The Ripon Channel: "It's all about the people."

Ripon is a small city of 8,000 located about twenty miles southwest of Oshkosh in the eastern part of the state.  It is best known as the birthplace of the Republican Party at the Little White Schoolhouse in 1854 and as the site of Ripon College, a well-respected private college founded in 1851.  It is also home to the Ripon Channel, a local public, education, and government (PEG) access channel that epitomizes what community media does best:  fosters collaborations, opens local government decision making, provides job training opportunities, and builds community identity and pride.

In 2001, Riley Icenogle happened to see an ad in the Ripon Commonwealth Press for a part-time manager of the local PEG cable access channel.  He had moved to Ripon with his family for a new job not long before.  Icenogle was interested in taking on a second job for a little extra money.  As a musician with a background in technology, the position held strong appeal. 

Looking back on his more than twenty years with the station, Icenogle said, “I’ve never felt like leaving.  I liked the job from the very beginning, and I still do.” While the station’s coverage of sports and music garners a lot of attention, Icenogle is most motivated by the coverage of government.  “It’s important that we help provide a level of government transparency to residents.  The city knows that it’s not legally required to provide video coverage of meetings.  All we really have to do is put up a meeting notice and take minutes.  But ever since the city was given the opportunity to offer video coverage, it has done it.”  And even though Icenogle decided to retire from his full-time job a couple of years ago, he has not given any thought to retiring from the Ripon Channel. 

Local government support

The Ripon Channel is overseen by the Ripon Community Media Advisory Committee, which meets every other month.  The committee is composed of the Ripon Public Library director, Desiree Bongers; a Ripon College representative, Maddie Koster; a Ripon Common Council member, Jolene Schatzinger; a Ripon Area School District representative, IT Director Travis Liptow; and at-large committee Chair, Jason Mansmith.  Another at-large seat is currently vacant.  The committee is an important sounding board providing operational guidance and oversight.

Beneficial collaborations with the local press, business, college, and school district are made possible by a city government that has always been actively supportive.  “We have been lucky to have had very helpful city administrators,” said Icenogle.  During his tenure, Icenogle has worked with three city administrators: Steve Barg, Lori Rich, and now Adam Sonntag, who took over in 2021.  “Besides being supportive Adam is also very forward-looking,” noted Icenogle. 

 For years, the City of Ripon always dedicated the entire cable franchise fee [called a video service provider fee in state law] to the Ripon Channel, but a budget shortfall twelve years ago necessitated cuts across the board.  Since then, the station has been receiving three-quarters of the fee.  This is enough to support three part-time staffers and equipment upgrades now and then, but not enough to hire someone on full-time.

Two cable channels and one YouTube channel

 Two PEG channels are provided by Charter Spectrum.  Both carry the city’s programming in standard definition even though all programs are produced in high-quality HD.  A Castus server purchased two years ago handles the station’s program storage and scheduling.  The program signal is output to a Black Magic Converter Box that converts the HD-SDI (serial digital interface) signal to an analog composite signal that is then sent over fiber to Charter Spectrum.  Icenogle reports that reliability has generally been good, although at the time of this interview, he was dealing with “terrible” audio issues on one of the channels. 

While government coverage is the single most important thing the Ripon Channel does, its most popular is sports coverage.  Icenogle said, “Having a YouTube channel has enabled us for the first time to see viewership statistics and I can tell you that sports generate the biggest audiences.”  That said, Icenogle can also tell when a big issue comes before a council or committee meeting.  “Viewership can rocket,” said Icenogle.  Recently one board saw its numbers go from the 40’s to more than 400 views. 

