The Star Press of Muncie published an editorial yesterday thoroughly praising Richmond's Whitewater Community Television station (WCTV), and noting that it should serve as a great model for Muncie's own efforts at improving public access programming and use of media in general.  Larry Riley, who teaches at Ball State, gushed:

What has taken center stage the past year in Muncie, government meetings, WCTV offers in astonishing quantity: the Richmond Board of Works meetings, sanitary district board, parks and recreation board, Wayne County Council, Richmond City Council, the local plan commission, Richmond Human Rights Commission meetings. Both live and rebroadcast later.  I'm in awe.

The editorial was enough to make someone at the local Palladium-Item take notice, and they published their own praise today that echoes those sentiments:

We have noted in this space on past occasions that it is all too common a trait for people to take for granted that which they have in their backyard. All too often, it takes others to explain our assets...it is our public access television, Whitewater Community Television, that serves such a fine public-interest informational role, virtually without fanfare.

Congratulations to John Oak Dalton (past interview guest in episode #18 of the RNR) and the entire staff of WCTV for the recognition, and more importantly, for all that they do that is never fully appreciated.

In this episode: for everything there is a season, and it's about time one rolled around for an RNR podcast episode. We'll talk about changes in the air, changes in local media, and more. Read more below for links from this episode. Enjoy!

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A follow-up on a previous story covered by the RNR: in March we interviewed WCTV station director John Dalton and talked with him about the problems with the station's live broadcasts of events around town - poor quality signal and eventually no signal at all. Because WCTV depends on infrastructure managed by Insight Communications to air these live broadcasts, the station has been optimistic in working with the company to see that the issues are addressed. But in a message to WCTV viewers today, Dalton indicated that Insight has been dragging their feet in making the needed repairs, and as a result, the station won't be able to broadcast Richmond High School, Indiana University East, Earlham College and Ivy Tech graduations ceremonies.

"On March 1, we were told by Insight techs that the live system was no longer usable because of changes in Insight’s network. In layperson’s terms, the growth of Insight’s telephony service has more or less crowded out our capacity for live broadcasts...On April 16 we were able to return to live broadcasts from the City and County Buildings courtesy of a new fiber run by Insight. However, we have yet to learn from Insight their intentions for repairing the rest of the system. I was told by Insight that they would have a timeline in place for me to present at the April 2 City Council meeting, but that timeline has yet to appear...As I have no further information from Insight, I feel as if I have no choice but to announce that these live broadcasts will not go forward this year."

In this episode: we bow before the power of letterhead to throw a community into a fervor. Plus, we talk to public access television guru John Dalton about WCTV and the future of media in Richmond, and announce our new iPod Nano giveaway. Read more below for links from this episode. Enjoy!

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