My name is Miriam Rosenberg and I am an independent producer, and the writer and host of Sing-a-Long with Miss Miriam which I produce in cooperation with the staff at HTTV in Summit. I have been producing and airing a children’s show with HTTV for about 5 years now. I currently have 19 episodes on the JAG TelVue server, and 52 stations have picked up the shows.
The themes include: Caring for our Planet, Planets, Courage, Spring, Magic, Puppetry, Science, Positivity, Kindness, Sports, Living Your Dreams, Trying New Things, Teamwork, Learning Popular Songs with Acting a Part, Diversity, Therapy Horses, and a Mr. Rogers tribute. Each show has a unique theme, a featured craft, an interesting guest, an original song and story time. It’s aimed at children from three to eight years old.
My shows are along the same line as Mr. Rogers, Romper Room, and Captain Kangaroo. They are very positive and uplifting. I feel that children today need positive role models so they can learn be kind to themselves and others.
I am also a pediatric Occupational Therapist, Yoga teacher, and a musician, and I try to incorporate my expertise into each and every show. This show is definitely a labor of love with a noble goal!
Making my children’s shows a reality has taken a lot of fairy dust and hard work!!! Growing up, I always loved children’s shows. I felt the characters were talking to me and I was right there with them having fun and learning something new. They were so much fun. I always liked romping around the room with Miss Nancy on Romper Room on my toy stick horse, or listening to Mr. Green Jeans, or Mr. Rogers. They were interactive and oh so simple. My goal is to bring that feeling back so today’s children can experience it. The World is so complicated and there are so may negative images for children. I hope to bring back the purity and magic of childhood in every show.
I work with a great crew at HTTV, so we were able to navigate the pandemic storm together. This includes Amanda Olsen the station manager, and camera operator/editor John T. (Jay) McCann. In addition, there is often at least one intern on the crew as well.
During the last year and a half with Covid there were more challenges in the studio and off site than usual.
We had to follow the protocol of using masks, being 6 feet apart and sanitizing surfaces and equipment as they were used throughout the shoot.
During the taping of the Tribute to Mr. Rogers show, which was in the studio, we had to be very aware of social distancing, sanitizing the surfaces and our hands constantly especially when we touched any of the equipment.
When I had to perform by either speaking or singing, I had to take off my mask. Yes, we were at least 6 feet apart, and after each segment I put my mask back on. All three of the staff in the studio also had to wear their masks throughout the shoot.
The cameras and equipment used were: two 4K JVC cameras and wireless lavalier mics for the guest and host.
On location at a horse farm
On location at the horse farm, we also used cameras on the horses to show their point of view.
Overall, the station manager and crew did a phenomenal job. We always put safety first — even though it did take longer to shoot the episodes.
Another episode that I recently did with the crew was about Therapy horses. This was shot on site outdoors at a horse farm called Hope’s Promise in Chester N.J. This was much easier since there was much more space to socially distance and we were in the fresh air. If we had to come closer for any reason, we would automatically put on our masks.
Funny, now it almost seems normal and automatic to do this rather than when we first had to follow the safety protocols at the start of the pandemic in the studio. As we all know, if there is a will there is always a way and the show must go on, and indeed it did thanks to the efforts of the crew at HTTV. Please check out my show at www.singalongandfunwithmissmiriam.com
by Dustin Dumas, Station Manager, SOMAtv, South Orange/Maplewood, NJ
Arguably, one of the most important responsibilities of an independent producer is getting a great interview. It may mean that, you, as the producer are wearing several hats…perhaps being the interviewer yourself or assisting the interviewer in creating a great interview. Either way, there is definitely an art to getting the most from the interviewee. I have touched on interviewing techniques in a previous column but due to its importance I would like to focus on it in this column.
Setting It up:Let’s start with the setting. The setting is important to a great interview because it shows your guest that you took time and thought about them before the interview. The setting is not only having the studio prepared when your guest arrives but, if you are not in a studio, having the on-location site ready is also important. For example, if you are shooting outside, the set up should be so that the sun is not in your guest’s eyes, if there is rain, there should be umbrellas or tents available. If there is anything that you can do that will make your guest feel comfortable for a better interview, do it.
I vividly remember hosting a live outdoor festival and suddenly being asked to interview the person who had helped organize the event. The producer never informed her that she would be interviewed but asked her on live TV to “say a few words,” just as she was passing the area set up for interviews. She had been running around taking care of issues that had arisen during the event, was sweaty, wearing a baseball cap that was covering her matted hair, which she pulled even lower when she was put on the spot, and was wearing shorts and a t-shirt. Besides catching her off guard by asking her to say a few words, she was extremely self-conscious of how she looked as she had been working. She graciously agreed to do the interview but when the producer told her to take off her hat because they could not see her face due to it being shaded by the sun, she refused. They compromised and she flipped the bill of the hat up, which looked ridiculous. It was one of the most awkward interviews I have ever done. The viewer was not able to learn of the great work she had done to create this event because she was embarrassed and gave monosyllabic answers so she could get out of the interviewee chair as quickly as possible.
Aside from not asking for an interview on the spot during a live segment, the producer could have prepared by having the chairs situated in a way so that she was not squinting into the sun, had a tent set up so that the sun was not an issue, had a mirror available and provided water for guests. All of these things could have helped this guest, and the ones who followed her, feel more comfortable. But the most important thing that producer could have done would have been to ask her, privately, if she was available to be interviewed later, which gets me to the next section — preparing your guest.