The Ripon Channel covers a wide range of government meetings, including the Ripon Common Council (twice a month), the Ripon Area Fire District Board (a multi-jurisdictional body), the Historic Preservation Commission, the Plan Commission, the Library Board, the Police Commission, the Board of Zoning Appeals, the Park and Recreation Committee, and the Board of Education. Permanent production equipment is set up in a city hall studio that controls two city hall meeting rooms.  Four PTZ cameras cover the action in the main meeting room and a pair of Sony BRC 300 series cameras with SDI cards are operated remotely with an RM-BR300 controller in a smaller board room.   Meetings are played on the Government Channel, channel 986, and people can also watch the meetings on its “Ripon Channel” YouTube channel.  Ripon Channel also collaborates with the League of Women Voters of the Ripon Area for candidate forums and informational programs.

The city’s second channel, channel 987, is called the Ripon Sports Channel.  “Sports coverage has high entertainment value.  People love cheering on our hometown teams,” said Icenogle.  “It doesn’t matter if they’re good or bad.”  The station covers high school football and basketball, wrestling, volleyball, and soccer as well as college sports. 

Remote multi-camera coverage

The Ripon Channel can cover events anywhere with its four-camera remote production system that uses a Black Magic Design Studio and a recently upgraded audio set-up.   This capability has allowed the station to cover special events anywhere, including local venues like the Thrasher Opera House and The Heist.  “During the pandemic when everything was shuttered, we took our multiple-camera production system to these venues and did livestreams of concerts.  It was really gratifying to bring live music to people when they couldn’t leave their homes.” 

The remote equipment also enables the Ripon Channel to showcase Ripon College activities, particularly sports.  “Our coverage has helped maintain a friendly relationship between the town and the school, and I know they are happy we are here to help,” said Icenogle.  For football and basketball games, the Ripon Channel provides the production crew and remote broadcast equipment, and college students serve as the announcers.   All games are livestreamed and later replayed on the Ripon Channel’s sports channel and the YouTube “Ripon Channel.”

Since it upgraded its performance hall, Ripon College has been recording its own music concerts, including the symphony as well as the jazz and symphonic wind ensembles, but it turns to the Ripon Channel to edit the performances for play on cable and YouTube.  The Ripon Channel continues to cover other college events, such as those organized by Ripon College’s Center for Politics and the People, which spotlights high-profile social, cultural, and political issues.

The Ripon Channel covers music performances for the public schools, too.  You’ll see production teams at the high school covering both high school and middle school concerts and at Murray Park Elementary, which includes several concerts every year.

Collaborations with local commercial media

The Ripon Channel collaborates with local commercial media to enhance coverage of local events and to make a little money and raise its profile.  An arrangement with the local weekly newspaper, the Ripon Commonwealth Press, allows the newspaper to use stills from the channel’s videos as long as it credits the Ripon Channel.  A live sports collaboration with the local radio station, Hometown Broadcasting on WRPN-AM, gives the radio station permission to air the audio of live high school game coverage and in return the Ripon Channel receives part of the ad revenue the radio station generates from game coverage.  Icenogle noted, “The extra money helps.”

Providing professional development opportunities

Icenogle generally works twenty hours a week.  He likes having two people on staff to meet the demands of the production schedule.  “The work is a great challenge and a good opportunity if you’re interested in media production.  I have had the good fortune to have had a string of good people here,” said Icenogle.  When he started, Dan Golz was an assistant at the station, and he went on to independently create The Weekend Sportsman that was aired on television broadcast affiliates.  Golz also created, produced, wrote, edited, and distributed Larry Smith Outdoors, a popular fishing show.  Another part-timer, Kenton Barber, was “great,” according to Icenogle.  He started working at the Ripon Channel when he was in 8th grade and has gone on to become an independent steadicam operator in the sports field, covering the NFL, Big Ten football, major airshows, NASCAR, the Tokyo Olympics, and winning an Emmy for the 2022 Super Bowl Pregame show.  David Bennett started out as an intern and was later hired directly.   “David was very reliable and a tremendous help. I couldn’t have asked for a better colleague,” said Icenogle.  Now he is the Communications and Multimedia Coordinator for the City of Columbus.  Another intern, Amanda Finn, went on to become a theater and lifestyle editor in Chicago.  Until last spring, Icenogle had been working with “two good guys with a lot of aptitude for video.”  Both responded to ads Icenogle posted and both left to take on new challenges in the field.  Chris Jones is now doing independent videos and Cole Grygny is a sound technician for bands.  

