Baker Joins WCM Board of Directors

Wisconsin Community Media would like to welcome Bill Baker, a long-time member producer at the Sun Prairie Media Center and member of WCM's Communications and Research committee, to the WCM Board of Directors. Baker’s nomination to the board was approved at the Board’s February meeting on February 22.

The opening on the board was created when Jeff Robbins left the Sun Prairie Media Center and took on the Interim Executive Director position at WCM. Baker will serve until May 2024 and will be eligible for re-election at that time.

Anyone at a WCM Member Station may serve on the board including: staff members, board members, or dues-paying (to the media center) volunteers and producers.

Regarding his interest in serving on the WCM board, Baker said, "I believe in community media, and I see new opportunities. As a volunteer for eight years, I've expanded awareness, testified in my municipality for local media center viability, and met with State Reps/Senators to stress its importance and seek support. I also serve as President of the Friends Group for SPMC."

Baker is on a hiatus from producing his shows at the SPMC while he runs for a city council seat in Sun Prairie. He survived the February 20 primary election and will be on the ballot for the April 2 general election.

WCM board president Jake Timm and Robbins are in discussions about the search for a permanent WCM Executive Director. Watch this newsletter or the WCM website for further developments.

Mary Cardona looks back on her storied career in community media

On the occasion of her retirement as the Executive Director of Wisconsin Community Media, Mary Cardona sat down for an in-depth interview with Jason Rimkus of Kenosha Community Media. Watch the interview here.

WCM celebrates Community Media Day at the League of Wisconsin Municipalities Conference

Tom Loucks and Mary Cardona pose with the WCM banner.

Wisconsin Community Media celebrated Community Media Day on October 20 by attending the League of Wisconsin Municipalities Annual Conference in La Crosse. WCM Executive Director Mary Cardona and Tom Loucks, Director of Communications for the City of Marshfield, who is also on the WCM Board of Directors, manned an educational kiosk at the event. 

We talked to municipal officials about the benefits of joining WCM and met with several state-wide organizations that would love to have more media attention. WCM is hoping they can work with some of our member media centers to get coverage of these community-based events. We are very excited about the programming that could be generated through these collaborations that would be relevant across the state.

We also talked about the need for legislative action to save local PEG channels on cable television systems by holding operators to a minimum standard that would require modernizing how they carry PEG channels.  We brought a split screen video demonstrating how the SD signal is very fuzzy compared to the HD signal and we provided a handout for people to take home with them on the topic.

We also had a handout on the level of cable subscriberships and how municipalities can find out how many customers a video service provider like Charter Spectrum has in their community by requesting the annual report cable companies file with the State. More than 50% of households subscribe nationally. Our final handout explained Video Service Provider (VSP) fees and how state aid makes up for the legislature’s reduction of the fees VSPs (cable companies) pay. Municipalities must ensure this state aid is always included in the biennial state budget.

Governor Tony Evers and Lieutenant Governor Mandela Barnes were a surprise last minute addition to the conference. Both spoke at the Thursday lunch. Their arrival drew a standing ovation. We caught them working the room after their remarks.