 Oh, it's the cameras there let's keep that one on 10 Stop I can't see a Eric if you're over there. He's got to come over here Good to go well hello Welcome to the back story We're coming to you live from the Longmont public media studios in beautiful downtown Longmont I'm Tim waters and as a volunteer for Longmont public media I get the privilege of hosting this show Which gives me a chance to bring stories to Longmonters With more detail than you might get from reading in your local news sources and tonight a Very current interesting and relevant story, especially if you've been following your local news stories Is the backstory on Longmont public media and I have the good fortune of Welcoming a panel of experts the people who know about knew more about this story about Longmont public Media's history and future than anybody in town, right? This is Longmont public media's a team Sergio Angeles is executive director. Yep, and has played many roles Ryan Forbes has been recently joined this team in charge of marketing And Megan Lowry who as far as I know makes everything work here in the Longmont public media when there's a problem people call Megan so To get this started first of all, thanks to the three of you for giving me an hour or however long we go with your time tonight I think we'll fill an hour But more importantly thanks for what you do every day and the kind of community you're building here along with public media I'll display the other night which you may have a chance to talk about right But the creativity and the diversity and the equity that I see In the inclusion that I see in the community building is something that long much should be very proud of and and you're responsible for that So start off get us started with just talking about you, right? I have a question here about what attracts you to LPM I want to say that for a minute. Just tell us who you are. What were you doing before you got started with LPM? And then we'll talk about what you want to track you down to my my public media. Sure. Who wants your kick out? Yeah, well first I just want to say yeah, thank you So yeah a little bit about myself. I'm Sergio Angelis. I'm the executive director and co-founder Originally from Santa Barbara, California. I moved to Young Bear all the time I was six. My dad actually worked at Mac Store in the Longmont way back when So I've seen you know Everything changed in the Longmont When I moved back to Longmont after college in 2016 I wanted to start a startup and I started a travel startup Which ultimately failed and then met Scott Converse who's the founder of Tinkerbell and we co-founded Then the Longmont Observer I did also work for the Longmont economic development partnerships. I did entrepreneurial economic development for the city And then eventually did this Well, and so anybody who knows knows Sergio is one of our young on-the-rise professionals that's done a variety of things in Longmont Continues to find ways to make a difference a contribution to the community. So good on you Ryan. Tell us about you All right, my name is Ryan Forbes and I actually I started off working in computer science I worked in the public and private sector working on communication software and ski software for companies out here and things like that. I eventually moved down to Texas and I actually started struggling and had been with a drinking problem and ended up in prison down in Texas and While I was locked up I got a degree in social welfare and then when I got out I started working in marketing and I also started working on my own business working in comics and also came here to LLPM to work on a podcast about the criminal justice system and That's where I met Sergio and Megan and and then They were looking for someone to promote LLPM and I was already telling people about LLPM all the time. So Just to kind of offer two observations Yes, one everybody loves their redemption story and Everybody deserves a second chance. So good on you for taking advantage of the opportunity Megan tell us about you. So my background is mainly in video production I graduated from Tampa University in Philadelphia and moved here about a year and a half ago now Before this I was working at a law firm So going from Pennsylvania and working in law to working at a maker space in Colorado has been a huge shift in my life But it's been really good getting to know the people in this area and feeling more involved in the community From from working in law firms or in law school, what'd you say? Oh, I've worked at a law firm I originally was going to school for a law for a semester and I said this is not for me This is a this is a this is a whole different experience But Longmont is lucky cuz you two came home right from Texas and from Philadelphia to Longmont as your home Sergio Longmont public media has not been around a long time right a relatively short History but developing a pretty significant substantial profile in Longmont if anybody's been paying attention recently they've seen that profile Developing you know who's been come part of this community Share with share with us kind of the brief history the origins origins of LPM right because there was a story there And how then how did you in particular get connected with this endeavor? So I think I was a non-profit Longmont news website kind of a maker space of news and it was kind of a result of just being frustrated with the lack of local news And just wanted to know like what's going on in our backyard and just being kind of frustrated with you know The dying local news ecosystem You know all those channels there. So we created the Longmont observer In response to that we started in tinker metal We started gathering volunteers. So we all learned about You know how to write news how to produce news how to distribute the news And one of the things that we did first was we live streamed Longmont City Council We're the only ones and this was 2017 To live stream to Facebook and YouTube So we showed up for three years every Tuesday Because the city wasn't doing it So that's really when we started, you know dealt with more into live-streaming and media technology And then 2019 the the city of Longmont put out an RFP to effectively run Longmont's public access station So Longmont observer put in a bid for that and our concept as a way to kind of revolutionize Public access was to create a a media makerspace This facility full of TV studios live-streaming rooms people to come together Create media learn about how to create and distribute it and