Prepare Your Guest: I like speaking to people and interviewing them but not everyone likes to be a guest or be interviewed. Some may do it out of necessity and some may genuinely like talking about their subject matter. However, as the producer, it is your responsibility to ensure that an interview achieves the goals of both the interviewer and interviewee. One way of doing this is to let your guest get a feel for the questions you will ask by sending them potential questions. I do this with all of my guests because many have never been on television before and have no idea what to expect. Seeing the types of questions and being able to prepare helps guests feel comfortable. The more comfortable the guests are, the more candid and more conversational the interview will be. I always let my guests know that these questions are a starting point, that we will deviate and may not get to them all. The other great thing about sending questions in advance is that it gives your guests an opportunity to submit questions they would like to be asked. This goes back to making sure that the goals of the interviewer and interviewee are achieved. If you are worried about the guest being over prepared and having rote answers to questions, I have never found that to be the case. Part of being a good interviewer is being able to follow up answers with appropriate questions, and not simply following a list of prepared questions.
Avoid Pre-Interview Conversations: While I am adamant about sending questions to guests before an interview, I am just as adamant about not having pre-conversations with guests about the things I will cover during the interview. I am fine with speaking with them and allaying any fears they may have and answering general questions, but I have found that extensive pre-interview conversations definitely take the excitement and the candor out of the actual interview. Unfortunately, I know this from experience.
Years ago, I had a guest who wanted to talk about her memoir weeks before the show. Her story was compelling and I felt it would be both accessible and relatable to our audience. However, she was uncomfortable with being on television, as she felt she would not come across well. At first, she insisted that I come to her house and do a pre-interview and once I told her that would not be possible, we agreed upon a telephone call. During the telephone call, she wanted to go over each question and, basically wanted to conduct the interview over the phone. Fortunately, I was able to end the conversation before we went too far. Once she arrived at the station, the interview went well but it was not as powerful as it could have been. Some of the things that she shared over the phone were remarkable but were not mentioned during the actual interview, even with some subtle prodding. I have also seen this happen when the host and guest chat too much about the subject matter before the show starts and forget some of the pertinent things that would have been great to reveal on camera rather than before the cameras started rolling. These are some of the reasons that pre-interview conversations should be kept to a minimum and, ideally, should not cover the topics to be discussed.
Setting up the space, preparing your guests and avoiding pre-interview conversations are a few of the ways to make your guests feel comfortable and elicit the most candid and useful responses in an interview. Using the techniques above may garner that one response you were not expecting that made all of the preparation worth it.
Dustin Dumas is the host and producer of Dustin’s Kaleidoscope and What’s Up Around Town. She is the station manager of the award-winning South Orange Maplewood Television station (SOMAtv) and serves as Vice Chair on the Jersey Access Group, External Relations Committee. She has been part of community television stations in Illinois, California and New Jersey and enjoys helping people tell their stories.
Once again, the Jersey Access Group had the opportunity to participate at the New Jersey League of Municipalities Conference in Atlantic City. JAG was on hand on the trade show floor with our booth, speaking to Mayors, Council Members and Administrators about our organization. Our purpose was to inform municipalities of the importance of effectively communicating with their citizens. Who better to let municipalities know how to do this then JAG members?… this is what we do!
I am sure that most of you (if not all) know that the Jersey Access Group is an affiliate member of the NJLM. So, what does that mean? What is the purpose? It means that the League turns to us for leadership and information on telecommunication issues. It looks to JAG to provide guidance through our resource as a member of NATOA for national legislation issues and more. The NJLM also looks to JAG to participate at their annual conference, not only on the trade show floor but in conference sessions as well. JAG held two conference sessions at this year’s League Conference. Our first session was a joint session with the League of Municipalities in which I was lucky enough to be a panelist, along with a group of distinguished experts well versed on this topic. I urge you to read Ken Fellman’s article in this very newsletter.
Geoffrey Belinfante, George Fairfield and Bob Duthaler presenting at OTT panel
Our second session was an all JAG event. Geoffrey Belinfante, George Fairfield and myself presented to a group of fifty plus people comprised of Mayors, Informational Directors, Council members and others. Our session was entitled: “Post-Pandemic Tools That Can Help Your Reach Your Citizens – Ways you can continue to reach your community after the lockdown and social distancing”. The workshop addressed the question of “Now that you have given the public access to their local government meetings and other events in their homes can you go back to business as usual? Reaching your municipal community through a traditional cable channel is not the only game in town. We’ll look at new ways to engage your residents with over-the-top (OTT) devices and applications like Roku, AppleTV, on the web, and mobile devices”.
Bob Duthaler talks to attendees
We explored everything that our stations did during the crisis, technology we discovered along the way, ideas for communicating moving forward and more. Interestingly, we also had an audience full of people who were interested in learning how to start their own access channel and we gave guidance on how to do that as well. I thought it would be nice to also share this session with our members as well.
Geoffrey Belinfante, George Fairfield and Bob Duthaler answer questions at OTT panel
We currently have this session (and the Broadband one too) available on the JAG website and YouTube page. I urge you to share the links with your legislative body in your municipality. Let them know the power of our organization. Here is the video link to JAG session: https://youtu.be/cu8hiNNCpIo
byKen Fellman, Of Counsel, Helmer, Conley & Kasselman, PA
As an affiliate of the New Jersey League of Municipalities, JAG annually provides a session at the League’s annual conference on communications related issues. JAG has had a history with the League of identifying and educating on relevant communications topics to New Jersey’s local governments. In past years JAG sessions have addressed cable regulation, social media and wireless facilities deployment. This year, on November 17th we gathered in Atlantic City to discuss one of the most pressing issues to New Jersey municipalities – new funding for broadband networks.
At the start of the session, we had a video welcome and an introduction of the importance of broadband deployment to all New Jersey communities from Congressman Josh Gottheimer. Joining me on our panel was Christopher Mitchell from the Institute for Local Self Reliance and Robert Boyle, CEO of Planet Networks. Robert spoke about the work his company is doing to connect New Jersey communities to 21st century broadband, while Chris and I addressed the new programs coming from Washington, D.C. to promote broadband deployment and usage in hard to serve areas, and the once in a generation opportunity this provides New Jersey communities to take control of their broadband futures.
