"In Her Boots" relates the history of women firefighters in Madison

The Madison Fire Department and the City of Madison IT Media Team collaborated on a feature-length documentary called In Her Boots.

Madison Fire Department Public Information Officer Cynthia Schuster and IT Media Team Digital Media Specialist Jesse Pool produced this look behind the scenes and on the front lines with past and present women of the Madison Fire Department.

The film became available for on-demand streaming on the Madison Fire Department YouTube channel and on the Madison City Channel website on March 1st to kick off Women’s History Month. It had a theatrical premiere at Madison College’s Mitby Theater as part of an International Women’s Day celebration on March 8th, when it also began playing on Madison City Channel on Spectrum, AT&T U-Verse, Roku, and Apple TV.

Marshfield producers start populating their own Facebook page

Marshfield Broadcasting has debuted a Producer’s Channel Facebook Page, which is being managed by the media center’s own community producers.  Tom Loucks, Director of Media Services said, “This is part of our transition to empowering the producers to become more involved and have a special space for their work to show.” The City of Marshfield has three PEG cable access channels on the Charter Spectrum system. Cable channel 989 is the Community Channel, 991 is the City Channel, and due to high demand, 990 carries church programming. “The Community Channel schedule on channel 989 is also handled by our community producers, who can upload their programs to our server and schedule it for play on our digital playback system.”

WSCS documents the life of the Sheboygan Armory

Before the walls came down and the Sheboygan Armory became just a memory, WSCS collaborated on a project to document its history.  The Armory was one of the last “New Deal” Works Progress Administration buildings built with the labor of hundreds of area workers.  From the beginning, it was more of a municipal auditorium.  Right away it took over hosting one of the original NBA franchises, the Sheboygan Redskins.  Over the years the Armory was the site for fierce North-South high school basketball games, political rallies, graduations, parties, national guard exercises, big name musical acts, and dances.  Although the building was on the State Register of Historic Places and the National Register of Historical Places, it couldn’t be saved.  The building was deemed beyond repair.  Before it was permitted to be torn down, the State Historical Preservation Office required the city to produce a documentary about the building.  The completed program is called The Sheboygan Armory:  Part of the Community. It talks about its history and its demise.

The documentary premiered at the Stephanie Weill Center in downtown Sheboygan on January 26, 2023 and is now available to the public via the WSCS media center website. Scott Mealiff, Director of WSCS and the producer/director of the program said, “The response to the program has been very strong and overwhelmingly positive. It has quickly become one of our most viewed shows on YouTube.