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........................... Nov. 16 - Nov. 29, 2001
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The College has been granted with rights to half of cable channel 26, but a blank screen is all that's airing so far.
On Oct. 9 the College received the go ahead to begin broadcasting on cable channel 26 for up to 84 hours a week. The city of Shoreline, which owns the station, has given half of the channel to Shoreline Community College and the other half to the Shoreline School District, hoping to transform the channel into an educational station through the guidance of Shoreline's two major educational institutions.
This historic addition to the College has faculty thrilled.
"It'll be great for the city," SCC Media Director Judy Yu said.
The city already airs government programs on channel 21 but has now donated, out of the goodness of their heart, half the rights of channel 26 according to Director of Community Relations for Shoreline Schools Marjorie Ledell. Though the station has many capabilities, it only reaches the Shoreline and Lake Forest Park areas, to the College.
The city maintains the right to own up to three cable stations through the franchise agreement with AT&T, but is struggling to provide content for even two stations.
Yu has suddenly found herself on the receiving end of a great deal from the city, but also with 84 hours of airtime to fill each week and nearly no material to fill it with.
"It's not easy to get 84 hours of programming a week," Yu said.
For now, channel 26 is a bare-bones project that cannot even boast a logo.
Ledell, who is Yu's counterpart for the Shoreline School District, admits the channel is only in its first phase.
"The station is very much in its inception," she said. "We only have a couple of PowerPoint programs airing right now."
Though the channel is in its infancy, Yu already has big plans for the station. She has suggested three goals for the newly acquired channel: To air student-produced programs, educational programs and to promote the college and its courses.
Yu hopes that eventually the channel will develop and be able to provide a platform from which the College can self-promote its classes and services.
"We want to let the public know what we do here at the college," Yu said. "There's a lot of things we do that people don't know about."
The channel also shows promise of being a major venue for student produced programs to be aired to the public.
"The station gives a place for our video production students to broadcast their projects," Shoreline Community College Media Services Coordinator Larry Cheng said.
Cheng, who also teaches three television production classes here, hopes to play a strong role in the future at giving students a chance of having their work displayed via channel 26.
"I see it as a good condor of bringing information to students and to help promote the SCC community," Cheng said.
Yu has outlined a tentative list of faculty to head the production of channel 26, including Lupe Reyes, Chris Fisher, Jane Winslow, Larry Cheng, Sylvia Orr, and Dwight Edwards. These members will be overseeing the development of the channel and be the driving force that develops the use policies in conjunction with the Shoreline School District and the city of Shoreline.
In an email to the production team, Yu suggested a few preliminary ideas for what to air on the station: The Faces of Shoreline Dialogues, 911-Campus Discussion, overview tape of the Pre-employment Training program, and the King County Truancy video.
Though faculty and students are just beginning to learn about the existence of channel 26, the ideas are flowing in.
"It could be pretty cool," Student Body President Timothy Turner said. "It could be a (good) avenue to have a televised news media here at the college."
With the addition of channel 26, the College and the Shoreline School District are working on a system that will operate the station smoothly and set a standard for what is allowed to be aired.
"They're working hard on an agreement on how to run the channel and develop a policy and distribution of use," said Susan Will, Communications Specialist for Shoreline City.
For now, Yu is in the process of forming a committee that will screen submissions to the station.
Because the College is pressed for space on campus, the Shoreline Community College television studio has been moved to the Shoreline Center where the hardware for channel 26 is also stored, which consists of a few VCRs and a computer. However, Cheng assures students that much of the equipment for creating videos is still available on campus.
Both Cheng and Yu are eagerly accepting material for channel 26, and are even considering submissions for the channel 26 logo.
"Faculty and students are welcome to give suggestions," Cheng said.
One idea that has been tossed around recently is the possibility of installing a high-quality projector in the PUB that would broadcast channel 26 for the student audience.
"Installing a projector is a very good idea," Cheng said. "It would promote the channel and broadcast a channel students are interested in."
Though both Yu and Cheng like the idea, but they acknowledge that a projector would be an expensive investment. Cheng has estimated a "ballpark cost" of $12,000-$13,000.
Another barrier to the idea is the limited study area on campus due to library construction.
"It probably isn't going to happen this year because we need to preserve student study areas," Director of Student Programs Jonathan Brown said.
However, Brown suggests that the technology fund provided by student tuition could cover the costs of a high-quality projector system if installed in the future.
Shoreline Community College can now boasts its own TV station with pride, even if the content is a blank screen -- so far. Yu has high hopes for the College, however, now that it's integrated itself into the world of the media.
"My goal is to get an Emmy," she said.
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| by Chris Collins | |
In addition to Yu's suggestions and student-produced videos, the many speakers who have been videotaped on campus in the past could be televised on channel 26, and the repertoire of school club videos could be used for the station as well, according to Cheng.
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