There are multiple federal programs underway and in the planning stages that will aid with both broadband network deployment and broadband adoption. Chris and I focused on two major pieces of legislation, the American Rescue Plan Act, passed on March 11, 2021, and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act that was signed by President Biden two days before our session. Both will provide funding that New Jersey local governments can use to deploy new broadband networks and can have the effect of promoting better broadband availability and adoption throughout the entire state.
The funding from both bills require interaction between local government and the State. The American Rescue Plan Act funds require applications through the Division of Local Government Services. The Infrastructure Act will provide funding through the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), a division of the U.S. Department of Commerce. Each state will, at a minimum, receive $100 million. Beyond that, additional state monies will depend upon the conditions within each state demonstrating the extent of unserved and underserved areas, and whether the state applies for digital equity grant funds that will be made available under the new law.
NTIA will be reviewing new broadband coverage maps from the FCC which will be available sometime in 2022. It is currently participating in listening sessions to get input as to how it should structure its grant programs to states. Once a state receives funding, it too must develop a process to funnel these funds to entities that will build the networks, including local governments. In fact, the law requires states to collaborate with local governments in developing their rules. How New Jersey does this is yet to be seen, and JAG has a role here in helping its local government members work with the state to ensure a fair process.
We received a wide range of questions from communities of all sizes at the session. Some were concerned with how they might work with companies like Planet Networks to bring broadband into underserved areas. Others expressed great interest in exploring the possible expansion of local broadband networks that might be possible with this new federal money, and how that might position their communities to develop partnerships with the private sector to bring more broadband availability and affordability to New Jersey. Clearly, this is an issue facing a wide variety of New Jersey jurisdictions. We had questions and interest about the new broadband funding from very small communities in Somerset and Cumberland Counties, suburban communities in Bergen County, larger communities in Ocean County, and even larger cities like Newark and Atlantic City. Our takeaway was that broadband deployment and adoption, and how these new federal programs might help improve it, is going to be a critically important issue in New Jersey over the next few years.
It is not clear which department of State government will take the lead on implementing the funding from the Infrastructure Bill. JAG members should note that on July 7, 2021, Governor Murphy signed legislation establishing a Broadband Access Study Commission. The Commission’s role, in part, is to evaluate (i) impediments of access to broadband service in New Jersey and (ii) the feasibility of establishing community broadband networks in the State. We don’t know yet whether this Commission may have a role in recommending how the new federal funding should be spent, but it may. JAG members will want to follow the Commission’s progress and advocate for local interests, where appropriate.
Finally, JAG members should be speaking to others in your jurisdictions about what is being done to get ready for potential funding from the Infrastructure Act. Do you have unserved or underserved areas that can benefit from better broadband connectivity? Do you have segments of your community that need help with the cost of broadband? Note also that the Infrastructure Act includes money for broadband planning. If you haven’t already begun, now is the time to be starting that work.
byDoug Seidel, Social Media Manager, External Relations Committee
As we get into the holiday season social media traffic seems to go down. Part of this is most likely due to people using their online time to shop instead of socializing. I tend to see a lot of people take a break from social media during the end of the year too. Always a good thing to keep in mind when planning out your social media strategy — don’t count on the social media boost around the holidays.
In other JAG news, a quick reminder to check out the website. There are two new videos on the website for all to see (they are also featured on our YouTube page) concerning broadband and over the top delivery for your content. These videos are not just in our members only section because they can help you sell the need for better broadband and over the top delivery to your town. Share these videos with anyone that could benefit from them.
NEW CONTENT ON WEBSITE- We have now posted 24 programs from the Eastern Video Expo events to the members only section of our website. To view the video content links below, you need a members only password.
Mayors and Administrators are always looking for funds to help stretch their limited budgets. Although NJ sits between to communications hubs NYC & Philly there are many areas in the state, both rural (northeastern forests and southern farmland) and urban who lack access to broadband that hurt business and communities. This panel will explore the challenges facing municipalities that are trying to improve broadband access, and what funding might be available to facilitate those improvements.
JAG president Bob Duthaler and Piscataway Community TV Station Manager George Fairfield discuss ways municipalities can continue to reach their citizens after the pandemic. Now that local governments have given the public access to their council meetings and other municipal events in their homes, can they go back to business as usual? Today, reaching your community through a traditional cable channel is not the only game in town. Our panelists will explore all the new ways to engage citizens with over the top (OTT) devices and applications: like: Roku, AppleTV, web applications and mobile devices.
Buy a new car in 2022 and the engine is going to be reliable enough no matter what you buy, but in the early days of automobiles the reliability and quality of the prebuilt engines which “coach manufacturers” built their autos upon varied greatly, and you needed to be aware of which vehicles had a top-tier engine and which had a bottom-tier engine.
Similarly, today server manufacturers are adding captioning inside their products and to lower their own costs they tend to build on the lowest-tier engines (IBM Watson, AWS, Microsoft), but the accuracy results from systems built using the more expensive mid-tier (VoiceInteraction) and top-tier engines (Speechmatics) are substantially better. Especially when it comes to a mix of regional and global accents, audio with crosstalk and background noise, and non-perfectly mic’d speakers.
Learn how to compare 3rd party and playback server captioning options, so you know ahead of time what you are sacrificing for quality if you select a system built on a bottom-tier engine over a product built on a mid or top-tier engine. Municipal Captioning sells products with ALL levels of captioning quality — from the low-budget solutions which trade quality for cost to the highest-quality solutions — and can give you quotes for all options so you can make an informed decision for your community.