that was our pitch And at the time it was also taught together with You have news and information and it just be a really you know poor factor in a local news and information So we pitched the idea and we want to our surprise Tars prize and then that was the surprise and amazement put together in surprise Yeah, so and then we started We changed her name from Longmont observer to Lama Public Media changed our mission changed our vision still 501c3 nonprofit all her information is online for people to find out and Obviously then the pandemic hit three months later, which I would say it was both Maybe good or good and bad for us since we were you know already Pretty familiar with live-streaming technology isn't everything went online We were kind of at a good position to teach people how to how to kind of Transform your business into a digital business Of course the the physical aspect of a makerspace doesn't work in a pandemic So that's kind of the good and bad the short history. I want to come back and talk more about makerspaces There's one you're kind of sister or brother. I'm not certain about the other makerspace But that's the whole phenomena of makerspaces and in kind of the origins in What we see today and why this is so important to communities. I want to come back to that But I want to hear these two as well, right? Let me just say one more thing for anybody who is watching this I know you want to contract at a time with a pretty ambitious portfolio of work that you proposed That was gonna also capture a lot of community events as well as creating opportunities for Content creators to do their work and the pandemic shut all that down. Yeah, so much of what you were Proposing and preparing to share with the community simply stopped, right? So it's been a challenge to have the kind of content that's relevant interesting to locals to stream off your platforms or run over Channel 8 so I know that's been a real challenge and we'll talk more about how you respond to do it So what what attracted each of you, right? You had you have these interesting other backgrounds Why long on public media? Sure So what attracted me is well first like I said, I was working on my podcast here and that's what initially got me in the door and Someone else actually needed help with their recording and that's they showed me But they gave me a tour and I saw the podcast studio and I needed a place to work on like this is great But the big thing that I really like about this and the reason I wanted to to market it and promote it is because it gives Everyone a voice and I feel like that's an incredibly important to part of the community like For me to be able to tell my story and to share it with other people I think it's incredibly valuable for each individual part of the community and the fact that it's Successful to anyone doesn't matter how much money you have or what race you are or what sure what your identity is It's it's available to everyone and the fact that this that's what this public media gives to everyone and We try to give make it to available to as big about audience as possible That's what I like about it and that's why I enjoy being here and work hard to promote it Megan I'm gonna come back and maybe summarize a little bit, but I want to hear from Megan Sure So I had a very pivotal moment in college that set me on a path to working at places that empower other people I Took a sports production class and our last assignment was to make a video about some activity that partnered with a 501 C3 and I I tunnel vision at the time that I was doing it I was just finding the quickest sports activity that I could to get the assignment done and When we went to film at the soup kitchen where the people were partnering with I realized that it was a one-town over from My hometown and I actually saw people there who I went to school with Who were benefiting from yes So that really opened my eyes to what I need to be doing with the skills that I was learning and then fast forward a Year after that I was looking to move to Colorado I came across a job posting for long on public media and Just the fact that their mission of empowerment just aligned so much with my goals. It was just fortuitous timing So here's what I hear mission empowerment voice agency relevance community Yeah Those are pretty powerful attractors in that would attract young ones like you to this community to do this work with another On-the-rise professionals pretty encouraging to old-timers like me. So that's good to hear now Long lot public media starts with an understanding of public access television What that is what it means what it comes where it comes from what the potential is what the constraints or limits are Now let's just to kind of open up free for free for all Give us a history of long month or not of public access television What does that mean? Why should anybody care about it here? Why should residents care that the long month city of Longmont invests now in public access? Television and creating this maker space in this opportunity. Yeah, I'll start I'll start off I'd give it a little bit of the brief history as I know there's a lot of history around public access in general But so public access television started late 1960s early 1970s And that came as a result of cable companies building out infrastructure to provide cable But obviously needing Some the access and the infrastructure needed to develop it So they made these deals with cities across the United States To have a right away and as part of that the cable channels gave the Local cities three public access channel or three they call it peg So peas for public access ease education G's government And then what happened was you I think you saw kind of what happened now You saw a lot of people started to create their own content Obviously it went in a lot of wild directions And then of course over time Let me take a step back the the purpose of public access then was also empowerment. It was about having a non-commercial Distribution channel of of free speech it was to empower individuals to come in create whatever they wanted to and then Distribute it to their local communities. I think of course over time as cable started to fade and die Public access stations weren't improving their technology. They were just becoming sale While you know YouTube and other platforms kind of came to rise and then at the same time funding for Public access started to die as that is Primarily from cable franchise fees or for a generation ago, correct Yeah, so