 Thank you so much to Splash People. Thank you very, very welcome to Channel 17 and CCTV's Solstice Holiday Party. I'm Lauren Glendavidian. I'm just pleased that everyone could be here tonight, especially our musical entertainment. You're really good. I missed you at the Richmond Farmers Market, but I'm sorry that I did. We are having a party here tonight to celebrate the holiday. It is also Channel 17's 15th year, and this channel would not be possible without all the wonderful people that work and volunteer here at Channel 17. And we have a whole variety of folks, and we also have some video that we're going to be showing, but before we actually show the video, I'm going to change the plan since we have everyone's attention. And I'm going to introduce a few people, and I'm wondering, Marge, can I put you on the spot? Could you come on over here? I'm not going to make you say anything. But you could. I'd just like to introduce Marge Gaskins, who's the chair of the Channel 17 trustees. Marge, thanks for coming. Very nice to be here, Lauren Glendavidian. It's great to have you. It's a good party. It is a good party. Yes. And you've been on the Channel 17 trustees for many years at this point. It feels like... I don't know how many. Count that high. And this has been a pretty big year for the channel. Very much so. Very much so, yes. We were negotiating with Burlington Telecom, which is coming into the city. And just when that got over, we had to deal with Comcast. Comcast and Adelphia, right. Yes, we have to shuffle them around a little bit here, I think. And I understand, well, I know, actually, but the Channel 17 trustees have been doing a lot of strategic planning to plan for the future. Absolutely. And we have a big future coming up. We do, and thank you so very much for joining us. You're very welcome. It's really great to have you. Great. Thanks for the music. I know. It's great. It's great. Really, they're most excellent. Thank you. We're also gonna... We're going to show... Oh, we're showing some video, all right? We're gonna watch some video now. I have everyone's attention. We're gonna watch a little bit of video, and we have a special song coming up. Jonathan, one of our volunteers has made a Channel 17 song, which I'm very excited about showing. And then we're gonna conclude the evening with a rap that was made, especially for Channel 17, that has been in production all week. But I guess while we're here, how many minutes do I have? I wonder if you could get a shot of the control room, because that's really where things are happening. Let's have a shot of the control room. Oh, now they're all leaving. And there's my child. Thank you so much for joining me. Thank you very much. All right, you see the control room? There's everyone in the control room. Now, here at Channel 17, people start volunteering on the cameras in the studio, and then they work their way into the control room. So all of those people have worked their way up, and then they actually work their way into jobs here, because we are an apprenticeship program. But I also would just like to say that one of the things we mentioned was that Burlington Telecom is going to be providing cable voice and data services to the people of Burlington. So next year at this time, you will be able to subscribe to either Burlington Telecom if you're in Burlington, or to Adelphia, which may be Comcast. So a year from now, the cable landscape will be different, and it also will be very exciting because you'll be able to get Channel 17 programs on demand, which means that you could go a free on-demand channel, free if you get cable, and call any of the programs. All right, now, this is a special Channel 17 song that's coming up, and Jonathan, one of our volunteers, is put this song together, and we're gonna maybe be coming up with that song any minute now. Absolutely, sure we ought. We're gonna fast forward beyond the inauguration. Yep, this is how TV works, everybody. Here we go. Jonathan McCandless singing the Channel 17 song. Well, ladies and gentlemen, I serve. And let me tell you what all these great patriots could have done with their money. These few days of celebration will spend the equipment. I have television with Jonathan McCandless, your musical host for the next a little bit. I'm officially being filmed, so I will sing you a song about how absolutely awful everything in this country is, and maybe my song will be chosen for the next song on TV. When you wanna see something on TV, you're dull and bored, and there's nothing good to watch. Well, then turn on live TV. They air their shows eight times a month, so you can see it over, oh, see it over and over again. You can watch live TV. You can watch it whenever you want. When you're dull and you're bored, and your hands and feet are below your toes, you can watch live TV, because it's not boring. You can watch it any time that you want to. Any time of the day, any time of the night, it's on 24, seven days a week. And for those who don't get Adeltia, you can subscribe for $30 extra a month. Oh, it's fun, and it's local, and it's right here in the state of Vermont. They're down at 2.94 on the second floor, with cameras and lights and action folks. And tonight, we have a musical guest here. We have all kinds of really lots of fun, and we have a lot of fun, and it's gonna be fun. I've been live TV twice talking about everything from the Williams House to the world in politics, and everything else is such a, being really silly, that the television station is cool, and it is fun, and it is cool, and it's exciting, and it's wild. Animals and farm animals and other animals run around. Yeah, it's a lot of fun productive work, and it makes me feel cool. I do not feel like a nerd by watching TV. You can watch your shows eight times a month, so if you mess up or fail, you can watch them on videotape, in the archives in a box, where they stole them for a long time, and then they throw them away. They recycle the town meetings after about three different runnings. They get kind of boring after the fourth running, and as you know, the TV's not so boring. It's not so unhip and cool. You don't even have to be a Republican to work around the TV show. They allow you to be whatever you want, and you can be a political party at all. It can be really fun. You can