Sheboygan WSCS - A great media center on a Great Lake

Greg Zabolocky operates a street level camera during parade coverage.

Although Sheboygan is rated the #1 place to go surfing on the Great Lakes, that’s not the kind of surfing we’re encouraging you to do this month (It’s still too cold!). WCM wants you to surf on over to one of WSCS Sheboygan’s digital platforms and take a look at all of their great work! We had a chance to chat with Scott Mealiff, WSCS’s director, and he had a lot to tell us about his community media center, the City of Sheboygan, and more.

WSCS, like many Wisconsin PEG cable access stations, got its start around 1982. Cable TV service had come to the City of Sheboygan just the year before. The cable company at that time established the access channel solely for the community’s use. From 1982 to 1997, the cable company continued to operate WSCS. Then, in 1997, the City of Sheboygan took control of the channel and has managed it ever since.

WSCS’ studios have been housed at the UW-Green Bay Sheboygan campus since that time. Scott now manages WSCS as part of the City IT department and states that WSCS is an integral part of Sheboygan’s communications toolbox. “Historically, WSCS hasn’t been the first thing that staff and residents go to,” says Scott, “But the pandemic has shifted that. WSCS now covers all public meetings. Luckily, about six months before the pandemic started we upgraded a lot of our systems to make live streaming possible.”

Other than providing extensive government meeting coverage, WSCS helps a handful of local non-profits produce programming and many churches submit their weekly services to the channel. “Some of those churches have really stepped up their production levels,” Scott says. “People like to watch them on the cable channel and miss then if they aren’t there.”  

Scott reports that there has been lots of positive feedback from the community during the pandemic about the station’s programming as well. He says, “The occasions that create the most pride for me as a staff member are when I get a phone call or email thanking me and expressing appreciation.” He recalls especially a man who was frustrated with some transmission issues that WSCS was having and went to bat for WSCS at a Finance Committee meeting to ask that money be put back in WSCS’ budget to fix the issue. The man also read a nice letter expressing his appreciation for WSCS at a Council meeting.  Scott says, “Ultimately, we got the money for the upgrade to fiber and cut over to the new system on National Community Media Day in 2019 -- October 20th.”

Scott has worked for WSCS since 2000 and took over as director in 2016. He has a staff of several part- time employees, including Production Technician Robert Ingraham. Robert does scheduling and production, and there are about a half-dozen more part-timers that help WSCS by recording programming for the channel.

Scott enjoys working in community media and says he also enjoys “working with WCM and colleagues who are facing the same issues, whether they be technical or otherwise. There is a broad sense of being in this together and sharing of techniques and ideas. If you reach out to members, they are more than happy to share. There is not a sense of rivalry and competition. That does not exist - it’s the opposite.”

We think so too, Scott!

Take a minute to check out all that WSCS has to offer. Visit them online at WSCSsheboygan.com, or follow them on YouTube and Facebook. If you’re in the Sheboygan area, they’re on Spectrum channel 990. Hang ten!

West Allis’s City Channel brings the community and local government into focus

Diane Latinovich and her store Diane’s Designs are featured on the West Allis City Channel series, "Behind the BID.”

This month’s Media Center Spotlight is on the City of West Allis’s City Channel, a government access channel whose job is to communicate the city’s mission, “to create a quality living and working environment for our residents.”  The City of West Allis is located just west of Milwaukee and is home to 60,000 people.  Most Wisconsin residents have probably been there -- it’s the site of the Wisconsin State Fair.  

Dave Danielson, Video Producer, manages the city’s cable channel on a day to day basis and makes programming decisions based on the city’s core values:  service excellence; innovation; transparency; equity; and revitalization through partnerships with local businesses and community organizations.  Dave has worked for the City of West Allis for more than 22 years.  Before that, he worked for a Milwaukee broadcast affiliate.  He was lured away by the chance to do community television.  “You get to work with the community, see a lot of people and get to know who they are, what they’re doing and how they feel about things.  I love getting it all on video so more residents can appreciate what is all going on here.” 

Dave Danielson stops to pose for us while producing a feature documenting the processes and procedures at West Allis Public Works. It was originally planned as a public tour.

