WCCA TV 13 began operations in 1986. Its most current contract with the City to provide Public access services was passed as the “Agreement Between the City of Worcester and Worcester Community Cable Access, Inc.” effective January 7, 1997 and amended by “Amendment No. 1 to the Agreement for Public Access Services” on December 18, 1997.
A channel had been reserved for Public access in the “Renewal Cable Television License” granted to Greater Worcester Cablevision, Inc. on January 7, 1997 and later transferred to Charter Cable in 1998. In addition, a second channel is reserved for Public access in the franchise agreement when certain conditions of programming have been met.7 Section 6.2 (page 40) of the franchise agreement provides the purpose of the “Public Access Corporation” as well as conditions for its management.
WCCA reports directly to the City Council, the Mayor, the City Manager and the Cable Advisory Committee. All policies and procedures for the channel are established by the eleven-member Board of Directors within the parameters of the cable franchise agreement (Section 6.2) and the contract with the City. The budget for WCCA TV 13 is based on a proportional amount of the licensing fee collected by the City less “General Administrative Costs” and, more recently, a “7% Funding for License Renewal Related Expenses.”
WCCA TV 13 is housed at 415 Main Street in downtown Worcester with 10,000 square feet of space in a condominium office building.8 WCCA TV 13 pays almost $3,500 per month for shared condominium expenses such as electrical, heating, cooling and exterior maintenance.
Operating hours for the WCCA TV 13 facility are:
General Public Monday-Friday 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.
Member Hours Monday-Friday 9:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m.
Saturday 9:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.9
WCCA staff produce an average of two hours of new programming each week.10 This programming includes Soapbox, Video Jam and Community Vision. Volunteers produce an average of eighty hours of run-time programming a week and independent producers (those not using WCCA TV’s equipment) produce an average of twenty-three hours of run-time programming per week. A bulletin board is operated sporadically during the day and in the overnight hours, offering community groups an opportunity to display their messages about services or upcoming events. Imported programming includes Democracy Now, GED-TV, Army NewsWatch and Air Force News.
There are seven full-time staff, including the Executive Director, and two part-time staff (including a production facilitator and a web developer.) Over the years, WCCA TV has had almost ten thousand members and currently it has two-hundred and fifty “active” volunteers, either producing or assisting in production. An average of one-hundred and thirty people are trained each year to use the equipment and facilities, among those are sixty KidsNet/Youth Channel trainees ranging from thirteen to eighteen years old and fifty interns. Six government agencies and eleven educational institutions are served by WCCA TV 13 as well as over one hundred nonprofit organizations.
The total yearly budget for WCCA TV 13 is just over $640,000 with $35,000 being spent on average per year for capital and equipment (over a ten year period). Salaries and benefits account for fifty-seven percent of WCCA TV 13’s yearly budget while only ten percent is spent on general operations.11 The budget for WCCA TV 13 is based on the franchise fee paid by the cable operator (allocated by contract with the City) and some earned income.