I have been working with the Borough of Fanwood for several years. Towards the end of 2019 when China was in lockdown and we in America weren’t even dreaming of such a thing, the Borough was upgrading their sound system in the Council Chambers and looking into a multiple camera remote system. The purchase has been moving slowly due to the pandemic.
Fast forward a few months to February 2020, the Mayor of Fanwood, Colleen Mahr, and some health officials had a 4 camera shoot about the dangers of Covid, and what could happen. All this was shot in person, with some social distancing but no masks because the information was confusing, even for health officials. Not long after that, the lockdown occurs. Masks were required, social distancing enforced and only essential personnel were allowed to physically come to work in borough hall.
Fanwood regularly programed the TV station and was constantly updating the community bulletin board with updated information such as how many residents had Covid, how many fatalities, proper hand washing procedures, and other safety protocols to follow at home. They needed to physically go to the TV Station to post and schedule content. I shot the video coverage of the Mayor’s periodic updates. I did all my work in the field and in person and during that time I didn’t get Covid. I recorded the Mayor by herself in the Council Chambers utilizing masks and social distancing. It was new to us and we were all extra cautious when it came to the use of sanitizers, wiping down of equipment, hand washing, etc.
The Borough of Fanwood hired a consulting firm who set up and ran their virtual council meetings allowing the public to participate remotely. I would take the feed of the virtual meetings and simulcast it to Facebook Live, using a Live-U unit I purchased from Varto Technologies, and a cellular hotspot together with wired ethernet connection for backup, just in case there was a problem with the wireless connection. Months later, to reduce costs, the clerk’s office took on the duty of managing the meetings but to this day, I still take the zoom feed on my end and simulcast it.
A quick note, now the administrator initiates the zoom meeting and I rebroadcast it to Facebook. However, if there is a problem with Facebook in any way, it could disrupt the flow of the meeting. So we keep the computer originating the Zoom separate from the computer feeding Facebook Live. In this way, if there is a technical issue with the feed during the meeting there is another person with a second computer who can troubleshoot any potential problem that might occur without disrupting the meeting. This is a much safer way to manage the Facebook live feed. . Since Facebook has proven to be unreliable, the Borough has announced that the Facebook simulcast is only offered as a courtesy, but participation by the public must take place via zoom. However people continue to post questions to Facebook and they are read to the Borough Council.
While there are multiple solutions to having a virtual meeting like GoTo Meeting, Google and Microsoft Teams, we have chosen to use the combination of Zoom and Facebook Live. It has proven to be cost effective and overall, pretty reliable. Prior to the pandemic, work sessions were not broadcast on TV nor Facebook. Now all Council meeting are covered and broadcast. This is one positive effect of the pandemic.
As of this writing in November 2021, Fanwood still doesn’t have in person meetings, but are now looking into resuming them in January 2022 using a hybrid solution that will combine virtual and in-person participation.
In conclusion, the PEG stations became an invaluable asset during the pandemic, providing important hyper localized content during uncertain times. It’s a good reminder that, although the number of cable subscriptions is decreasing and over the air broadcast stations are losing viewers to steaming services, it is still essential that municipalities use their cable channels and social media to reach their citizens, particularly seniors who still used to traditional viewing methods to get information on matters of local interest.
Faces for Board of Trustees: Thank You To The Past and Hello To The New
To quote a Billy Joel song (with some slight “JAGish” changes) “So many faces in and out of our lives, some will last, some will just be now and then…” so goes some of the people on our board. Happily, these “faces” that are leaving our board currently have played an important role in the growth and development of the organization and more importantly they lasted! I would like to take the opportunity to thank them for their time and efforts for their years of service. Additionally, I would ask that you reach out to them personally and thank them for their service. Although they may be stepping away from the board, I know that they will continue to be a part of JAG and help in any way possible. Join me in thanking: Dave Ambrosy (EBTV), Jeff Arban (RUTV) and Darryl Love (Scotch Plains). I would also like to point out that current JAG VP, Dave Garb has committed to running for another term.
I am happy to report out to the membership that a couple of our members have stepped up and decided to throw their hat in to the ring to run as Board of Trustee Members for JAG. If I was a butcher, I would tell you that the board has “Fresh Meat”! But since I am not, I will just say that we are lucky to have new people stepping up, sharing their experiences, and helping to continue to make JAG a great organization. I have included their brief bios below for your review. The vote for Board of Trustees is at our next general membership meeting, Wednesday, December 1st. Even though those running will be unopposed due to the number of seats open, it should be noted that they have stepped up and are willing to put in the work necessary. Here is a list of the board candidates:
Bob Nicholson is the station manager and coordinator at WM77 in West Milford. He also serves as co-chair on the Passaic County Film Commission and President of Access 23 TV in Port Jervis, NY. His background is in music, publishing, and production for the past 50 years as both performer and engineer. Video has been an active interest since the late 80’s when the home video explosion ignited the consumer market. A person of many job functions over the years, Bob has acquired vast experience and knowledge of the music, video, retail trades and the legal aspects. Always eager to expand his knowledge, Bob desires to learn something new every day.
Doug Seidel is an Emmy nominated producer and award-winning filmmaker. Doug has won best marketing twice at the Project Twenty1 film festival for his use of social media to promote his films. Along with his position at Piscataway Community TV, Doug runs the social media accounts for Jersey Access Group and Eastern Video Expo. Doug was also the technical producer for the Eastern Video Expo and JAG Awards by running the entire Zoom experience for the conference.
Rick Gearhart is currently the Station Manager for TV34, Montclair. He graduated with a degree in Creative Arts & Technology from Bloomfield College in 2010. He is 34 years old and started his television career when he was 21 – in 2009, working for WBMA-TV in Bloomfield, filming, and editing local events & meetings. It was here that he learned the importance of not only keeping residents informed of the events in town, but also the importance of preserving township history through video, by covering ceremonies, honor events, etc. Community Television has been the bulk of his television career, having worked for several different towns as a camera operator and editor, including Scotch Plains and Princeton, before being hired as the Station Manager for Montclair TV34. He has been at this position since December 2016.
