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.

Wisconsin Broadcasters Association recognizes excellence at Sun Prairie's “The Sun” Community Radio

The Wisconsin Broadcasters Association has recognized Sun Prairie’s 103.5 FM The Sun Community Radio station with four broadcasting awards, including the heavily coveted Station of the Year trophy.

Entering in the Large Market Radio category specializing in a music format, this was the first year that 103.5 FM (WLSP-LP) won for Station of the Year.

“This was completely unexpected, but of course completely deserved,” joked Sun Prairie Media Center director Jeff Robbins. “I think that what we have to offer on 103.5 FM, with community-produced programming, high school sports coverage, and loads of news and information specifically tailored to Sun Prairie residents, is something really unique and special. We thank the WBA for acknowledging that with this award. And of course I want to thank all of our wonderful producers, our staff, our Media Center Commission, our Friends group, and our elected officials for all of their support. We couldn’t do what we do without everyone pitching in.”

Besides the Station of the Year award (which The Sun shared in a tie with WLUM-FM out of Milwaukee), Greg Bump won Best Radio Show for “Greg’s List,” Dan Presser won Best Newscast for “Sun Prairie News,” and Sara Milewski and Sandy Xiong won Best Significant Community Impact Programming for their “Multicultural Fair Radio Reboot.”

 Also recognized were Mark Gonwa’s “Song Archaeology,” which took second place in “Best Radio Show,” Christine Bright’s “Parenting Game,” which took third place in “Best Specialty Programming,” and 103.5 FM’s coverage of last year’s WIAA Division 1 Championship Football Game between Sun Prairie and Franklin, which finished third in “Best Sports Coverage.” Calling that game were Mike Powers, Jamison Rabbitt, and Bill Baker.

 SPMC director Jeff Robbins clarified one additional point about the WBA awards: “Our TV stations are not considered broadcast because cable is the main means of distributing them. So we don’t enter in the television side of the WBA awards. But our radio station is considered broadcast, so we are eligible in WBA’s radio categories.”

Want to be part of this award-winning team? The Sun Prairie Media Center is currently looking for radio and podcast producers to take advantage of its awesome studio facilities and excellent staff. Anyone interested should call 608-837-4193, email 103.5 FM Production Manager Colin Lessig at clessig@cityofsunprairie.com, or check out sunprairiemediacenter.com, where program ideas can be submitted directly to SPMC staff.

Episodes of 103.5 FM’s award-winning programs can be accessed for on-demand listening by downloading the Sun Prairie Media Center app, available for free from the App Store or Google Play.

Stoughton WSTO starts streaming on Roku and Apple TV

Like a lot of other community media centers before it, Stoughton’s WSTO TV recently launched two Over-The-Top (OTT) channels.  Working with TelVue Corporation, WSTO TV began putting its programming on both Roku and AppleTV in early October and has plans to add FireTV, Android and iOS applications.  Derek Westby, Senior Network Administrator for the City of Stoughton said, "We're very excited about serving new audiences with these apps.  It will enable all Smart TV viewers to receive WSTO TV." 

These additional OTT viewing options have come on the heels of TDS cable television adding WSTO TV in HD.  "We are very excited about being carried in HD on TDS cable on channel 1012 (SD is on channel 12).    Westby notes that even though Charter Spectrum viewers cannot view WSTO TV in HD, they can now switch over to one of the OTT channels like Roku, to see local programming like city meetings and high school sports in HD.    "These apps also allow for video-on-demand viewing, which makes it so much easier to watch our programming and most importantly, boosts the transparency of Stoughton city government.  We will be making available the last several months-worth of meeting coverage as well as adding new shows all the time to these apps."

Many other WCM member media centers also use commercial streaming services to distribute their local programming in HD.  For example, Marshfield Broadcasting, Rice Lake Television,  Columbus Cable and Wausau Area Access Media (WAAM) are all on Roku, Apple TV, and Amazon Fire.   To find Columbus Cable and WAAM, go to the Cablecast TV Channel on these apps.  WSCS Sheboygan and Madison City Channel are on Roku and Apple TV.