When Jones and Grygny left, Icenogle was on his own for several months until Patrick Cronin, a local resident, came on the scene.  Cronin then got his son, James, a junior in high school, interested in joining him.  The trio now handles all the production work for the media center.

Contributing to a sense of community

Icenogle noted that when the production team goes to high school away games, they attract a lot of notice.  “When we were setting up in Port Washington for a football game, a guy came up to us and was amazed we had so much production equipment.  He had no idea cities covered high school sports like this.  When they find out what we do, they are surprised that we have such an active channel.” 

“I think what we do has a positive effect on our community,” said Icenogle.  It brings us together.  I’m also proud of all the people who have come through the station and have gone on to bigger and better jobs in the media industry.  After all, it’s all about the people, isn’t it?”

Milwaukee City Channel is happy to deliver government transparency

The City of Milwaukee is Wisconsin’s largest city by far.  Its population of 570,000 easily outstrips Madison, the next largest city in the state at 270,000.  One might imagine that the video service team tasked with covering a big city government would reflect its size.  But you’d be wrong.  Milwaukee City Channel has a dedicated, creative, and hard-working staff of four. Paul Karczewski, City Channel Manager, who is tasked with being the buffer between requests and work assignments says, “We try to satisfy everyone’s needs, but we can’t always do that.”  But quickly, as if to voice the can-do attitude of City Channel staff, Tom Loppnow, Television Production Specialist, adds, “But we always do our best to find a way.”

The mission of City Channel is to cover government meetings, promote and cover city events, and serve the needs of city departments and the fifteen alders and mayor who govern the city. 

Meeting coverage

The standard workload for City Channel 25 includes covering 23 committees, commissions, councils, and boards that range from the Common Council to the Fire and Police Commission, to the Board of Zoning Appeals.  “We promise pure raw information as far as meetings go,” said Loppnow.  “What you see is what you get.  People think media has bias.  We don’t editorialize.  It’s 100% unedited.  What happens inside the room is what you see.  I think this is the biggest service we provide to anybody.”  Karczewski continued, “We give the community a way to see how government works whether or not they can come down to the building.  They can see how the budget process works.  They can find out about an issue.  The public can come here and speak.”  Loppnow added, “Sometimes a friend will comment on something that’s happening at the city.  They’ll have seen a misleading headline and I just tell them, ‘Go watch it.  Watch the meeting.  That’s not what happened.’  I think carrying meetings from beginning to end with no editing is the biggest and most important thing we do here.”

Technical advancements have made coverage more efficient.  In the early days, cameras were manned, equipment had to be moved around to meeting rooms, and it took more time and a much larger production crew. During that period, City Channel operated with a staff of seven and covered twelve committees.  Today, fiber optic connections link meeting rooms, which are equipped with robotic cameras and microphone systems, to a director’s control room that is configured to send out a live signal to both a livestream channel and cable TV. 

Everything was working just fine until the pandemic threw City Channel a curve ball:  how would they cover meetings with both in-person and online participation at the same time?  City Clerk Jim Owczarski knew it would be extremely important to maintain government transparency.  Karczewski said, “The City Clerk came to us and said, ‘you need to figure this out to keep city business going.’  We had a limited time to get things rolling and remain transparent.  We worked really hard to keep things running on time without skipping a beat and staying on air.  It took a lot of planning and trial and error, but we did it and I’m really proud of how we met that challenge.”  Manifesting that can-do attitude, in a matter of days the team figured out how to integrate online meeting platforms.  Rooms were redesigned, audio systems were improved, systems were upgraded, and officials were trained.  Go To Meeting was chosen as the main platform, but to this day, City Channel will help committees that want to use Zoom or Teams.  “Some software platforms do better at some things than others.  For example, Zoom offers bilingual features. So, we’re knowledgeable about all of them,” said Karczewski. 