it's all about like how many cable subscribers are in a city and then that translates into franchise fees And that's how public access gets funded. So Yeah, so like it kind of just came at a right time where we said, hey, you know media now is more important than it's ever been obviously with Fake news and just the lack of media literacy Which I think is something that the pandemic truly brought to life was just like how Across the US we've all been struggling with with just media in general like a lot of individuals don't Understand it don't know how it works or how to use it or leverage it so I think that's the power of you know public access in a Futuristic way that we call public access 2.0 of you know Let's create a space that we have here to empower individuals to learn about media to create it and then distribute it across all forms, right? It's it's mobile. It's iPads. It's live streaming. It's gaming. It's photography It's augmented reality and virtual reality, which is coming up soon And just all these technologies that people need to Know about so that they can you know use them or at least be educated about So The first generation public access cable cable television right which everybody was waiting to get into their neighborhoods Yeah, they had to pay for the right away and that payment for the right away became a way to fund Public access television and to enfranchise literally to franchise fees. Yep a whole community Inviting the creative talents and in the relationships and understanding what's going on in the community Today to today to this multi-faceted Multidimensional environment that is less about cable television and more about streaming and all of that in all that goes with that Off of multiple platforms So what should long monitors who are paying attention to this or we'll watch it at some point Time if you're watching tonight if if LPM is an opportunity of public access television is an opportunity for them talk about what those opportunities are What what what do you want long monitors and then to know about what they could do here? And then we'll talk of more about maker spaces for generally but just specifically about LPM We're talking about for the public access side of things It's the only place where you're going to learn about what's happening Locally in long months one thing right? Yes. I'm gonna blow my nose. Okay. We're on live television. Okay. We don't have any commercials You're right Somebody waits till the commercial to blow their nose because they've got a hot mic, right? I can't do that So go ahead, but I just want to apologize for whoever might be watching this I'll let you both. Yes. I'll let you blow your nose and then I'll you go ahead. Okay. All right Okay So so basically you can find out what's actually going on so you can actually catch up on the local government meetings Which honestly local government is the biggest impacting? Government in all of our lives so if you want to actually find out what's going on in Housing or city council like that's the things are actually affecting the roads and streets the buildings the everything like the golf course Like all these things that are actually in our lives right now You would have to find out from public media. That's from us and then on top of that like we Not just like if you're you know, that's boring or whatever There's also like actual events that we have like going on that are happening right here that you can come you can like We have this interview going on right here right now that you can come be a part of the ask questions You can talk to a silly councilman right here. I'm a volunteer for a long Around this table, so yes, yeah, and then like You can there there are people here that you can actually interact with but we also have like regularly like you can watch on the channel and Interact with online either events at the museum or events that are going on here at the studio We just had a crazy talent show where there's all sorts of like there's people from All over Colorado came in and showed off their stuff and you can you couldn't see that you're not going to see that on other cable channels and then on top of it you can come in and see like what what that your actual community looks like and all because this this space is here and because other other people like volunteers like like Tim or or our people who We work within the community like our contractors at like so right of Mesa creative solutions who helped like get acts throwers And stuff outside, which also you're not going to see outside city hall. Here we go. So like things like that. So Yeah, it's you you you're not going to see that like that's public media I feel like at its finest is bring you bring it together physically if you can't come together physically or you missed it You can find it online and then on top of it. Like you see what's going on To add to that I think we're changing the whole definition of public access when I was younger I would watch it to see if I was getting a snow day That's the only reason that I needed public access TV as a former school superintendent I know that how many of them would just like you and their teachers were waiting. Yeah, exactly but here were You can see your neighbor on TV and maybe that might inspire you to come in and learn something we're making public access educational in a way that's creative and Really like Ryan was saying bringing your community together and I think it's really cool to see people that you actually know on TV My granddaughter sometimes enjoy watching me Yeah, but I don't know about anybody else my granddaughter. So it's a chance to To be here we're live tonight It's a chance to be here in a live audience if people wanted to do that We bet I'm gonna before we're finished to now talk about some other shows we're doing in October Where their opportunity part of the live audience? They can come and create But they also have a chance to stay in touch with their communities for this It's a rich menu, right that's available right now that people could stream Off the Longmont public media website or to your station your channel on YouTube, right? So that's that's Part of the opportunity. Let's talk a little bit more about the creation, right? I don't know that that public access television would be if it's the proper frame it to frame it properly to frame it It's like the Wild West, but it's not controlled by the FCC, right? So you don't have the same constraints you don't have opportunities to to To cut something off when somebody has