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Town Hopes To Make Better Use Of Local Channel 20
By Catherine Snipe
Every other week, the township council's regular meetings are videotaped for broadcast on municipal television channels.
But residents are complaining that more weeks go by before the meetings make the airwaves.
As a result, resident Michael Moran is leading discussions among residents and officials in hopes of improving the way Brick Township Channel 20 is delivering bulletins and broadcasting events and meetings.
"We've heard from many people the channel is underutilized," Moran said at last week's council meeting. "They feel it's not living up to its potential."
His committee will look at issues surrounding Channel 20, considered the township's public access channel.
The channel, which posts bulletins on a loop schedule, has a system where officials can immediately key in an emergency bulletin to replace the posted information, such as in the event of a snow day.
But while that type of update is instant, residents wondered why other information is out of date, especially in the case of broadcasting government meetings.
Township Administrator Scott Pezzares said a taped program involves a programmer queuing up the scheduled program - and after the schools lock up for the day, staff cannot remain in the building to instantly broadcast an evening meeting.
That's different than the emergen- cy bulletin system, he said, which is accessible to officials whether they are in the building or not, in order to immediately post information relating to the emergency.
Moran said he'd like to show how the channel can be better updated. The channel, besides broadcasting Brick board of education and municipal council meetings, also televises school plays and other productions.
He said the group's long-term goal is to never have dead air on Channel 20. But he hopes to immediately start building bridges between the public and the public access channel, he said.
The township, for several months, continues to post a poll question on its website regarding the channel, asking residents how many hours a week they watch Channel 20. Few respondents said they watched more than two hours, with 60 percent saying they never did and 22 percent watching one to two hours a week, according to the poll.
Moran is hoping the use of the channel will improve after other issues are discussed.
"We want to bring the community together and have all participate," he said. The discussions will include Comcast, the township's cable provider, along with residents and school officials.
Brick Township schools provide the platform for the channel.
The township also pays a videographer to tape its meetings. One resident wondered the value of a contract when the shows get delayed airing. She cited that although other council meetings occurred, the station had yet to broadcast previous meetings.
Moran hopes to figure out how that could change. He's inviting interested residents to email him at michael754@verizon.net.
"Right now the Committee is composed of two segments - technical and content," Moran said. "We are still early in the fact finding stage."
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