 Good evening and welcome. I'm so pleased to welcome you here to channel 17's holiday party We're having a good time Donna Jacobs Donna Jacobs is here Donna is one of our live show volunteers And we're just blessed to have her with us. Thanks for joining us tonight. Thank you for having me So we did a little story about you and how you became a volunteer is very serendipitous, wasn't it? Yes, it was it was a purely by mistake, but what a wonderful mistake it was What's it been like to run the live shows on Friday nights? It's absolutely wonderful. I love it. I love meeting new people here I've gotten educated as well as meeting people and it's been awesome What is the sort of best part about with the channel 17 staff? Do you think it's like family here? I feel like a part of a family That's great. And what are do you there's some regular shows on Friday nights? What are the shows that you? Staff can remember some of them the woodchuck report Sandy Beard shows. Oh, I can't remember. That's a real political spread isn't it? It is it is it is Yeah, the libertarians and the and the radicals. Yes That's what one of the interesting things about channel 17 is we do have all those kinds of different points of view here We do we do I'm so glad that you can join us and I have go have fun with the party. Thank you Thanks, Donna So I just like again to welcome folks We really appreciate all the help that you give us all year long as viewers as caller in and as volunteers and we Really like to celebrate the folks that work with us And of course there is Richard Kemp who has been doing a show here for years and years He's a long-standing political activist and a channel 17 holiday party would not be complete without an interview with Richard Kemp Well, thank you for inviting me. It's always a pleasure to come here mostly because of what happens in the studio and what Lauren Glenn makes happen in this studio It's the really an important media for Allowing people to express their views about Almost anything. I mean it's pretty wide open and I think that we need more of that kind of involvement of citizens Presenting who they are and what they're doing and trying to make the society a better place than what it is So the last couple episodes of your program. What have what have you focused on? Who have the guests been? well, my last guest just this week was Vince Brennan from the City Council and we came together with The knowledge that in the March election. It's going to be a whole bunch of ballot items So I said well Vince let's get together Let's do a flip-top presentation or something and tell people about what these ballot items are because when you go into the polls You flip over the thing you say all these things they say What does all of this mean so if we can do something before the election? It'll have people will be a little more knowledgeable about what what they're voting on good And what would you say to folks to encourage them to come make a program here at channel 17? have some good ideas and Don't be afraid because it's just a What I when I tell my guests is just a conversation between me and you Accepted there's a camera picking up watching and picking up everything we're saying and just don't be afraid and Really, I would encourage people to use the media. It's free it's just a matter of scheduling the time and your guests or whatever you have to do and Make it happen. No one else is one of the three few places where People don't tell you what you can say and can't say and I think that's so important Richard. Thank you so much So we also have with us Mike McNamara who has been doing I think more than 100 programs here at channel 17 Is that right? Yes, that is right over 120 120 programs. I hate following Richard Kemp by the way You are as articulate as he is not to worry so that the housing and communities program you've done 120 episodes You're taking a little break from that going to break But what I find is and for people out there who are thinking about doing something like this first of all Just just do it. It's it's a great experience And what I find on my show is that I learn way more about the people and the organizations that come on my show You know, they're usually people I thought I knew and people that organizations that I knew well But every time I do a show I have to learn so much more about them. It's just an enlightening experience So you're doing some radio now, huh? Yes, I am actually on Tuesday nights on the radiator I'm doing a show 504 by 802, which is New Orleans by Vermont. So it's a show about New Orleans music and culture and playing a lot of great music from five to six on Tuesdays And how did you develop your affection for New Orleans and its music? Well, I I actually heard my first Funky tune back when I was in high school and I won't tell you how long ago that was but since then I've developed a real affinity For brass bands and we've gone down there a few times and my brother's sort of in the local music scene down there So we get to see a lot of what's going on and so to get the inside track And then of course the HBO Tremay series came around and in love with that only three episodes left But yeah, I know I hate it when your favorite shows almost over but here a channel 17 You can just watch them over and over keeps going on going and going So and you what a great job you've done here over all these years I mean I remember way back when when everybody thought Nat Nat air was Bernie Sanders camera man In the early days, but what this has grown into is just extraordinary Well, it's been a lot of fun and we're very blessed to have a great staff and great boards And you're on this you're from the CCTV board And do you have any messages for people about why community media is so important to support? Well