to blow their nose or to bleed them out when Might might find offensive. Yeah, so talk about what those parameters are sure what if you're a creator Content creator or if you're a consumer, what should people know about the parameters and the controls and who makes those decisions? And yeah, how far does empowerment go right in this in this environment? Yeah, so you're right Yeah, FCC doesn't control our station per se What controls our station our community guidelines? So it's what we as a community want those to be I think we've taken a stab at that So I see you'll never find pornography. You'll never find where to it is violence You'll maybe have some profanity, but not you know to the obscene amount And that's you know But that's I mean that's really it you know those are the parameters of you can't create that here Nor will we distribute that content and that is based off of a Recent Supreme Court ruling that public access stations can in fact control what they Distribute again. We try to keep the parameters open as possible. We do want to empower everyone to create really anything they want to You know, it's you're you're limited by your creativity But within you know those those Definitions and constructs and community guidelines that that we have just to be safe here. Yeah, so We'll talk more about membership in just a bit But I'm one of those who has taken advantage of this opportunity. I get a chance to host programs like this For me I said earlier. It's a privilege. It really is I get a chance to interview When do I ever get a chance to interview the three of you ever? Probably never and in the context of the backstory and other programs I've done for Longmont public media as a volunteer. That's always top of mind for me How cool is this I get a chance to be in a conversation with this group of people about this topic at this time Something that's relevant and I think interesting whether anybody else does and I just think people Who would like to do that ought to pay attention to the opportunity. It's right here right now to do that I've also I've also enjoyed I've watched I've enjoyed more some and others less, but I've watched programming Along my public media that some people might get disturbed by because of language or whatever Talk a bit about how do you work that in right? How do you honor? Sure, right? The the invitation. Yeah, and then make the programming available at a time when it might not offend Young kids or parents with your children, etc. Yeah, so we do allow, you know public submission So anyone in Longmont can submit content to distribute on our public access channels We do ask you about, you know, what if there's obscene, you know language That sort of thing and then we do Broadcast some of that more, you know, maybe Disturbing content, although I would just say maybe more PG-13 You know between 10 p.m. In like 3 a.m. And then if we do decide, you know, like to show anything that may have some language Before that we do have, you know, some some Graphics that we just throw up and say, hey, you know, you might find some disturbing language on here Just in case your kids don't want to watch it or anything like that So we do try to put some guidelines there and just kind of protect viewers in case they don't want to Be watching some of that. So before we talk about makerspaces anything else you too want to share about the opportunity not just to watch your neighbor, but to be the face that somebody's watching or to be behind the scenes and Helping enabling others to have voice in agency because there are people here tonight as volunteers Who are making it wouldn't happen right without without a team of volunteers making this happen Talk a little bit about what those opportunities are I think that people don't realize how much power they have by getting in front of a camera and speaking about their story That's something that we love to do here is empower people who are often ignored in society Or don't get the opportunity to speak up about certain things and I think that if more people You know shared their stories, we would only be richer for that And this is a chance to do that a place to bring it to life to have a platform Anyone shared it? Yeah, I would say actually so actually when I was When like everyone knows like the courtroom drama is like law and order and everything and that those don't happen in real life at all but like when I was When I was dealing with my my cat charges Actually, so I talked to someone who actually worked for 60 minutes and they talked about how the of the importance of Actually a video and how much importance it plays of like taking a video and getting it done so you can present yourself and That was just to like to a judge or into what to a courtroom in one scenario this would be going out you can put this on YouTube on on cable channels and you can put it on repeat and Spread it to whoever you want to for whatever you make here and not only do you get to Take whatever message that you're you're making and putting out and and frame it the way you need to and cut to the So the highlights you learn how you learn that skill and it's not Everyone a lot of times it gets overwhelming like I don't want to learn to do that I want to hire someone to do that But honestly once you learn it it's yours now now you can take ownership And there's a lot of power in that and being able to do it yourself And then you know you can do it here and you can do it everywhere So let's spend a little bit more time. I just spend more time on this than I thought we would because I should have added a question to my list about Classes Knowledge and skill sets that people have a chance to develop Somebody who might listen to this to both of what you two just had to say and since to themselves How do I how do I acquire? How do I own that knowledge and skill set? How do I develop that competency that I could create my own video? That my grandkids could watch or whomever is gonna watch what's available here and how do people get involved? We'll talk about membership in a minute But just talk about before we get to members talk about the kind of the technical aspects of this the technical assistance this year The equipment this year. Yeah, so anyone can come in Monday through Friday night at five. Absolutely free and you know, we have a wide range of of Equipment anything from maybe, you know, very consumer friendly to maybe more Prosumer level and anything kind of in between and our our goal in our job Right is to teach people about