“You’re watching Watertown Cable News, presented by WCA-TV.” It’s the calling card heard every Thursday night at 7pm from Watertown Cable Access studios. Lights, camera, action, it’s time to talk about the week’s top stories. The winter parking ban continues for another year. The Senior Center holds its annual health fair. The Planning Board votes to approve additional dwelling units. While these might not sound like major news stories, to those in the Watertown community, they are a crucial part of daily life. And after the news, if you want to learn more, you can catch full coverage of any meetings or events on WCA-TV’s website or broadcasting on our channels. But what if all of that access just disappeared in the blink of an eye?
Community media stations are in peril. Traditional methods of funding for Public, Educational and Government stations, aka PEG, are severely outdated. Revenue is dropping at an alarming rate, with some stations experiencing a 10-20% loss annually. And right now, there is no alternative revenue source to supplement those losses. Over the last few years, hundreds of community media stations have closed their studios, cut back on staffing, or have been forced to cease operations altogether. And WCA-TV is no exception to this reality.
As we face shortcomings from loss of revenue, we continue to meet the needs of our community. On average, WCA-TV’s staff covers five to ten meetings a week at up to four different locations. We work late nights on Fridays and Saturdays to cover high school football and senior hockey league games. During an election season, you’ll find hours of video content helping voters learn about who’s on the ballot, and WCA-TV will be among the first places to go to see the results.
In addition to capturing and broadcasting content to keep our viewers engaged, we are dedicated to giving a voice to the community. Our workshops teach residents about our equipment and studio space in order to produce content of their own – with WCA-TV staff providing guidance and support. Partnerships with other organizations allow us to offer free digital literacy workshops to seniors, free production workshops and camps for youth, and provide hands-on internships to high school students.
All these initiatives require dedication, time, and resources, and we do the best we can with what we have right now. If our situation becomes dire and we are forced to make cuts, we in turn will have to stop offering many of the services that our community leans on us for.
One solution to our revenue struggles resides in the Massachusetts House and Senate with An Act to Modernize Funding for Community Media Programming (S.41, H.91, and H.106). This bill would require streaming companies, such as Netflix and Amazon Prime Video, to pay a fee to support PEG access channels – similar to the fee cable companies pay. As more and more subscribers move away from cable in favor of streaming, the fee paid by cable companies is no longer sustainable. The only equitable solution is to charge streaming companies that are using the same public rights-of-way to reach customers in our communities. While WCA-TV and community media stations across the Commonwealth await the outcome of this legislation, we need the support of our community to keep us going.
As WCA-TV approaches its 20th anniversary, we are making a plea for donations. There is no future for community media in Watertown without your help. Our first fundraising event is taking place on December 4th from 5:00-8:00pm at our studio. If we are able to reach our goal, we will have enough funding to sustain our operations for another year. All of us at WCA-TV love what we do and have such pride in being able to serve this community day in and day out. We want to continue to be a part of Watertown’s future, not become a relic of the past.
Please support WCA-TV to keep Watertown informed, engaged, and inspired, and allow us to continue to capture every milestone and every moment that matters the most to you and your neighbors.
Donate here: https://wcatv.org/20thanniversary/
Sincerely,
Andrea Hogan, Executive Director
Christopher McKenzie, Board President
Watertown Cable Access Corporation