Please be reminded that three of the Trustee positions are for a three-year term and one is for a one-year term. The person with the lowest vote total will be given the one-year term. When voting, you are allowed to vote for up to four board members, although you can vote for less. Please be on the lookout for the absentee ballot for those who cannot make the meeting or the live meeting dates for those who will vote in person. Please take the time to vote and show your support for those who have taken their time to be a part of this board.
News & Events
Posted: December 15, 2021 by Doug Seidel
Spotlight Miriam – Producing a Show During Covid
by Miriam Rosenberg, Independent Producer
My name is Miriam Rosenberg and I am an independent producer, and the writer and host of Sing-a-Long with Miss Miriam which I produce in cooperation with the staff at HTTV in Summit. I have been producing and airing a children’s show with HTTV for about 5 years now. I currently have 19 episodes on the JAG TelVue server, and 52 stations have picked up the shows.
The themes include: Caring for our Planet, Planets, Courage, Spring, Magic, Puppetry, Science, Positivity, Kindness, Sports, Living Your Dreams, Trying New Things, Teamwork, Learning Popular Songs with Acting a Part, Diversity, Therapy Horses, and a Mr. Rogers tribute. Each show has a unique theme, a featured craft, an interesting guest, an original song and story time. It’s aimed at children from three to eight years old.
My shows are along the same line as Mr. Rogers, Romper Room, and Captain Kangaroo. They are very positive and uplifting. I feel that children today need positive role models so they can learn be kind to themselves and others.
I am also a pediatric Occupational Therapist, Yoga teacher, and a musician, and I try to incorporate my expertise into each and every show. This show is definitely a labor of love with a noble goal!
Making my children’s shows a reality has taken a lot of fairy dust and hard work!!! Growing up, I always loved children’s shows. I felt the characters were talking to me and I was right there with them having fun and learning something new. They were so much fun. I always liked romping around the room with Miss Nancy on Romper Room on my toy stick horse, or listening to Mr. Green Jeans, or Mr. Rogers. They were interactive and oh so simple. My goal is to bring that feeling back so today’s children can experience it. The World is so complicated and there are so may negative images for children. I hope to bring back the purity and magic of childhood in every show.
I work with a great crew at HTTV, so we were able to navigate the pandemic storm together. This includes Amanda Olsen the station manager, and camera operator/editor John T. (Jay) McCann. In addition, there is often at least one intern on the crew as well.
During the last year and a half with Covid there were more challenges in the studio and off site than usual.
We had to follow the protocol of using masks, being 6 feet apart and sanitizing surfaces and equipment as they were used throughout the shoot.
During the taping of the Tribute to Mr. Rogers show, which was in the studio, we had to be very aware of social distancing, sanitizing the surfaces and our hands constantly especially when we touched any of the equipment.
When I had to perform by either speaking or singing, I had to take off my mask. Yes, we were at least 6 feet apart, and after each segment I put my mask back on. All three of the staff in the studio also had to wear their masks throughout the shoot.
The cameras and equipment used were: two 4K JVC cameras and wireless lavalier mics for the guest and host.
On location at the horse farm, we also used cameras on the horses to show their point of view.
Overall, the station manager and crew did a phenomenal job. We always put safety first — even though it did take longer to shoot the episodes.
Another episode that I recently did with the crew was about Therapy horses. This was shot on site outdoors at a horse farm called Hope’s Promise in Chester N.J. This was much easier since there was much more space to socially distance and we were in the fresh air. If we had to come closer for any reason, we would automatically put on our masks.
Funny, now it almost seems normal and automatic to do this rather than when we first had to follow the safety protocols at the start of the pandemic in the studio. As we all know, if there is a will there is always a way and the show must go on, and indeed it did thanks to the efforts of the crew at HTTV. Please check out my show at www.singalongandfunwithmissmiriam.com
Posted: December 15, 2021 by Doug Seidel
The Art of the Interview
by Dustin Dumas, Station Manager, SOMAtv, South Orange/Maplewood, NJ
Arguably, one of the most important responsibilities of an independent producer is getting a great interview. It may mean that, you, as the producer are wearing several hats…perhaps being the interviewer yourself or assisting the interviewer in creating a great interview. Either way, there is definitely an art to getting the most from the interviewee. I have touched on interviewing techniques in a previous column but due to its importance I would like to focus on it in this column.
Setting It up: Let’s start with the setting. The setting is important to a great interview because it shows your guest that you took time and thought about them before the interview. The setting is not only having the studio prepared when your guest arrives but, if you are not in a studio, having the on-location site ready is also important. For example, if you are shooting outside, the set up should be so that the sun is not in your guest’s eyes, if there is rain, there should be umbrellas or tents available. If there is anything that you can do that will make your guest feel comfortable for a better interview, do it.
I vividly remember hosting a live outdoor festival and suddenly being asked to interview the person who had helped organize the event. The producer never informed her that she would be interviewed but asked her on live TV to “say a few words,” just as she was passing the area set up for interviews. She had been running around taking care of issues that had arisen during the event, was sweaty, wearing a baseball cap that was covering her matted hair, which she pulled even lower when she was put on the spot, and was wearing shorts and a t-shirt. Besides catching her off guard by asking her to say a few words, she was extremely self-conscious of how she looked as she had been working. She graciously agreed to do the interview but when the producer told her to take off her hat because they could not see her face due to it being shaded by the sun, she refused. They compromised and she flipped the bill of the hat up, which looked ridiculous. It was one of the most awkward interviews I have ever done. The viewer was not able to learn of the great work she had done to create this event because she was embarrassed and gave monosyllabic answers so she could get out of the interviewee chair as quickly as possible.