teacher community about how you can use that So we have classes on like video productions studio setup how to make this look good, you know Who's Bob Brzezinski who's behind a camera right now and in waving it is an expert at You know, thank you Bob, you know comes comes and helps and helps all their members And also teaches all their members how to do that Or you know Eric who you know wants to learn about podcasting and then who's also behind the camera? And you know, we just started doing a podcast together So, you know, we it's it's just a family in the community of just teaching other people and you know Knowledge how to use it which you know goes back to what Megan was saying of just empowering individuals to to create and Just lowering the barrier to entry. I think that's that's really key It's just lowering the barrier so anyone can use it and make it as accessible as possible You don't have to walk through the door as an expert No, you get to walk the door as a neophyte and learn your way forward with lack of assistance, right prince pretty cool So this is a makerspace This is one of two makerspaces in Longmont So who would like to talk about kind of is there a short history of makerspaces? Where has this come from? Why should anybody care and and talk about this as a makerspace and to the degree that you can share about tinker mill? It's sure are one of our other makerspace in Longmont wants to pick that up Yeah, so Tim as you mentioned yeah, there's we're one of two makerspaces here So tinker mill is our I guess our other sister makerspace They're the first ones in Longmont started in 2013 and that's more of a I would say maybe a physical makerspace, so You have well welding shops. You have laser cutters pottery glass-blowing jewelry shop electronics 3d printing Woodshop just a whole variety of you know other Tools and stuff right that normally you'd have to invest a lot of money just just to have so Scott converse who's Founded tinker mills my co-founder here But what a makerspace is is you have a space You bring in tools and equipment and then you bring in people and then the concept is all that gets mashed together And you have creativity of empowerment you have knowledge You have economic development And I think what has happened is a lot of economic development organizations have viewed makerspaces as a way to Incubate, you know new startups within cities and again lower the barrier to entry for people that want to make something physically So what we are we're just the media equivalent of that Obviously anything we do here if you can take over to tinker mill you can record You know your business you can Make a video about your product Or you can film a class over there right so it they go hand-in-hand and I just I mean you've seen just a lot of more makerspaces just pop up really anywhere or everywhere Across the US and I think maybe even outside of the US as well Do you know I have do you know how many makerspaces? I don't know Is I heard maybe I heard it from Scott that tinker mill is maybe the largest yeah Makerspace in the west west of the Mississippi. That's correct. Yeah I'll just say to long moners who are watching tonight or might be watching This is a recording if you haven't taken a visit if you haven't gone to to tinker mill and visited tinker mill you ought to give yourself the Opportunity to do that because it is very impressive. Yeah the expanse and the variety and and the resources and how Well that place is resource for people to do the kind of things they want to do and the synergy between the two between the LPM and tinker Yeah, yeah Why would Why would any resident want to take advantage of the makerspace here? We talked about voice Talked about agency. Is there any are there any other aspects of that to be become because we're gonna talk about membership Yeah, just a second. I mean I'll I'll say community. I mean I think I think you know It's both Ryan and Megan have said I mean there or or mission has just been you know Empowerment of of everyone and making this accessible that everyone and I think what has come of that was that we have a community here that I Think represents lawnmine that you know, we can obviously we all care about media We all love media all types of different media And we can learn from each other we can you know learn about maybe just not other stuff about you know Media just about life and whatever you want, right? I mean, it's it's a place where we're bringing people together It's it's a social plaza You're meshing, you know different ideas together and you're just having creative Output and just a stronger culture in lawnmine that I think is important to realize so when and how do you bring? The whether you're a member or not bring participants in the makerspace when and how do you bring them together? Yeah, I think I mean this is a prime example of you know, everyone here is a volunteer for the show None of us get paid You know, we all do this because we care about this we care about the content that's being produced and we also want to learn About it So, you know, we have frequent shows where people can come in just help another member out Or you know, you can come into a concert and learn about how we set something up and then we'll teach you on the fly Or maybe you want to be a part of another show? So, you know, we try to encourage You know neighbors helping neighbors Because that's really what drives this whole thing. It's it's the people in the community that we have here. It's not us It's it's everyone else So there is an event that occurs here on Wednesday nights Thursday nights are some Wednesday nights We have member meetings and then on Thursday nights we never meetings Yeah Thursday nights, we do have other but we have a different event every week where we try and bring the community together as well We're an example of those. Yeah, so this week we actually have a game night so we're gonna actually put up our big screen and Put a hook and play like have video game tournaments here and we're also will brings in some board games and The AXTORS want to come back for more so So that that will be so that's one example We we're also for October where we have like we have trivia nights Well, the trivia night will have haunted selfie museum. So we'll set this room up like a with different exhibits and People can take pictures in front of them and yeah on Halloween night October 31st I'm scheduled to interview Annie and Millie's place. So we may or may not want to be caught in costume Save us a little