WCCA TV filed an abridged version of it’s comprehensive Community Media Needs Assessment Report with the City Council, on Tuesday evening, February 26, 2013. WCCA’s Executive Director made a brief comment about the report and the petitions that were submitted by TV 13.
We share the following from his printed comment.
“To the City Council:
Thank you. We look forward to working with you, together we have the opportunity to built upon what WCCA, working with the City, has accomplished in the past 27 years.
On behalf of the people of Worcester, it’s important that you read our report to understand what WCCA is about; what our community expects from us as a community anchor institution for media democracy and creative innovation and of our role as a first platform in the pathway to learning for youth of Worcester; and
and what is at stake in this renewal.
This report is based upon community input, gathered from public forums and numerous community wide surveys. All of it involving a broad base of participants from Worcester’s communities.
They have voiced a clear need for the station’s ability to broaden it’s scope to include: more remote coverage; to expand it’s cable cast reach; to better assist non-profits with “on-location coverage”, to renovate the station’s interior studios and facade; to increase accessibility to the newest communications technology (including portable media devices); to increase training and educational services, to add jobs, and more. It’s all there in our report.
It’s important to understand how the activities and programming at WCCA TV connects, “systemically”, throughout our entire city. Channel 13 is a place where community participates in a free flow of: news and information programming; and where hands on learning, along with technology education, and media literacy, takes place, available to all.
It’s our community resource, empowering and providing valuable outreach to organizations, all who need it, and for many, who could not afford it otherwise.
WCCA’s Public Access activities span the range: from youth to seniors; wealthy to the poorest, in a multitude of ethnic voices and languages, philosophies, and life styles; hundreds of non-profits, presenting an amazing number of programs building bridges of communications between people, resources, and information.* All using their “own voice” and the visual medium, to express themselves, about what ever is important to them.^
Working together we can continue to provide these valuable services on a NON-DISCRIMINATORY basis.
No other TV station in this city has or continues to empower our people while striving to live true to our slogan, as the place where people LEARN, CREATE and CONNECT.
We sincerely hope our report and the hundreds of petitions, also submitted, are something The City Council and the City Manager will find merits support.
If you have further questions feel free to contact me at your convenience.
Thank you”
Mauro DePasquale, WCCA TV 13