Aside from not asking for an interview on the spot during a live segment, the producer could have prepared by having the chairs situated in a way so that she was not squinting into the sun, had a tent set up so that the sun was not an issue, had a mirror available and provided water for guests. All of these things could have helped this guest, and the ones who followed her, feel more comfortable. But the most important thing that producer could have done would have been to ask her, privately, if she was available to be interviewed later, which gets me to the next section — preparing your guest.
Prepare Your Guest: I like speaking to people and interviewing them but not everyone likes to be a guest or be interviewed. Some may do it out of necessity and some may genuinely like talking about their subject matter. However, as the producer, it is your responsibility to ensure that an interview achieves the goals of both the interviewer and interviewee. One way of doing this is to let your guest get a feel for the questions you will ask by sending them potential questions. I do this with all of my guests because many have never been on television before and have no idea what to expect. Seeing the types of questions and being able to prepare helps guests feel comfortable. The more comfortable the guests are, the more candid and more conversational the interview will be. I always let my guests know that these questions are a starting point, that we will deviate and may not get to them all. The other great thing about sending questions in advance is that it gives your guests an opportunity to submit questions they would like to be asked. This goes back to making sure that the goals of the interviewer and interviewee are achieved. If you are worried about the guest being over prepared and having rote answers to questions, I have never found that to be the case. Part of being a good interviewer is being able to follow up answers with appropriate questions, and not simply following a list of prepared questions.
Avoid Pre-Interview Conversations: While I am adamant about sending questions to guests before an interview, I am just as adamant about not having pre-conversations with guests about the things I will cover during the interview. I am fine with speaking with them and allaying any fears they may have and answering general questions, but I have found that extensive pre-interview conversations definitely take the excitement and the candor out of the actual interview. Unfortunately, I know this from experience.
Years ago, I had a guest who wanted to talk about her memoir weeks before the show. Her story was compelling and I felt it would be both accessible and relatable to our audience. However, she was uncomfortable with being on television, as she felt she would not come across well. At first, she insisted that I come to her house and do a pre-interview and once I told her that would not be possible, we agreed upon a telephone call. During the telephone call, she wanted to go over each question and, basically wanted to conduct the interview over the phone. Fortunately, I was able to end the conversation before we went too far. Once she arrived at the station, the interview went well but it was not as powerful as it could have been. Some of the things that she shared over the phone were remarkable but were not mentioned during the actual interview, even with some subtle prodding. I have also seen this happen when the host and guest chat too much about the subject matter before the show starts and forget some of the pertinent things that would have been great to reveal on camera rather than before the cameras started rolling. These are some of the reasons that pre-interview conversations should be kept to a minimum and, ideally, should not cover the topics to be discussed.
Setting up the space, preparing your guests and avoiding pre-interview conversations are a few of the ways to make your guests feel comfortable and elicit the most candid and useful responses in an interview. Using the techniques above may garner that one response you were not expecting that made all of the preparation worth it.
Dustin Dumas is the host and producer of Dustin’s Kaleidoscope and What’s Up Around Town. She is the station manager of the award-winning South Orange Maplewood Television station (SOMAtv) and serves as Vice Chair on the Jersey Access Group, External Relations Committee. She has been part of community television stations in Illinois, California and New Jersey and enjoys helping people tell their stories.
Posted: December 15, 2021 by Doug Seidel
JAG Shines at NJ League of Municipalities
by Bob Duthaler, Jersey Access Group, President
Once again, the Jersey Access Group had the opportunity to participate at the New Jersey League of Municipalities Conference in Atlantic City. JAG was on hand on the trade show floor with our booth, speaking to Mayors, Council Members and Administrators about our organization. Our purpose was to inform municipalities of the importance of effectively communicating with their citizens. Who better to let municipalities know how to do this then JAG members?… this is what we do!
I am sure that most of you (if not all) know that the Jersey Access Group is an affiliate member of the NJLM. So, what does that mean? What is the purpose? It means that the League turns to us for leadership and information on telecommunication issues. It looks to JAG to provide guidance through our resource as a member of NATOA for national legislation issues and more. The NJLM also looks to JAG to participate at their annual conference, not only on the trade show floor but in conference sessions as well. JAG held two conference sessions at this year’s League Conference. Our first session was a joint session with the League of Municipalities in which I was lucky enough to be a panelist, along with a group of distinguished experts well versed on this topic. I urge you to read Ken Fellman’s article in this very newsletter.
Our second session was an all JAG event. Geoffrey Belinfante, George Fairfield and myself presented to a group of fifty plus people comprised of Mayors, Informational Directors, Council members and others. Our session was entitled: “Post-Pandemic Tools That Can Help Your Reach Your Citizens – Ways you can continue to reach your community after the lockdown and social distancing”. The workshop addressed the question of “Now that you have given the public access to their local government meetings and other events in their homes can you go back to business as usual? Reaching your municipal community through a traditional cable channel is not the only game in town. We’ll look at new ways to engage your residents with over-the-top (OTT) devices and applications like Roku, AppleTV, on the web, and mobile devices”.
We explored everything that our stations did during the crisis, technology we discovered along the way, ideas for communicating moving forward and more. Interestingly, we also had an audience full of people who were interested in learning how to start their own access channel and we gave guidance on how to do that as well. I thought it would be nice to also share this session with our members as well.