City Channel is finding that more and more people are starting to come back to City Hall for meetings.  “It’s easier to participate here in the room,” said Karczewski.  “And sometimes there can be a glitch now and again with hybrid coverage.  But we will never go back to the way it was before.”

Before the pandemic, committees needed to assemble a quorum in the building in order to conduct business.  On one occasion a committee had to bring people in at 10 pm to address an important motion.  That is no longer the case.  But the ease with which committees can now call a meeting means that City Channel has to be ready at the drop of a hat to make it work.  “Special meetings can pop up at any time.  Sometimes it means using a room not normally used for meetings and making it work as a hybrid location.  We just find ways to adapt, make it work, and then make it even better,” said Loppnow.

Staff background 

City Channel Manager Paul Karczewski

Karczewski has been working in the television field since the early 1990’s.  When he applied to the City of Milwaukee 20 years ago, he had been traveling a lot for his job and was tired of it.  He was interested in politics and he liked the idea of giving back to the community – and of course working in video production.  Tom Loppnow began as a part-time employee in 2008. “At that time, I had my own video production business,” said Loppnow, “but the hours were long.  I had gotten tired of that, and I wanted something more stable with weekends off.”  When a fellow staffer became ill, his hours were increased and when a full-time position became available, he got the job.  Tom was ready to take the leap.  “A standard 8 – 5 day was really attractive to me.  Of course, that’s not the case anymore!  We often work evenings and sometimes weekends.” 

Serving city officials 

City Channel thinks of the mayor and all fifteen alders as their bosses and tries to please all of them, keeping in mind the mission of the station that enables Karczewski to put boundaries on what they will do. “We are a city service, covering city services and city-sponsored events,” he said.  Sometimes alders will sponsor an event that is not strictly a city event.  It might be a neighborhood event or a town hall meeting.  If they ask for help, City Channel will promote the event with a short PSA or do a promo graphic to run between shows on the channel or help them get a livestream set up on their personal Facebook page, but they won’t cover the event. 

Girls Day at Milwaukee City Hall

City-sponsored events reflect the diversity of its residents whose roots can be traced to all over the world – Europe, the Caribbean, Mexico, Central America, Africa and Southeast Asia.  On March 31, the city sponsored the annual Cesar Chavez Day, which celebrates the life of this Mexican-American man born in Arizona who fought for the rights of migrant workers.  On March 23, City Channel covered the 13th annual Girls’ Day, which takes place at City Hall and inspires girls to consider careers.  For the event, City Channel produced short features on notable Milwaukee women that were played that day and later carried on the city’s channels.  In August, City Channel will cover Hip Hop Week. 

Serving city departments 

Milwaukee City Channel also serves the needs of city departments.  Sometimes it might just be taking a press release and turning it into a graphical notice for play during breaks between programs on the City’s cable and livestream channels.  Sometimes a short video is the best way to get the information across.  Staff has produced features on winter parking, recycling, and even how salt brine is made.  “We try to leave 15 minutes between programs so we can get in these bits of information that we want to share with residents,” said Karczewski.  City Channel imports very little programming from outside sources.  “It has to be related to the city,” said Karczewski.  “We really take a fine-tooth comb to any show that comes to us.  It has to have high production values, too.” 

How audiences watch 

Most Milwaukee City Channel viewers watch its programming and meeting coverage on-demand.  People can pick the best time to view what they want to watch, and they can see it in full high-definition (HD).  Using the Granicus system, viewers can go directly to a meeting agenda item they are interested in watching.  Milwaukee City Channel offers Live Stream I and Live Stream II.  Live Stream I is the same feed as Charter Spectrum channel 25 and AT&T Channel 99.  It carries Common Council meetings, major committee meetings, and some event coverage.  Live Stream II carries more committee meetings and public court trials.  The livestreamed channels and archived meetings are online at  https://city.milwaukee.gov/cityclerk/CityChannel.