space so we can so we can share that story because it's a powerful story with the community So that's a that's an advanced organizer. So Thursday nights are it's a time to come and have fun and meet people What happens on Wednesday nights on Wednesday night? Yeah So to go back to what Sergio was saying about community our Member meetings happen every Thursday night or every Wednesday night Sorry at 7 p.m. And it's a really great space where we're able to facilitate Members coming together and helping each other with projects We have a whole section of the meeting where we're asking people what they're working on and what they might need help with and More likely than not other people are going to jump onto your project and volunteer, which is great And does somebody have to already be a member now come on Wednesday nights So they can come and learn about what it means to be a member. So now let's talk about membership Sure, what does that mean and why should anybody want to be a member of one? Yeah, yeah, so Memberships so as I mentioned earlier, it's free to start anyone can come in Monday through Friday Nine to five and use our space. We teach you how to use the equipment And you know just how to use the space in general Memberships then jump up to 25 bucks a year And what that allows you to do you can reserve this space for your own use that way It's dedicated to whatever you want to create And then our model changes So then we go to 25 bucks a month and then people get 25 25 24 7 access And 50% off equipment rentals and 50 bucks a month you get 24 7 access free equipment rentals And then half-off classes and then we have a production team So up to three people for 75 bucks and then corporations for a hundred bucks a month You get all the same stuff plus you get to promote your business on LPM So what those membership do is help do is help encourage the you know the longevity of this place Despite you know, we do get Funding from the city of Lamont that will eventually dry up because less and less people are subscribing to cable So we need a way to keep this place alive in our one of our revenue sources is membership revenue So if you want to be a member and cost anything if you want to be a member for nothing Right, you just have more limited access or there are maybe cost associated with the access you have Or for different levels of membership you get more access, right as in full disclosure I was a founding member and I continue to be a member Which means that I get to volunteer. Yeah, right? Yeah, I suppose I could volunteer without being a member, but I'm a member who volunteers I want to go back to that part about everybody volunteers Yeah, how much do I get paid for these? Nothing. Oh, nothing. That's why I've never been paid No one gets paid. Oh, no one volunteers don't get paid We do have obviously contractors when we need you know some some help to get some Well, we have staff we would this wouldn't work. Right. Yes. We need we need we have a staff full-time staff Well, actually three three full-time one part-time now But yeah, no volunteers come in they you know, they don't get paid. It's all just love, right? We all like and help each other out to make these shows happen. I think it's in I don't want it to be lost that Volunteers whatever the perceptions may be somewhere sure Volunteers do this because they want to be contributors as well Correct both to the community and to the storytelling or to voice an agency a Chance to share the stories that I get a chance to share Yeah, but the backstory is is for me a privilege But it's also an attempt to bring some of that to life for the community in ways that they wouldn't read Right in whatever the local news sources that they're they're utilizing but it's all Coalition or a community of the willing Nobody expects to be compensated. I just think that's something important for people to understand You've learned a lot about what it means to be a contractor with the city You've you're two years into this correct I'm certain there are both highlights and low lights. I'm not concerned about the low lights talk about the highlights of What you've learned and what you're able to bring I I want to go to a little more Specificity about some of where Ryan was what you were touching on in terms of what people can learn about their city Through Longmont public media if you have if you want to learn more about Fill in the blank from the golf committee to planning and zoning and everything in between historic preservation talk about that Part of the work you have you offer services to the city Correct lay with those out what those are and what the city might ask of you in addition to what you stream sure Yeah, so it's part of our contract. We operate this facility We operate the three public access channels so public access education government We have to provide programming for those channels We also provide up to 80 hours of videography services to the city of Longmont However, they want to use that we also record and distribute in live stream Longmont City Council planning and zoning as well as all the 17 other boards and commissions And then the rest is also, you know teaching classes And just you know meet media education So and feel free to chime in I think Yeah, a lot of a lot of it's been really interesting just working with with a city I think there's just obviously a lot of opportunities and I think possibilities for the city to leverage more media Then they have in the past. I think I'm always interested about opportunities in ways for to do that like for example, you know the Council is having a budget conversation now Is there a way to create maybe a bite-sized video that is digestible for people to understand like here's how we're spending our money and here's how it's being allocated So I always looked like to look to see, you know, how can we how can we figure that out? How can we? Leverage this with you know with the city To disseminate and then inform, you know, our community Even better than what we're doing now. Yeah, so pushing information sure is there a way to Make this more top of mind to promote this I know kind of marketing Ryan is is part of your job here Is there a way to to elevate a level of understanding in the general public of what's available? when people want to know more either about the city or What they've asked you to produce, you know as a as a particular program right around a particular theme is now recording a Meeting it's producing new content Is there thoughts about how to how