As you drive down Main Street in Rice Lake, you’ll see something new emblazoned on the windows at 325 Main Street -- three large logos. One promotes Rice Lake Community Television’s cable channels -- 992 on Charter Spectrum and 993 on Mosaic/Celect Communications; one promotes its digital channels ricelaketv.com, Apple TV, Roku, and Amazon Fire; and one promotes its LPFM radio station, WYRL-LP 105.5 FM. “I like to tell people there are ‘six ways to view Rice Lake Community Media,’ said James Wyngaard, Executive Director of Rice Lake Community Media. “We have gotten a tremendous response to the window promotion. I am really pleased with how much it has raised our profile.”
Founded in 1982, Rice Lake Community Media has been housed in this building since 2000, right in the heart of this growing city of 9,000 people in Barron County -- and rightly so. The media center is an integral part of the community.
A newcomer to the city, James quickly caught on that his adopted home town holds high expectations for its local media center – particularly when it comes to high school football. “It’s ingrained in the community that we’ll be covering all of the high school games. This fall I covered the third game in the playoffs between Rice Lake and Baraboo and the last time I looked, it had over 4,000 views on the school district’s YouTube channel.”
The school district also relies on Rice Lake Community Media to cover every school board meeting and many band and choir concerts. While he gets help from a high school student for game coverage, he readily admits that he’s open to getting help, either from volunteers or from a part-time employee. “It’s a lot for one person,” said James. “Right now, I’m a one-man band. We’re looking to hire someone in the new year to help me.”
Besides covering the school district, Rice Lake Community Media is the local connection to UW Eau Claire - Barron County. The media center has long covered Thursdays @ the U, a lecture series that covers such diverse topics as barn quilts, restorative justice, the history of women’s suffrage, and county administration. “Recently there was a touching discussion about caring for family members with dementia from the point of view of the caregiver’s experience,” said James. While he covers the lectures with just one camera, James incorporates the lecturer’s PowerPoints directly into the finished product to create the final show for television audiences.
Rice Lake Community Media’s first responsibility, though, is coverage of local government. “The greatest value of community television is giving people an unfiltered look at how their city and county is run – gavel to gavel government meeting coverage is especially important. This coverage has never been more vital than in today’s media environment with all of the sniping back and forth,” said James.
James covers the Barron County Board plus five city meetings every month. When the pandemic shut down in-person meetings, Rice Lake Community Media stepped up. “Our residents would not have had access to government meetings without the video coverage and interactivity we provided. We not only covered those meetings, but we made sure our residents were able to communicate with our officials during those meetings. I think all community media stations showed their worth again to people who may have written us off awhile back.” For years the media center has hosted monthly programs with the city’s state representatives. These days it’s Senator Janet Bewley (D) and Rep. Dave Armstrong (R), who formerly served on the city’s cable commission.
The independent cable commission that oversees the media center meets quarterly. Recently, the commission was reduced from seven members to a more workable five members. The commission gives James wide latitude to run the channel, but gets involved on policy decisions and large capital purchases. “Members pop into the station now and again to see how it’s going and ask questions they have. We have a good relationship,” said James.
James is about to celebrate his one-year anniversary at the station. “I began shadowing former director, Ryan VanLanduyt, on December 14 and formally took the reins on January 1,” said James. When asked about his accomplishments in the brief time he has been there, James said, “I think I’m most proud of being able to maintain and enhance the shows we produce from sports to interview programs.” Recently, with the help of a fellow WCM member, James replaced the flat fluorescents in the studio with proper studio lighting. “It makes every production look vastly improved,” said James. He has also recently acquired the radio equipment to go live on location.
During its forty year-old history, the media center’s managers have brought a variety of entertainment to residents. For a while, when pro wrestling events came to town, Rice Lake Media was there covering it. Music in the Park has also been a favorite for decades and beginning this summer, James will air it live on WYRL-LP 105.5 FM. Holiday Parade coverage has also been a staple and James just recently covered this year’s parade for the first time.
Besides serving local educational institutions and the government, Rice Lake Community Media is open to playing programs submitted by residents. “If someone called me and had a great program they wanted to share, our policies allow us to put it on.”
The six-year-old radio station is a mix of the three types of “PEG” – public, educational, and government programming. You can listen to government meetings, educational lectures, music, and advice on animal care from an animal enthusiast.
James promotes the channel and its upcoming programs through Facebook and the message board played between video programming on its channels. Like all but a few local community TV PEG channels in the state, Charter Spectrum refuses to allow the schedule of Rice Lake Community TV to be included in the Electronic Program Guide and Celect Communications has followed suit.
Just before Labor Day, when Charter Spectrum moved its hubsite facility from one building to another, it was unable to restore Rice Lake Community Media on the line-up. Company officials informed James it could be five months before the channel would be up again. James said, “They wanted to know why I just don’t use the web instead of Cable TV. Well, we do use the web but a lot of our residents like to watch our local coverage on cable. As cable customers, I think they have a right to receive the service they signed up for.” The company found a used part and the channel was back up in just under three weeks.
James caught the community television bug his junior year of high school in Kaukauna when he helped record a sports tournament as an intern with the local cable company, Bresnan, which later sold its holdings to Time Warner. During college while majoring in broadcast journalism at UW-Whitewater, he did a two-year internship with MATA Community Media where he hosted a morning show that promoted upcoming shows and featured the hosts of various programs. (MATA closed in 2017 as a result of the 2007 Video Competition Act passed by the state, which outlawed direct fees to community TV centers.) “UW-Whitewater has a wonderful degree program that includes not only video production training, but also radio – the college has radio station WSUW. When I was there, Peter Conover was in charge of television and the late Dr. Wilfred Tremblay was the radio director. Both were terrific. The television station – UWW TV -- is now run by Jim Mead and the program continues to be top-notch.”
After James moved to Dane County, he soon began volunteering his time at PEG community media centers in Sun Prairie, McFarland, Stoughton, Oregon, and Fitchburg announcing sports and occasionally hosting election night coverage. For his efforts, James was awarded the Friend of Access Award in 2018 by Wisconsin Community Media. “I am very proud of this award,” said James. “To be able to have my mother there at the conference in Oshkosh in 2018, and being so close to my hometown meant the world to me.” When the Rice Lake Community Media manager position came up in 2020, he decided to apply. “I had been working at US Cellular in Madison for more than 13 years and was comfortable. The old saying goes ‘when you least expect something good to happen to you is when it usually does’ really applies in my case. I really think moving to Rice Lake is one of the best professional moves I’ve ever made.”
“Community media has been written off time and again,” said James, “but community media is not dead. In this politicized climate, our role is more important than ever especially due to the consolidation of corporate media. Newspapers have been on the decline for years and years and many local papers are now owned by large media corporations that have no community connection. Gray TV is scooping up broadcast affiliates right and left. People are losing access to local news and information. What we provide will be more and more important as time goes on.”
