Spotlight: Brookdale Television – JAG’s Own Wonder Woman

by Geoffrey Belinfante, External Relations Committee, Chair


Lauren Concar Sheehy has been a JAG member for many years.  In fact, many moons ago, Lauren interned at Cablevision and has fond memories working with Dave Garb and the crew.  These days, she is a video production specialist at Brookdale Television with responsibility for the TV facilities at Brookdale Community College, along with Jennifer Yannibelli and Sergey Kornienko.  For well over two decades, the team has been producing, directing and editing television shows, providing real world experience to their students.

Spotlight: Middletown Township Builds TV Studio in New Town Hall

by Tara Berson and Raven Rentas, Township of Middletown



Home to 68,000 residents, Middletown Township is one of the largest municipalities in New Jersey. Due to the size of our community and diverse age ranges, interests, and neighborhoods, it is important for the Township to offer various ways for residents to access information. One of those communications tools has been our municipal TV channel which has changed over the years, particularly with the addition of our brand new TV studio this year. We had the opportunity to work with experts in the industry who helped guide the project from beginning to end.

Spotlight: Newark – Quality Content at Newark 78

by Gary Campbell, Station Manager/Producer, Newark TV

In today’s competitive television, cable and streaming market, government-access television Newark TV-78 is producing high quality content for the largest city in New Jersey–Newark.  Newark continues to shine in public safety, affordable housing, the arts, equitable growth and empowering residents.  Mayor Ras Baraka says that in 2023 we are finally experiencing the Newark Renaissance that has been in motion for over fifty years, and TV78 has been there to help the city achieve its goals.  

Spotlight: West Milford – Why We Do It   

By Geoffrey Belinfante, External Relations, Chair



Working in Municipal and Community Television can sometimes be a thankless job —long meetings, municipal bureaucracy, aging equipment, and angry residents—they all come with the job.  I suppose we all do it for different reasons, but I guess many of our members find it rewarding because they contribute to their stations year after year. For many, it’s like performing a public service–providing information to residents, allowing greater governmental transparency, and documenting the history of the towns we represent. 

Spotlight Oakland: How Oakland, New Jersey became Altice’s test case for HD broadcast service

By Mark Albala, Vice Chairman, TV Committee, Oakland, New Jersey



Many of you do not know that the borough of Oakland was the test case for Altice’s HD service for municipal broadcasts.  The purpose of this article is to present the two-year journey of the dedicated team of volunteers, who partnered with Oakland’s elected officials and ultimately obtained permission from Altice to broadcast HD quality municipal coverage over Altice. 

The Unexpected Benefits of the JAG Awards

by Geoffery Belinfante, West Milford



Up here in the highlands of New Jersey, we at WM77 have been lucky to win two JAG “awards of excellence” in the past two years, one in the category of “Fairs, Festivals, Car Shows and Arts and Crafts,” and one for single camera coverage of our Town Council meetings.  While it’s always nice to be recognized for outstanding work by your peers, for a small station like WM77 it has meant a lot more than just a pat on the back and a trophy for Town Hall.

Building a TV Series and Finding JAG

by Caz. Bielen, Premiere Media



Every Great Video we produce has to have a story.  My name is Caz. Bielen, Chief Creative Officer of Premiere Media and CazTV. I immigrated to the US when I was 8 years old. I never had a TV in Poland.  My first TV was a black and white set, where I learned English watching Magilla Gorilla, The Adventures of Superman, Little Rascals and I Love Lucy reruns  There were also the annual viewings of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and The Wizard of Oz.  I did not know it was in color till I was in my late teens. But I loved the stories and the lighting, the effect that made these characters come to life. 

Spotlight Woodbridge: Building and Managing a Municipal Access Cable Station

By Lee Beckerman, Station Manager, Woodbridge Channels



In the mid-1980s, Woodbridge Township was contemplating starting a cable TV channel of its own.  They had secured a channel on Suburban, set up a governing board and had purchased a random assortment of equipment.  And then…nothing happened.  At some point they decided it was time to bring on a person to manage the station and move the project forward.  I was fresh out of college with a degree in video production.  Doing freelance and having a hard time finding fulltime work in my field, I jumped at the opportunity.  It was not my dream job, but I thought it might be an adequate place holder to build my resume, and, lacking other options, I took it.  I was eventually shown to a packed projection room/closet, told it was my new office and to have at it.  No further instructions were forthcoming.  No one had apparently thought past the idea of having a TV station and considered what to do with it.  I rightly deduced that the first part of starting a community television station involved getting all the crap out of your new office and finding a desk.