wear red glasses, you can shave your head bald, and they let you be a channel coordinator for the last 20 years. And if you get dough and bored and you want a new job, well, there's not anything else to do, so maybe I'll go and run the TV station and quit my job at the library today. Thank you for listening. It's been fun. Jonathan, that was a great song. That was a great song. And now I would just like to take the opportunity to introduce Oak Logalbo. Oak has been, I actually went back and looked in the files to see how long you have been working with CCTV and Channel 17. There'd be a little bit of guys like you. It's been at least 10 years and probably more. I only, we only started keeping paperwork 10 years ago. More than 10 years. I think so. More like 12 or something. It's been a while. And you actually have officially retired from CCTV, but not from the public access world. Right. I finally had the final meeting that I can stand to take. I know way more about development and review boards than I ever wanted to know. And you run Mount Mansfield Community Access. Mount Mansfield Community TV, which is Richmond, Jericho and Underhill. And that's a small operation by comparison, isn't it? Oh yeah, quite a bit smaller. I think, well, we have about 2,000 subscribers. I don't know how much it is here, but you guys have quite a bit more. Probably about 29, 30. Yeah, so more than 10 times. You have more than 10 times that we do. But you have a lot of community involvement. Fair amount, yeah. There's a lot of people who, well, we, you know, we have the usual meetings and local events and, you know, we've got good people from the community on board. And what was one of, can you think of some of the high? The guys we're on. Our channel, actually. More than once. Two Splash people at the Richmond Farmers Market. There you go. We're getting ourselves a name. And a following. Look at all of us. We've got 30 people here. What, can you think of any high spots of your time working in access? High spots. Well, actually, all the election coverage is always really great. And all the people stopping by after the elections. That was kind of exciting. You know, people all over the state. I really like that. You know, covering some of the events in the community and demonstrations and, you know, that was really exciting. I especially like the live show here. You have so many different guests and so many people coming by all the time. And you never know what's going to happen. No, you never do. You don't. Ivan, can you bring me that package that's right there for Oak, right there in front of you? There you go. We have a gift for you, Oak. So that you can remember that our affection blossoms for you. Thank you. All year long. It's an amaryllis. And or it will be. It will be an amaryllis. I'm trying not to scrunch the paper anymore. No, it's kind of good. Yeah, thank you so much. We really appreciate all of your work. It's just one small token of our appreciation. So we also have another fabulous song. But before we do that, I'm just wondering if anybody in the audience want to stand up and make a little testimonial about their involvement here at Channel 17 or CCTV. Bruce, got anything on your mind? Yeah, come on. Come and tell us. Tell us a little bit about your involvement. Throughout the years, I think we've since 1999 or 2000, we've put in a lot of shows, youth shows, we've worked with Club You Speak Out, Catherine Buttnick Show, 1451 Music, Straight Talk Vermont, United College Club, probably some other ones. But we're very fortunate to be able to do that and reach to youth around the state. And a lot of people have called our shows and came through our events around because they saw us on Channel 17. Without this channel, I think that we wouldn't reach as many kids or college students as we have. So thank you. Why do you think using TV is a good organizing tool with young people? Well, I think, well, I just got to put myself in their shoes. Basically, just TV is just, you just watch TV. And Channel 17, you just cannot go past Channel 17. I don't care what you're trying to get to. Anything near Channel 17 or past Channel 17, you have to stop Channel 17 to see what's going on. And many times, I've learned a lot too watching Channel 17 by watching Development Review Board stuff and as well as everything. So I'm just very happy to be able to part of Channel 17 for all these years. And we'll continue to work with Channel 17. Well, this channel wouldn't exist without your work and the work of everyone who participates. But I think you may hold a record for the number of different programs that you've produced. Quite a bit. Basically, all our youth on our board always have a lot of different things that they want to do. They want to promote the Liberal Youth Center or some other places that we have. They want to promote the dance companies or our music programs or art. And so we say, hey, you need to go on Channel 17 and get to your show and put together a group of people and do it and get the word out there and get youth involved, your peers involved. And I'm telling you, we've worked with thousands of youth and college students throughout the years we've been doing this. And a lot of it is because of Channel 17. I know it is because we wouldn't continue to come back if it didn't work, but always do. Thank you so much. Thanks a lot. Yeah. Come and tell us about your involvement here. My name's Jules, and I just wanted to thank you. Channel 17 has been like a godsend for me. I originally called up to invite you to cover some of the work that we've been doing, including recruiting 300 Vermonters and students from five colleges which were part of a 40,000 person march up in the UN's allegations in Montreal. And I never expected to be videotaping or making any kind of documentaries until three weeks ago, fell in love with it, and just want to thank you for the opportunity. So why do you think it's important to use video for your organizing work? Well, I think it reaches a lot more people, not only youth, but other audiences that may have no idea of what youth are doing or what kind of things are being organized for different nonprofit causes, such as wildlife conservation or climate change initiatives or even some of the work that we did, which includes organizing 600 students all