as the as the media shrinks and we see it shrink every day whether it's newspapers or other media Places like this are going to become more and more important for people to get the message out about what's going on And when you think about local elections in Burlington, there's certainly no one but us here at CCTV That's really filling the void that that other media used to fill. Well. Thank you so much, Mike And thanks for all your work. Okay. It's great to be here. It's great to have you here Come on down your food. Yeah, it's true. We'd love to have you here. We're here till 7 o'clock here at channel 17 It's the 12th of 12th of December Joe. Are you gonna join us Joe and Arlo? Joe Golden is here. Joe is a he's a coder And and a community media advocate and there's Arlo And you've been involved in the design and development of a lot of community media websites, haven't you a few around a few local ones Yeah, yep, I'll Work with LCA TV right now The work that I did with CCTV on the peg event module helped out a lot of people And gave them ideas as they developed some important Drupal modules that are being used in a bunch of places with community. You want to get did you drop something? Yeah, drop that note pick up that nut So, um, we also part of your work is you're committed to open source programming Can you say a little about that and why it's important? Yeah, open source. I think open source software is really important Because with open source you get to see you get to get under the hood if you want to and you What when you buy something from Microsoft or a proprietary vendor? You can't look inside so you have to trust that they tell you it's doing what it is And it isn't always doing that. Sometimes it's sending out little messages or tracking your your work or something like that. So open source I trust open source a little more for that reason and open source is worked on by geeks around the globe So it's a great Community cooperative project. Yeah, that seems to be one of the real powers of it Is it's sort of the crowdsourcing that the smarts of a lot of people who are always improving other people's work? So that you end up with better and better websites and community-based internet spaces absolutely and Some of the recent success of Apple they recently adopted OS 10 which is based on Darwin, which is very closely related to Linux So we in the open-source world say We've we've had a victory there as Apple Uses a bunch of the things that we've developed kind of under the hood in the new OS 10 So, yeah, we love open source. So I know that you spend a lot of time in front of a computer But you also are interested in what's going on in the community, right? So what kind of issues are you involved in as a community member? Well, not as many as I'd like to be but I've really appreciated CCTVs coverage of the f-35 issue, which I've kind of watched closely So I've been involved with that I help out at Arlo's school and teach little kids yoga But I'm not doing as much Community things as I'd like to these days, but we're heading over to community dinner here Momentarily, well, and you have two small kids. So you're kind of busy. Yeah, they're they're the part of the community We're we're watching out for thank you Joe. Okay. Thank you. Thanks a lot. Bye Arlo. See you later, Arnie How are you? I want to welcome Arnie Gunderson. Arnie is with Fairwinds Corp and he has been doing a lot of work in forming the public about what's happening in Fukushima and other places like Vermont Yankee for many years. Hey, well you two have this this station has done a lot for a lot of years And you know, I really appreciate that Maggie and I were out there talking about this but without the platform that this station provided even before the big issues at Vermont Yankee You guys were way ahead of your time So what thank you for saying that I appreciate that and what do you You know a lot of you have to deal with the mainstream media a lot And how do you how would you describe how mainstream media covers the issues of nuclear safety? Well, here's an example. There's a power plant shutdown in Florida forever And it's going to be 60 years till it's the Commission and the mainstream media in Florida just rolls over and says well That's what the Nuclear Regulatory Commission says. That's what it's going to be Whereas here in Vermont. We don't take that for granted and and you know this station, you know And then your affiliates because that stuff goes around the state Allows the message that there is an alternative out there to to waiting 60 years to decommission a power plant So that's just one example, but the mainstream media has rolled over. There's so much money On the other side of the issue And and you guys don't roll over and I appreciate that I'm so glad that you've been able to join us here at channel 17 and thank you for your work. It's very brave Thanks for all you do. Thanks a lot arnie. Okay So we're here at the channel 17 holiday party and um, I want to just do a special shout out to a few people We have two of our very long Long-standing supporters passed away this year one duck Chiaffi who was viewer of the year for many many years I would say since we started the channel And um alberna dina who was a co-host with her bloom and thaw of stump the chumps And so 2013 was a sad year for us because they They passed they departed as one would say but we have them in the archives And so they will be with us forever On our walls and um here in the archives and on the screen and you can certainly watch some previous issues of Stump the chumps on our website channel 17 dot tv's ch 17 dot tv And also we've got some good footage of duck chiaffi there as well I also want to just say a special thank you to The folks who are the volunteers for our live