WTVP Community Broadcasting Advisory Council

Minutes of the WTVP-TV Citizens Advisory Council - October 20th, 2009 at 4pm

Present: Carole Hill, Adam Sloan, Sally Hanley, Steve Tarter, Chet Tomczyk, Linda Miller, and Mark Lasswell.

Chet Tomczyk noted that the Ken Burns special of U.S. national parks has drawn the most attention on public TV of late. He added that a locally-produced special on the history of Academy of Our Lady/Spaulding Institute was scheduled to air on Nov. 30. "We hope we have DVDs of that show available for holiday gifts," said Tomczyk.

WTVP's manager said the recession was having its impact on the station's ability to raise money. "Contributions are dropping. The economy is definitely having an effect," he said. Tomczyk said that the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, due to convene a meeting soon in Baltimore, needs to be cognizant of the fact that "time are tough" and affiliates can't readily meet demands for higher program costs.

Linda Miller reported that Western Illinois University has picked up the public TV station once based at Blackhawk Community College. She cited that community surveys received by the station indicate chief concerns are the loss of manufacturing in the area, education problems--particularly at Peoria District 150, pollution and crime.

Miller noted that community surveys are now available online at the WTVP Web site along with information and applications on the community broadcasting advisory council. Adam Sloan restated the need to find new members in order to be more effective as a committee.

IT director Mark Lasswell pointed out that the program schedule gets the most activity on the station's Web site, www.wtvp.org with the headline section drawing the second largest number of hits. Lasswell demonstrated the station Web site for the advisory board, pointing out the information on the flu that was available to the community.

In discussing the dissemination of information about programming, Miller said that WTVP prints up 5,000 copies of its monthly program guide. In a programming note, she added that "New Yankee Workshop," a program described as a Channel 47 staple, was going off the air in December after 21 years.

A video now being shown to businesses about what WTVP has to offer was shown to the council. The video points out the benefits provided by the public TV outlet for businesses that need video work done.

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