We currently have this session (and the Broadband one too) available on the JAG website and YouTube page. I urge you to share the links with your legislative body in your municipality. Let them know the power of our organization. Here is the video link to JAG session: https://youtu.be/cu8hiNNCpIo
Posted: December 15, 2021 by Doug Seidel
NJLM Broadband Session Report
by Ken Fellman, Of Counsel, Helmer, Conley & Kasselman, PA
As an affiliate of the New Jersey League of Municipalities, JAG annually provides a session at the League’s annual conference on communications related issues. JAG has had a history with the League of identifying and educating on relevant communications topics to New Jersey’s local governments. In past years JAG sessions have addressed cable regulation, social media and wireless facilities deployment. This year, on November 17th we gathered in Atlantic City to discuss one of the most pressing issues to New Jersey municipalities – new funding for broadband networks.
At the start of the session, we had a video welcome and an introduction of the importance of broadband deployment to all New Jersey communities from Congressman Josh Gottheimer. Joining me on our panel was Christopher Mitchell from the Institute for Local Self Reliance and Robert Boyle, CEO of Planet Networks. Robert spoke about the work his company is doing to connect New Jersey communities to 21st century broadband, while Chris and I addressed the new programs coming from Washington, D.C. to promote broadband deployment and usage in hard to serve areas, and the once in a generation opportunity this provides New Jersey communities to take control of their broadband futures.
There are multiple federal programs underway and in the planning stages that will aid with both broadband network deployment and broadband adoption. Chris and I focused on two major pieces of legislation, the American Rescue Plan Act, passed on March 11, 2021, and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act that was signed by President Biden two days before our session. Both will provide funding that New Jersey local governments can use to deploy new broadband networks and can have the effect of promoting better broadband availability and adoption throughout the entire state.
The funding from both bills require interaction between local government and the State. The American Rescue Plan Act funds require applications through the Division of Local Government Services. The Infrastructure Act will provide funding through the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), a division of the U.S. Department of Commerce. Each state will, at a minimum, receive $100 million. Beyond that, additional state monies will depend upon the conditions within each state demonstrating the extent of unserved and underserved areas, and whether the state applies for digital equity grant funds that will be made available under the new law.
NTIA will be reviewing new broadband coverage maps from the FCC which will be available sometime in 2022. It is currently participating in listening sessions to get input as to how it should structure its grant programs to states. Once a state receives funding, it too must develop a process to funnel these funds to entities that will build the networks, including local governments. In fact, the law requires states to collaborate with local governments in developing their rules. How New Jersey does this is yet to be seen, and JAG has a role here in helping its local government members work with the state to ensure a fair process.
We received a wide range of questions from communities of all sizes at the session. Some were concerned with how they might work with companies like Planet Networks to bring broadband into underserved areas. Others expressed great interest in exploring the possible expansion of local broadband networks that might be possible with this new federal money, and how that might position their communities to develop partnerships with the private sector to bring more broadband availability and affordability to New Jersey. Clearly, this is an issue facing a wide variety of New Jersey jurisdictions. We had questions and interest about the new broadband funding from very small communities in Somerset and Cumberland Counties, suburban communities in Bergen County, larger communities in Ocean County, and even larger cities like Newark and Atlantic City. Our takeaway was that broadband deployment and adoption, and how these new federal programs might help improve it, is going to be a critically important issue in New Jersey over the next few years.
It is not clear which department of State government will take the lead on implementing the funding from the Infrastructure Bill. JAG members should note that on July 7, 2021, Governor Murphy signed legislation establishing a Broadband Access Study Commission. The Commission’s role, in part, is to evaluate (i) impediments of access to broadband service in New Jersey and (ii) the feasibility of establishing community broadband networks in the State. We don’t know yet whether this Commission may have a role in recommending how the new federal funding should be spent, but it may. JAG members will want to follow the Commission’s progress and advocate for local interests, where appropriate.
Finally, JAG members should be speaking to others in your jurisdictions about what is being done to get ready for potential funding from the Infrastructure Act. Do you have unserved or underserved areas that can benefit from better broadband connectivity? Do you have segments of your community that need help with the cost of broadband? Note also that the Infrastructure Act includes money for broadband planning. If you haven’t already begun, now is the time to be starting that work.
If you would like additional info about broadband deployment contact Ken at kenfellman@helmerlegal.com. This session is now available on YouTube: Broadband Panel at NJLOM
Posted: December 15, 2021 by Doug Seidel
Social Media Stats – December 2021
by Doug Seidel, Social Media Manager, External Relations Committee
As we get into the holiday season social media traffic seems to go down. Part of this is most likely due to people using their online time to shop instead of socializing. I tend to see a lot of people take a break from social media during the end of the year too. Always a good thing to keep in mind when planning out your social media strategy — don’t count on the social media boost around the holidays.
In other JAG news, a quick reminder to check out the website. There are two new videos on the website for all to see (they are also featured on our YouTube page) concerning broadband and over the top delivery for your content. These videos are not just in our members only section because they can help you sell the need for better broadband and over the top delivery to your town. Share these videos with anyone that could benefit from them.
Jersey Access Group
facebook.com/pegtv linkedin.com/company/jersey-access-group instagram.com/jersey_access_group
EASTERN VIDEO EXPO
facebook.com/Easternvideoexpo instagram.com/easternvideox/
Do not forget to check out our YouTube channel. Have something you want on our YouTube channel? Send a link to dseidel@piscatawaynj.org for review.
New Content on YouTube: Broadband Panel at NJLOM – JAG Holiday Extravaganza – Woodbridge
Over the Top Panel at NJLOM – JAG
NEW CONTENT ON WEBSITE- We have now posted 24 programs from the Eastern Video Expo events to the members only section of our website. To view the video content links below, you need a members only password.
Emaillbesink@gmail.com for the password.
JAG has recorded our two sessions at the NJ League of Municipalities and added them to the Members Only session of our website.
Broadband Deployment in the National Infrastructure Bill. A JAG Joint Session with the NJ League.