over the world to be part of the UN United Nations delegations just two weeks ago. And so you're using other tools. You're using internet tools for organizing as well, aren't you? Yes, definitely. While working with over 50 coalitions of environmental nonprofit organizations, we have such a huge network that, for instance, one of our websites, it's gettinghotinhere.org. Got 10,000 hits in one day. We've got New York Times coverage, BBC, Reuters. You name it, a lot of attention for a good cause, obviously. So you're using television as part of an overall strategy? Definitely. I mean, this is the way to generate support and show what people are doing for no money at all, paying out of their own pockets, just following their heart, just to promote education and promote causes like preventing species from going endangered, which is what I do. Jules, thank you very much for your work. I appreciate it. We all appreciate it. And thanks for using Channel 17. Thank you. OK. See, this is what makes the world go around. Richard Kemp, please. Organizers are what make change happen, and that's why Channel 17 is here. I don't know if I need the mic or should I do the mic so they can catch me? I just want to tell you. I sit on the board of directors of CCTV, and it's really an important part of what I do, because I'm concerned about our society and the world and what happens at CCTV is making some changes. I also have my own program, and I want to invite anybody else who really has a message or finds messages and wants to get them broadcast out to the wider world. It's available here. It doesn't cost you anything. And there are no makeup artists or anything. You just have to do that yourself. But I'm delighted that there's a staff here that's really dedicated, and Lauren Glenn is one of those people. Thank you. Thank you very much, Richard. And thank you especially to the boards of Channel 17 and CCTV and the entire staff that works here, which there are many people. And I think when we do the repeat of this program, we'll have the list. But we're going to go to, because I could name everyone, but I won't. I should be naming them, though, shouldn't I? I think we'll just put the list up. But we have here in the studio with us, we have Carl, who's been a volunteer for over 10 years, which I'm always happy to tell everyone. Carl not only runs the camera, but he does directing. Todd Carroll is in the director's seat. He, again, started as a camera person and was field producer and is directing. Megan, her work is behind the camera. Can't actually see her. But she's there. And she's also our queen of outreach and training, which is a new investment that we've made here at Channel 17. And it's yielded some really wonderful results. We have Barnabas in the back and Brent. We can't see them, but Jess Wilson is here. And we have Nat Air in the back. No one ever really sees him much anymore. But he's back there. And Tia Lindell, who not only makes things happen every day, but is an incredible baker. I hope everyone had a chance to have some of her finished pastries. And Rob Ryber, who's gone off to a meeting, is another one of our absolute mainstays, along with Sarah Berger. And then downstairs we have Harold Smith, who runs Cyber Skills, and Kevin Burke, our technical director. And we have Priscilla, where's Priscilla? Who really is just amazing volunteer of the year. She comes every day and helps make things happen downstairs. So thank you so much, Priscilla. So without further ado, we're going to look at the latest and greatest rap made just for Channel 17, the 2006 Channel 17 song. Jonathan's was the 2005 Channel 17 song. And so we're going to hear that. And then we're going to have a little bit more to splash people and sign off. So we're ready to go any time you are, Todd. Check it out, Live at 525 on CCTV. Live at 525 on CCTV, yeah, for the love of media democracy. Live at 525 on CCTV, turn on your TV, Channel 17. Lift up your voices, reach out, speak free. Live at 525, you can check these shows to educate you on the purposes because of the flow. If you keep communities close, communities grow. Matter of fact, check the housing and community show. Wellington's a bustling town filled up with politics. Republicans and Democrats both like technology, each has their own show broadcast respectively. Progressive still got a voice. They represented heavily. What's going on? Check the local papers. Worried about administration? And watch the mayor. Wellington School Commission is going to give the info. What's going on with the kids from 12th grade to preschool? If you live across the river, that's OK, yo. We got something for you too, the Winooski show. If it's money, tune in. Lake Champlain Regional Chamber of Commerce fixated on the fiscal like they watched the CEDO show. Without economic development, the capitalist system can't grow. What philosophical beliefs do you subscribe to? Tune in to the feminist media review. Is she wrong? Is she right? I don't know. Women's voices speak up because it's your right. Plus the Vermont Workers Center finds your local labor advocates on the waterfront. Every day something is happening. Preservation, Burlington, upkeep our landmarks. We're conservative Vermont. Environmental Task Squad. Whether you're living down or you're just an aristocrat. A party for the people. Chittenden County, the Democrats. Ideas have consequences, yes, I know. Only the truly ambitious get honored on the world scholar show. My name is since bit in the flow. This has been brought to you courtesy of Free Speech, yo. For the love of media democracy, live at 525-CCTV, turn on your TVs, channel 17, lift up your voices, reach out, speak free. It's great. That was sin, and that was produced by Viren and Benny, who have been working on, the three of them have been working on some programs here, and we'll look forward to seeing those on channel 17. I also wanted to thank David Kramner, who's here. And Ivan Jacobs, who I'm not sure is still here, but certainly really has helped us, along with Ivan and Jonathan, who are our other star volunteers. So thank you to everyone for coming. And Ellie, of course, who is another one of our star volunteers, thank you very much. And we're going to fade out with two Splash people. Happy holidays, happy solstice. Let the light start shining in.