programs. We couldn't do it without them We've got bob neal and nick jewitt. We have eric kaza aid and deusch Pam blake And uh, beth mc mullin and jonathan mccanlis who have been doing this for years and years And of course henry prine who is going to be graduating from high school this year But started working with us. I think when you was in sixth or seventh grade and donna jacob. So you just met earlier in the show James giro is here with us. James is a um producer of Wonderful programming every week. How are you? Great. It's nice to see you lg. Thanks for coming tonight. Well, uh, Thanks for inviting me. You got to get the mic, right? Yeah, why don't you run the mic? I'm always running the mic and I don't know which end to point it at sometimes What's the latest program that you worked on james? Oh goodness. It's hard for me to remember what happened last week but i've been doing a lot of Benefits with cancer with camp de compta lately and art openings at the firehouse gallery And it's just a myriad of things to do. I know that you set me on a very great project And I had an opening to do at the firehouse gallery And it was about a sailing canal schooner and a real sailing canal schooner And we look forward to doing some more work with that and of course the maritime museum. I had a really nice show with them and The programming here is you know, it's just a myriad of different things to do. I know it's the political things I guess the last thing I did here political was for rob and he sent me up to the senator's office World's AIDS march and uh, so that's a really exciting thing to be able to if you're out there and if you Haven't ever met a governor or a senator or the mayor and you think it's a hard thing to do Just come in here and get a camera And uh, you'll be surprised where you'll end up and the people you'll meet so But you know, I would like to thank a couple of people because it's some of the small things That really make it. It's not only senators and congressmen or Musicians, but I'd like to thank coach Claremont at st. Francis Xavier high school And it was during kids day this year and it was really touching But they had seen jackie robinson movie and he interviewed with me running the camera All the kids on the baseball team. So I don't know if you know coach Claremont or not, but uh Some of the smaller things Really help out. So uh, if you want to come to channel 17 And get a camera I suggest doing so So james's program is the artful word you can see it every week There's practically a new episode every week and we're just so grateful for your dedication You're doing this wonderful work in the community james. Thank you. Well, thank you for pointing up with me and using antiquated equipment that I use and uh, I'll try to see if I can progress some in Computer areas sometime. I think you should just stand tall with analog. It's okay All right, that's good to hear and uh You know you everyone has their specialties. Some people are good in the field You know You can start out in the field and then you can come and do your own production You can come right here to the studio if you have any issues and do a live show You don't really have to have an issue You just might want to come and have a little bit of fun here at this studio And it's a great place to come to thank you james Great to see you So I want to thank everyone for being here for this live show. It's a lot of fun We um, we're having a really nice party everyone's kind of sitting around and um Noshing and talking and that's really what community is about really talking and eating isn't it? I um, I also just want to say a special thank you to the hosts of our live shows here at channel 17 We have some great ones. We have um Peggy lores has been doing the feminist media review for a long long time Dave sharp who's in charge of the legislative report. We have many legislators who come and Share what they're doing at the legislature. We have richard camp who you met whose program has progressive thought Hunger free vermont does a program on a regular basis. That's elita duncan She's in charge of coordinating that many people from their organizations appear on it. Muhammad abdi Who is with the simali bantu association? And uh, it's really helpful for That network of folks to have a platform to get out there news and information And then the burlington democrats do programs melinda molten has been hosting on the waterfront for many years with Great joy in her heart the mayor does a program and then we have burlington school commissioners and uh, Cal workman helps with the y connection Which has been really neat because the y is a giant force in Chittenden county and beyond and then preservation burlington ron wanamaker who Produces a lot of short programs and and host the live shows as well We mentioned bonnie scott of the woodchuck report, which is a neat little alternative program true north Which is with bob maynard and the vermont workers center. So you can tell we've got um Just a wide variety of political views here on channel 17 and that's what it's all about open doors Open ideas means an open democracy So we encourage you to come and get trained by our equipment at no cost come and host a studio program We'd love to see you produce over 1200 hours of programming a year And it's all available online and now as of 2013 the tv channel stream live 24 7 channel 17 on comic com cast and burlington telecom and and channel 3 17 on bt So stay tuned and 2014 is going to bring some really neat projects including the civic cloud Which will be a public access internet Cloud for community groups to access and use and we're really pretty excited about that So you'll be hearing more about it. So thanks so much and have a very happy holiday from all of us here at channel 17