And
Post Pandemic Tools That Can Help You Reach Your Citizens
Share the value of Jag’s newsletter with your elected officials, cable committee, station volunteers, associates, and friends. Send this invitation: https://lp.constantcontactpages.com/su/B7EMU1R/JAGnewsletter
Posted: December 8, 2021 by Doug Seidel
Broadband Panel
Mayors and Administrators are always looking for funds to help stretch their limited budgets. Although NJ sits between to communications hubs NYC & Philly there are many areas in the state, both rural (northeastern forests and southern farmland) and urban who lack access to broadband that hurt business and communities. This panel will explore the challenges facing municipalities that are trying to improve broadband access, and what funding might be available to facilitate those improvements.
Posted: November 26, 2021 by Doug Seidel
OTT Panel
JAG president Bob Duthaler and Piscataway Community TV Station Manager George Fairfield discuss ways municipalities can continue to reach their citizens after the pandemic. Now that local governments have given the public access to their council meetings and other municipal events in their homes, can they go back to business as usual? Today, reaching your community through a traditional cable channel is not the only game in town. Our panelists will explore all the new ways to engage citizens with over the top (OTT) devices and applications: like: Roku, AppleTV, web applications and mobile devices.
Posted: November 12, 2021 by Doug Seidel
Closed Captioning: Lots of Options
by Daniell Krawczyk, Owner, Municipal Captioning
Buy a new car in 2022 and the engine is going to be reliable enough no matter what you buy, but in the early days of automobiles the reliability and quality of the prebuilt engines which “coach manufacturers” built their autos upon varied greatly, and you needed to be aware of which vehicles had a top-tier engine and which had a bottom-tier engine.
Similarly, today server manufacturers are adding captioning inside their products and to lower their own costs they tend to build on the lowest-tier engines (IBM Watson, AWS, Microsoft), but the accuracy results from systems built using the more expensive mid-tier (VoiceInteraction) and top-tier engines (Speechmatics) are substantially better. Especially when it comes to a mix of regional and global accents, audio with crosstalk and background noise, and non-perfectly mic’d speakers.
Learn how to compare 3rd party and playback server captioning options, so you know ahead of time what you are sacrificing for quality if you select a system built on a bottom-tier engine over a product built on a mid or top-tier engine. Municipal Captioning sells products with ALL levels of captioning quality — from the low-budget solutions which trade quality for cost to the highest-quality solutions — and can give you quotes for all options so you can make an informed decision for your community.
Posted: November 12, 2021 by Doug Seidel
Spotlight: Fanwood Dealing with the Pandemic
by Eddy Cologna, Fanwood Television
I have been working with the Borough of Fanwood for several years. Towards the end of 2019 when China was in lockdown and we in America weren’t even dreaming of such a thing, the Borough was upgrading their sound system in the Council Chambers and looking into a multiple camera remote system. The purchase has been moving slowly due to the pandemic.
Fast forward a few months to February 2020, the Mayor of Fanwood, Colleen Mahr, and some health officials had a 4 camera shoot about the dangers of Covid, and what could happen. All this was shot in person, with some social distancing but no masks because the information was confusing, even for health officials. Not long after that, the lockdown occurs. Masks were required, social distancing enforced and only essential personnel were allowed to physically come to work in borough hall.
Fanwood regularly programed the TV station and was constantly updating the community bulletin board with updated information such as how many residents had Covid, how many fatalities, proper hand washing procedures, and other safety protocols to follow at home. They needed to physically go to the TV Station to post and schedule content. I shot the video coverage of the Mayor’s periodic updates. I did all my work in the field and in person and during that time I didn’t get Covid. I recorded the Mayor by herself in the Council Chambers utilizing masks and social distancing. It was new to us and we were all extra cautious when it came to the use of sanitizers, wiping down of equipment, hand washing, etc.
The Borough of Fanwood hired a consulting firm who set up and ran their virtual council meetings allowing the public to participate remotely. I would take the feed of the virtual meetings and simulcast it to Facebook Live, using a Live-U unit I purchased from Varto Technologies, and a cellular hotspot together with wired ethernet connection for backup, just in case there was a problem with the wireless connection. Months later, to reduce costs, the clerk’s office took on the duty of managing the meetings but to this day, I still take the zoom feed on my end and simulcast it.
A quick note, now the administrator initiates the zoom meeting and I rebroadcast it to Facebook. However, if there is a problem with Facebook in any way, it could disrupt the flow of the meeting. So we keep the computer originating the Zoom separate from the computer feeding Facebook Live. In this way, if there is a technical issue with the feed during the meeting there is another person with a second computer who can troubleshoot any potential problem that might occur without disrupting the meeting. This is a much safer way to manage the Facebook live feed. . Since Facebook has proven to be unreliable, the Borough has announced that the Facebook simulcast is only offered as a courtesy, but participation by the public must take place via zoom. However people continue to post questions to Facebook and they are read to the Borough Council.
While there are multiple solutions to having a virtual meeting like GoTo Meeting, Google and Microsoft Teams, we have chosen to use the combination of Zoom and Facebook Live. It has proven to be cost effective and overall, pretty reliable. Prior to the pandemic, work sessions were not broadcast on TV nor Facebook. Now all Council meeting are covered and broadcast. This is one positive effect of the pandemic.
As of this writing in November 2021, Fanwood still doesn’t have in person meetings, but are now looking into resuming them in January 2022 using a hybrid solution that will combine virtual and in-person participation.
In conclusion, the PEG stations became an invaluable asset during the pandemic, providing important hyper localized content during uncertain times. It’s a good reminder that, although the number of cable subscriptions is decreasing and over the air broadcast stations are losing viewers to steaming services, it is still essential that municipalities use their cable channels and social media to reach their citizens, particularly seniors who still used to traditional viewing methods to get information on matters of local interest.