Goal: To create "must see TV" to connect residents to their government and community

Wisconsin Rapids Community Media (WRCM) is an integral part of the City of Wisconsin Rapids.  Ever since its first show was cablecast on Jones Intercable in 1986, it has been serving an important role in local democracy.  The media center has gone through a few name changes along the way, but it has always been known to residents as the “public access channel.”

A new team has been leading WRCM since 2020.  "We want to create 'must-see TV' for the community, and for the state of Wisconsin,” said Joe Bachman, Multimedia Director and manager of WRCM. “I feel that this station can pump out a quality product that will not only engage the viewer, but also connect them to their own community. We want to rival any other major cable network you'd find on television." 

The focus of the department has not changed since the beginning.  Today WRCM is a division within the Information and Technology Department of the City of Wisconsin Rapids. Two full-time multimedia staff manage WRCM as an open media resource for the community.  Local residents learn the craft of television production and produce their own multimedia projects.  Together with city-produced programming, residents can view it all on Solarus and Spectrum cable as well as on several online platforms. WRCM covers city government, local news, and non-profit organizations.  They also provide a rare opportunity for local entertainment

The station first known as Public Access Channel 4 (PAC 4) started out in a tiny room in McMillan Memorial Library with a couple of cameras, VHS tape decks, reels, and tube TVs. A small wooden box held the transmission equipment that connected the station to the cable operator.  Jones Intercable carried the programs produced on cable channel 4.

The station operated on a very small budget provided by the city using cable TV franchise fees, but that didn’t stop them from carrying lots of sports coverage.  The station covered lots of games live including Mid-State basketball, high school football and wrestling, and state waterski tournaments on Lake Wazeecha.  In the tradition of C-Span, city meetings at City Hall were also televised live, gavel-to-gavel.  

The station hit its stride in the late 90’s and early 2000’s, becoming a very popular community hub.  It had outgrown its space at the library.  In 2003, the city council voted to increase the cable TV franchise fee from 2.5% to the federal allowable limit of 5% to move the station into a bigger space available at the newly completed Centralia Center, which was also housing agencies serving seniors and adults with disabilities.  The new space included a waiting room, studio, and editing suites.  The station is still based there.  Coordinator Jim Walsh was key to the station’s early success, promoting it with a lot of outreach and making it a welcoming place.  Just before the move, to signal its new broader mission to serve not only the city, but all the communities around Wisconsin Rapids, Walsh and the City Cable Commission changed the name of the station from PAC 4 to River Cities Community Access (RCCA).  During Walsh’s tenure, the station grew from a few programs created by volunteers, community producers, staff, and interns to several dozen.  Walsh even had his own live daily show called River Cities Today.

Now fast forward to 2015.  The station rebrands itself as Wisconsin Rapids Community Media (WRCM) to reflect the changes in the industry. Under the direction of Tom Loucks, multimedia coordinator from 2011 to 2019, the station is now a “media center” expanding its distribution platforms to include online apps and social media.   The most exciting highlight was getting high-definition (HD) carriage from Solarus.  Solarus, which had formerly been known as the Wood County Telephone Company, had begun offering cable service in 2004.  It was already proving it wanted to serve the media needs of the community by carrying WRCM on easy-to-find channel 3.  Now it was offering to upgrade its carriage of the PEG channel to HD when precious few other companies were doing it.  Tom Loucks remembers, “We had an opportunity to go HD on Solarus Channel 3 and I didn’t want to miss the opportunity, so we made the move to purchase a new HD playback system and workflow.   Solarus provided the channel space, encoder and tech work at no charge to the city, which we’re so grateful for.”  

Solarus is still one of only a few cable systems in the state that offers HD to still just a handful of public access channels.  By way of contrast, in 2008, Charter Communications (now Spectrum) pushed Wisconsin Rapids’ public access channel off channel 4, its long-time and easy-to-find location, and put it on analog channel 98 and digital channel 985.  WRCM had to scramble to promote the new hard-to-find Charter locations to its audiences.

The team in charge now, Joe Bachman and Kevin Bargender, both started at WRCM in 2019.  They each had to learn what Public, Education, Government (PEG) TV was all about.  It was their first encounter.  "You quickly find out how vital a resource PEG television is for our community,” said Joe.  “The very cornerstones that make Wisconsin Rapids great are featured on our station daily."

Joe Bachman

Joe took over as multimedia coordinator in 2020.  He had previously worked for many years as an editor for several news publications in the area.  He found his background covering important stories in the community to be a plus.  “My experience was highly transferable to my career in PEG media and as a city employee,” said Joe.  “I’m a lifelong writer and creator and being able to serve the community in this new way is a perfect and natural fit.”  Along with Kevin, who is the multimedia specialist, the team is leading the way into the future.  “My ultimate goal is to lead the station beyond what "public access television" is historically defined as. This includes the potential for podcasts, and investigative series.”

Over the years, many things have changed – the location, the name, and the technology used – but not the mission.  Today Joe and Kevin manage more than cable TV channels.  Programs are carried on Solarus Channel 3 (HD), Spectrum Channel 985 (SD), and an HD ROKU channel. They are also streamed on the city’s site, www.wr-cm.org, Facebook and YouTube. The team’s responsibilities have expanded to include city website maintenance and social media outreach.

The media center continues to serve the broader community by providing a local media resource to city residents as well as to those living in the surrounding communities.  Currently, the station has around a dozen volunteers and over 20 community producers who film church services, concerts, studio programs and more.  The staff provides gavel-to-gavel meeting coverage for the City of Wisconsin Rapids City Council and most other city committee and commission meetings, Wisconsin Rapids Public Schools School Board and the Wood County Board.  WRCM also plays meeting submissions from Nekoosa, Port Edwards, Grand Rapids, Mid-State Technical College and the Town of Rome. 

The excitement around the media center these days is the new podcast set up.  Joe and Kevin are making preparations to use it for the first time. They purchased a new backdrop for in-studio shows that will be used for both video and podcasts, and they have new podcast-quality microphones. "Podcasts have been a popular medium for some time now, and we wanted to get away from the cliché 'public access' look,” said Joe. “Updating our backdrop and moving to a podcast-like setup not only keeps us relevant, but heightens the fluidity of the conversation, as well as broadens the topics we can cover."

In 2022, Joe plans to add new cameras to the council chambers for city meetings, continue to upgrade the studio with new video equipment, and potentially start a bi-weekly news show. Sports coverage, long a reliable staple on the channel, is going to get beefed up.   "We have a working relationship with Lincoln High School A/V Club to offer more sports than ever,” said Joe.  The media center will continue doing a business series with the President of the local Chamber of Commerce and, according to Joe, there is “much more in the works."  For starters, Kevin is starting a new program called Humane Society Spotlight and a program called Community Connections that will help inform the community about local businesses and organizations.  Kevin said, “I’m excited to work with new and existing businesses and organizations in Wisconsin Rapids to highlight them and to inform the public about what each of them does for the community.” 

The team has a goal.  According to data released to them by Solarus, WRCM is among the top 50 to 70 programs in terms of viewership out of 600 channels.  “That’s pretty good,” said Joe.  But you get the feeling they’re itching to move up.

New director at Rice Lake Community Media builds on 40 years of service

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.”