to bring that to the attention of more potential viewers or consumers? The biggest I mean honestly the biggest thing that I have found on like when talking about this and talking about Like we we every time a new anything goes out. We make sure we put it like there's a post about it We've let people know I'll put up reminders about like hey this thing is happening Just like we put out that this this show is coming out tonight. So there's Letting people know about it a lot of times the only thing that really seems to even like really resonate is just For them to see it like to under to see that this is here that this is this is what's going on and that this is like that There's like this is what's behind the wheel The the other part is is like is getting it as many places at once which is we really try and do because it's not like Because a lot of people don't Watch aren't gonna be tuning in to check cable plus on top of cable. There's however many Thousands of channels now and so to flip through and to land on llama on public media and to know that's that's what this thing is That's a that's a hard one, but you can go on Roku and Vimeo and Amazon fire and aren't on our YouTube channel and find all of the content and have it readily available And it's split up so that you can go am I looking for Our local government on our city projects It's all subdivided up for you So you can see all of it and then be readily accessible to see it So people want to know more what what the options are it's available in terms of by show titles I know they can go on the website click on the backstory and just a whole collection of backstories and they're scintillating I Don't know why But it's all fun storytelling But but all the shows that that we've done right and then you've got programming for the local cable right channel channel 8 channel 88 and the others 16 So there's there's lots there, you know as you're sharing Ryan I'm thinking the idea of seeing is believing right when I see those things there You know then I'll take advantage you flip that you've heard we've also heard people talking about I won't believe it or I won't see it till I believe it right Seeing is believing Or I won't see it until I believe it and part of this I think is that it in people just don't believe because of what they've experienced in the past They don't believe it's rich that it's creative that it's interesting that it's empowering and so they don't to tune in So hopefully we can break that Whatever whatever the resistance is that people both would see and believe and believe and see right to get more viewers of what's going on here I think go ahead. I was gonna say I think our kind of our first attempt at doing that was we had this crazy idea of Doing a local dating show. Oh, yes So we called it local in love and I was like the host but the thought was You know can we do like a local date something? You know like you normally don't see You know, so, you know Megan and Emily at the time and myself, you know put the put together the show where we interviewed a local Individual who was looking for love and we thought hey would that be Shaquille? It was at the time. Yeah, I love you and We said why don't we interview him and then maybe you know put it out there and see can we help him find love and a Maybe more tasteful kind of way Not yet, but he is dating someone now But anyway, yeah, so, you know, we recorded this put this out there and you know it generated a lot of Interests right like oh here's something that you normally don't see But you can create here that you know again brings people together in a different way Yeah, and to like to add on to that so we're taking in February of next year because like we're gonna take that idea and Like I said, it's seeing is believing And so we the the hard part was getting people to sign up and to like get dates get a running thing and But we can get people in here if we drive them in for events and things like that So in February, we're gonna try and run it again in person And do it and get it and like do it like a dating game style and get it and we found and actually one of our members Comes all the way from Highlands Ranch to come up here and she has a crazy personality She and she and she can run the show Make up get everyone involved and get and and make it and so we're gonna try a whole bunch of different things And then also at the same time put it up on the channel channels promote it and that way you've got it's not just one aspect of Just like putting it on the cable channel and hope someone sees it or putting it on the socials and hope someone sees it It'll be everyone. It'll be word of mouth. It'll be on on the social channels. It'll be Let's we're getting ready. We're doing build up because we've been building up for a while all like for a while already on this idea and And and like I said not not just us alone working on this It's been working with different groups like different different other local Organizations and groups to help promote it as well I know like I know Jay with Splash Bros. And then we've got We've got AJ Fox was so amazing creative solutions both have been out there promoting all of these things and getting out there and doing that thing So these are all getting getting the local word out there with different in different ways and Help like once again all tying and community involvement not just It's just a local channel and hopefully you'll get a tote bag next next member And also we I want to note that a lot of our members and our amazing volunteers are also spreading the word about us Correct me from wrong Ryan. Do the member bring you in? Yes, Sarah Morrow who she brought me Like said she she needed help with her show and proper tea time. Yes proper tea time and she needed help and Yeah, she and like like said she she needed help with the show and Like once like like said when I saw the podcast studio, that's When like that smells like I'm all in on this place. I want to do this. I want to get a membership I want to I want to learn all I can Well, you're gonna have to you're gonna have a chance to continue learning because you just won an extension of your contract I did the city So you might want to talk about what that means to long my public media What does it mean to you as this as the team in and what should it mean to the community in terms of opportunity and Aspirations, yeah, yeah, so for those that are watching and don't know So council voted five to one to increase our budget from 25% of franchise fees to 50% Which