Still, a large portion of its audience prefers to watch local government coverage on cable TV.  “Some people are just not well-versed in how to get to our livestream or use the Granicus system,” said Loppnow.  “And a lot of constituents don’t have the internet.  One woman calls us at least every other week, asking how to access certain meetings.  She just can’t get it.  She is otherwise very intuitive and very active, but she just doesn’t understand computers.” 

State Law and video service providers in Milwaukee

Cable and telephone companies offering video service are called video service providers (VSPs) in Wisconsin law.  They are required to transmit the local PEG (Public, Education and Government) channels, but they can do it using any method they want to.   Charter Spectrum, which took over the Time Warner system in 2016, carries the PEG channels in SD – the kind of resolution whose hay day ended in the early 2000’s.   AT&T has always met this requirement in a unique way, providing U-Verse subscribers with a website menu of PEG access channel choices on channel 99.  Click a selection and a channel will pop up as a very low resolution 320 x 240p videostream. (By comparison, YouTube videos are commonly viewed at 1280 x 720p or higher.)  Several years ago, AT&T stopped promoting U-Verse and instead began offering customers DIRECTV.  In 2021, AT&T established a separate company for U-Verse and DIRECTV.  With the future of U-Verse in question, so is the presence of PEG channels over AT&T’s system.

Milwaukee City Channel began operating in 1984 when the City of Milwaukee signed the first cable television agreement with Time Warner.  City Channel 25 was one of three PEG access channels set aside for the city’s use.  Two other channels, educational access channel 14 and public access channel 96, were both ultimately managed by MATA Community Media, a non-profit.  Like most PEG operations at the time, both MATA and City Channel received funding from Time Warner to pay for equipment and provide a revenue stream for a good-sized operating budget.  When a second fifteen-year agreement was negotiated in the late 1990’s, a lump sum dedicated to PEG was once again negotiated as part of the agreement. That funding would be the last either of the PEG facilities would receive.  During the 2007 Wisconsin legislative session, a law was passed that revoked the cable franchises that had been negotiated at the local level and created a state licensing system.   PEG funding was sunset in 2011.  But with Time Warner’s lump sum in the hands of the two Milwaukee PEG stations, both were able to draw on this revenue for several years beyond 2011.   MATA finally closed its doors at the end of 2017.  The two channels once reserved for public and educational uses went dark.  City Channel now had to rely entirely on the city’s general fund for its budget and had to downsize. 

Modernization and making a difference

The loss of PEG funding did not deter the city from going forward with the modernization of City Channel’s production and distribution facilities.  In 2016 and 2017, under the direction of Dennis Geraghty, City Channel’s first director, the station converted to an all-digital HD facility. In 2020, it underwent another upgrade in order to make hybrid meetings possible.  The improvements City Channel has made in recent years means it is operating out of a first-rate facility and has the tools it needs to serve the city efficiently.  It’s also nimble enough to adapt to meet a wide array of needs posed by elected officials, city staff, and city committees.  City Channel is well aware of how quickly the technological landscape can change.  “Technical changes are always happening,” said Loppnow.  “You have to keep up with them.  A few years from now people might be asking, ‘what is this cable that you speak of?’”

Loppnow and Karczewski emphasized that Milwaukee City Channel’s prime mission is government transparency.  “Once you experience transparency,” said Loppnow, “you can’t go back.  People will ask, ‘why are you not broadcasting those meetings anymore?  What are you hiding?’”  Over the last nearly 40 years, Milwaukee City Channel has become indispensable to this community of 570,000.  Last year Milwaukee City Channel logged a total of 700 “premiere” broadcast hours. 

“We get a lot of praise from the community, alders, and upper management,” said Karczewski.  “That means a lot to us.  We know people recognize that Milwaukee City Channel is an important part of city government and it’s another reason why we stay here. We have a lot to do for four people, but we manage to make it work.  We like what we do and we’re happy to do it.”