The top priority for the communications department, which is headed by Director Jonathan Matte, is government transparency.  During the pandemic, because the city was forced to end in-person meetings, the number of committees Dave covered increased.  The communications department now not only covers the West Allis City Council twice monthly, but it also regularly covers the Administration and Finance Committee, the License and Health Committee, the Plan Commission, and the Community Development Authority.   When the Capital Improvement Committee, Safety & Development, Public Works and the Board of Review meet, City Channel airs the meetings.  

Unless there is a scheduling conflict, all meetings are carried live on City Channel on Cable Channel 25 on Spectrum Cable and then repeated throughout the week.  The City of West Allis programs the channel in four-hour blocks that are repeated over a 24-hour period.  On Sundays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays, those blocks feature government meetings.  On other days the schedule is filled with a wide variety of locally-produced programs or imported programs that fit with the city’s core values.  Residents can sign up to see the City Channel schedule by requesting to receive email notifications or they can find it on the city’s website. Unfortunately, Spectrum does not carry the channel’s schedule on the Electronic Program Guide.

The city recognizes that its residents consume media in different ways, so besides Cable Spectrum 25, it also has a presence on AT&T’s Channel 99 website and it uploads programs to its YouTube channel where anyone can view its programs on-demand.  (On the City website, go to City Services/City Videos/YouTube Channel.) The city also uses Facebook Live to stream meetings and reach a social media audience.

Citizen engagement is very important to the city.  Besides extensive coverage of government meetings, it covers candidate forums, ensuring that residents can be well informed about who is running for office. Recently, it covered a School Board forum.

Dave Danielson in City Channel's live control room.

The City of West Allis also uses cable TV and other media to build awareness of its services and how to plug into them.  “We like to do positive pieces to publicize what the city is doing and to promote our services,” said Dave. For example, the fire department recently produced a PSA on the free smoke detectors it makes available.  “Nobody had been asking for them; they just didn’t know about it,” said Dave.  The PSA, which ran repeatedly on cable TV, Facebook, and on its YouTube page really boosted awareness.  “The fire department was really pleased with the outcome,” said Dave.  

Dave often works with city departments. Sometimes the resulting videos are for public consumption but other times not.  For example, Dave recently worked with the fire department to put together a video for schoolchildren on how to keep safe featuring the Survive Alive House.  Dave also produced a presentation with the police department on senior safety, which included material on Covid, scams, how to be safe, and falling in the home.  Normally, this material would have been presented in-person at the senior center. 

Programs featured on the West Allis City Channel promote what the community has to offer and encourage people to attend events.  “We promote and cover all kinds of community events,” said Dave. Parades, street festivals, car shows, the farmers market, and the annual National Night Out are just some of the events the department covers.  “I particularly like covering National Night Out. It’s a huge collaboration between the city and the non-profit community.  It’s a great way to boost community spirit.”  

“Our goal is to attract people and businesses to live and work here,” said Dave.  “So the city is always looking for ways to be a better partner to both residents and businesses.”  The communications department’s job is to make sure the community knows about the actions the city is taking and the opportunities they have to use the city’s government access channel to promote their organizations and businesses. Dave often covers groundbreakings and dedications and has featured members of the business community.  Before the pandemic, the department produced a show called “Behind the BID” on the business improvement district.  One of the last shows it did in the series was called, “West Allis – We’re Open.”  The department also did a feature on the West Allis Living Streets project.  The show featured the artists and the murals that were painted last summer to beautify neighborhoods

The West Allis City Channel studio is equipped with a green screen.

The City of West Allis’s programming can also be viewed on Spectrum cable channel 14, a channel formerly occupied by WACMC, a public access channel operated by the non-profit West Allis Community Media Center.  When Wisconsin state law eliminated the dedicated fees cable companies were paying to support community television (called PEG fees) in 2011, it eliminated that station’s source of funding and it closed.  Cable operators like AT&T and Spectrum still pay a fee for the use of city streets called a video service provider fee (called a franchise fee in federal law).  Dave said, “All the video service provider fees the city receives from AT&T and Spectrum go to the communications department for communications-related purposes.  But whenever someone ‘cuts the cable,’ the pool of money the communications department depends on for funding decreases.  I’m very concerned about that.  For the last five or six years it’s been in a steady decline. I hope the funding issue gets resolved.”

“It’s important to us that people can rely on our coverage of local government and local events and we want to continue doing it far into the future,” said Dave.  “Our communications department serves a very important role in conveying our city’s core values and covering our community and we take our mission very seriously.”