gives us about three hundred and four thousand dollars of operating revenue For a two-year contract Which I think that's the first time that I know that a city has increased funding For public access and for public media, which I think is a huge win I Think to answer your question about what that brings. I think it brings stability I think it brings us more time to be able to flesh out this model it helps us I Think also helps long on city council in the city Demonstrate to its community that they care about this place. They see the value of it and want, you know The community to be a part of it And kind of what you would expect to see over the next few years is Just a lot more programming. We'll be able to have increased staff We'll be able to again, you know, just improve, you know the space here already Even though it is, you know, pretty pretty well built out. Obviously, you know, there's new technology right now and then and just yeah, just more stability and Yeah, I just want to say obviously thank you to council I want to say thank you to all of our members and supporters who we really couldn't have done it without them And again, that's what keeps this place alive. It's not us. It's it's people like You know Eric and Bob and all of our other members that that create a lot of great content and teach and Want to create so yeah Well, if we think about it public act the intent of public access back in the 1960s was this would be Considered a public good. Yeah a benefit to the whole public, right? Correct. That's what was to happen with those franchise fees Managed really by municipalities so in the context of public good and how we think about fire protection streets Utilities all this public goods those are in that those are goods in which we expect to see an investment because they benefit everybody So if we put public access television into that frame It is certainly a worthy investment on the part of this municipality and it was it was it's fun to know that that yeah Now we've been at this for a while and we're gonna we're gonna wrap this up because they just got the signal But I've just got a couple minutes left I do want to do some promotion of what's coming in October. Yeah, but is there anything I haven't asked that you'd like to answer What do you wish I had asked and if we covered it all that's fine But I just don't want to wrap it up with that. I just want to say it's not just for people online It's anyone like I the next on the next phase is it's getting everyone from colleges and schools and Anyone in the area to get involved come to this place to let people know That's the the thing that people just don't know about this place as soon as they know it They love it, but just come stop by where all of us are happy to give you tours come here And I don't care where where you find this video to come and stop by the last thing I'll say is We are kind of you know, we are reinventing public access. We're calling it public access 2.0 to Include a lot more modern technologies like podcasting Livestreaming AR VR But we've already been seeing other cities are looking along on To this model and seeing hey, can we do the same thing in Philly or in, you know, another city in Colorado Or school district in California? You know people are paying attention and I think that's that's great that you know if this place exceeds You know it should proliferate You know other cities to invest in public access and just create a better understanding of media across the US Two years from now think about this two years from now when you've had this stable funding for the next two years Cities across America will be lining up to learn from your example, right? And you'll be able to Take this to a different kind of scale as a public good. Yeah Any questions you want to answer? Just I think my highest hopes for this place will be the people that I'm teaching video production to now We'll pay that forward and continue to stay here and teach other people. I think that's how we'll be most successful Let's I'll just give that a name and that's the that's the the benediction right to all this So I thanks again for everything you do day in and day out I know you're here a lot of days and a lot of nights So I appreciate it as you bring this to life in the community and in the month of October I hope you bring me hope I hope you help me Bring some things to life In the as a backstory we're going to do three backstories in the month of October on October 9th We're going to be in the museum with a live show. So Bob and Eric We need volunteers a live show in the museum three o'clock in the afternoon on October 9th We have an incredible panel of journalists Chuck Plunkett former managing editor of the Denver Post editorial page Dana Caulfield who was part of that team and found a co-founder of the Colorado Sun Maria Karygiannis of now a long monitor in a pure lecture prize winning journalist from the Boston Globe The most a Davis who is the director of the Colorado media project and the topic. It's it's labeled on the on the museum website as Media matters for the backstory purpose is it's the backstory on journalism news and accountability Now where we've come from where are we and where we're headed? So if you care about that story long monitors join me in that panel and a team of long month Public media volunteers at three o'clock in the afternoon on October 9th That's going to be following on October 30th by a second in this two-part series Sergio. You'll be part of that along with other Entities and the leadership of those entities if Warren Macy may others who are part of a local the local solution As we see the decline of mainstream media We don't have to be a news desert in long line. In fact, we won't because of the local Solutions that have come to life one of those We'll hear from the the League of Women Voters and what they're doing with a really exciting project across the country To train citizens to be active observers of their public institutions in the interest of accountability So long monitors if you're interested in those two shows We're going to be in the museum at three o'clock on those Sunday afternoons We're going to be back here on October 31st on Halloween night to share the story of Annie in Millie's place A new non-profit in town with a powerful story to tell so long monitors That's your backstory on long month public media Join us in October for a whole series of backstories that hopefully will spark your interest. Thanks to you And thanks for our volunteer team