the parks and the cable TV channel to afford it. “Well, a lot of people were watching that meeting, heard that comment, and got concerned,” said Derek. It led to “hours and hours” of public comment. “People talking about why the station should not be shut down. People really care about this channel.”
Tri-County Communications Cooperative (TCC) is the cable operator here. It serves Trempealeau County and parts of Eau Claire and Jackson Counties with telephone, Internet, and cable TV service. WTCO appears on channel 18 and in high-quality HD on 618 . In its marketing materials, the cooperative touts WTCO and its local coverage as a reason to subscribe to its cable TV service. While the county has never asked the co-op to pay a franchise fee, TCC willingly pays a 35 cent per month/subscriber fee to support the PEG channel, even though state law bars localities from requiring it. The rest of the media center budget comes from the County. The Trempealeau County Extension Education and Communication Committee oversees the channel, approving capital expenditures and media center policies prior to seeking county board approval.
The pandemic proved to be a critical turning point for the media center because it had to be strengthened both in terms of staffing and equipment to expand coverage of county meetings. “The County Board was very serious about government transparency,” said Derek. A hybrid format was chosen, so that people could attend in person, or view and participate from home.
Prior to the pandemic, WTCO had one full time director and two part-time staff. Rick Joten and Drew Martin both worked 28-hour weeks. That wasn’t enough to cover as many as 20 meetings a month. All three staff are now full time. There was also a change in the kind of programs done. Prior to the pandemic, residents would come in and use the studio a lot. But due to the pandemic nearly all studio shows stopped. Field productions dropped off because events just weren’t held. What was needed now was more live capability, better meeting coverage, and a greater ability for the television audience to interact with programming. So WTCO recreated itself to adapt to the needs of the moment and did so in part with its own savings and mostly with the help of federal FEMA money. In total, $38,000 paid for the upgrade of the control room and camera equipment; $45,000 paid for new board room microphones; $60,000 went to closed captioning; and $10,000 went to a webstreaming appliance by Telvue. “I’d estimate that we replaced about 90% of our equipment over the last year,” said Derek.
The transition was a huge success. “It turns out people like meetings,” said Derek. When we transitioned to covering all county meetings, we found the public loved it. People want it to continue indefinitely. Most meetings are held during the day, so people couldn’t attend. Now people can watch the recordings after work.” The new meeting set-up takes less staff time. “We used to wheel cameras back and forth from the studio to the meeting room and then connect them to the studio control room using HDMI cables fished through the walls. Those cameras have been replaced with PTZ cameras mounted in the ceiling connected directly to a new Tricaster switcher,” said Derek.
WTCO also purchased multi-camera field equipment and now for the first time has the capability to do live remote productions. The county spans 742 square miles, so to be able to send a signal from anywhere in the county back to the media center for live cablecast is incredibly exciting. Trempealeau County Health Department listening sessions about COVID were carried live as they were held around the county. All seven school districts wanted to have their games live on WTCO, so Derek rotates between them, covering one game each season from each district. The new equipment also enabled WTCO to record twelve outdoor band concerts in a multi-camera style this summer, including performances at Winghaven in Galesville, Boerboom Park in Osseo, and the small stage at Ashley for the Arts in Arcadia. “We were able to do a multicamera recording in HD of a Them Coulee Boys concert [local boys that have made a regional splash] that took place 45 miles away at the Trempealeau Hotel on the Mississippi River,” said Derek. The 810 Black Magic ATEM Mini Pro switcher and a Pepwave cellular router for livestreaming have been a hit.
Besides meetings, high school sports, and concerts, the channel cablecasts church services and religious programs organized by four area churches, and several resident-produced programs, even though the pandemic has cut back on this. As part of its ‘public” mission, residents can check out one of six camera kits and there is a nice studio with set backdrops. Editing equipment is also available to the public. Derek and the team will happily train a resident who needs it. “All a resident has to do is sign a form that if they break it they bought it,” said Derek. “Camera check-out is free for those who use the equipment to produce a show for the channel and $50/day if they don’t.”
“History Files” along with its spinoff, “Name That Road” are the most popular. “People love those shows,” said Derek. Nancy Bergman and Mary C. Anderson produce and star in both. Their back-and-forth banter as they delve into historic sites and crisscross the county in search of out of the way crossroads make for very engaging entertainment. According to Derek, “I never know what they’re going to bring back, and the length of a show entirely depends on how much they get to talking. Anywhere from a half hour to an hour, although they’ve done two-part hour-long shows, too.” Local officials also make it onto the channel. State Senator Jeff Smith and Congressman Ron Kind are just two who have come in to talk about issues. The Economic Development Director has had a long-running show called, “Discover Trempealeau County.”
Perhaps the most dedicated viewers of the channel, however, are polka lovers. “There is a polka hour from 6 – 7 pm Monday through Friday,” said Derek, “but I get lots of calls if I play music that isn’t polka.”
The County has no interest in using Twitter or Facebook, but relies on the Trempealeau County Times newspaper, its website and WTCO to communicate with residents. Besides channel 18, WTCO uses YouTube and Roku as well as a webpage with VOD capability on the County website for its programming. “It’s important to get county messages out in a timely manner and WTCO is key to making that happen,” said Derek. “The newspaper only comes out once a week, but WTCO can scroll emergency messages along the bottom of the screen. A lot of people here don’t use computers. They’re not on the Internet. But they do watch Cable TV.”
When asked what he saw as the biggest challenges for community television, Derek said, “Many stations don’t market themselves enough, but I think that more PEG channels across the state would have better name recognition if Charter hadn’t relegated PEG channels to digital Siberia [the 980’s and 990’s]. It’s good to see TDS putting PEG channels in normal spots and carrying them in HD. For people to watch, they have to know the channel exists. Streaming is OK, but people have to know to look for it.” Derek also views the declining number of cable subscribers and with it declining funding for PEG media centers as a huge challenge. “New sources of funding need to be found,” he said.
It’s been a long time since the Kellogg Foundation helped fund a distance learning network in 1979 that became a cable system serving a hilly rural community in southwestern Wisconsin. In February 1981, forty years ago this month, Trempealeau County Community Television started broadcasting and Wade Britzius, who would lead the TV station for another 25 years, began generating interest in its potential. Today, the county and its residents heavily rely on WTCO to connect them to each other and to learn what is going on. The channel has adapted to the county’s changing needs and will likely continue to be responsive to those needs – especially to polka lovers – for many years to come.
Derek is leaving for a new position in the coming weeks and Trempealeau County is looking for a new leader for the Digital Media Department. To learn more about the oportunity, go to Work In Media.
