Fayetteville Public Television seeks larger audience, increased use

FAYETTEVILLE -- The public-access channel has come a long way from simply serving as a cork board for public meetings or providing a soap box for residents to proclaim their viewpoints.

An increase in money and staff, two rebrands and a change in leadership in 2010 has resulted in an increase in resident participation, an expanded viewership through online means and a renovation of the Television Center on Rock Street. Operational Manager Dan Robinson and the city's director of media services, Doug Bankston, presented as much to the City Council during a meeting Tuesday.

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The service, now known as Fayetteville Public Television, hasn't had a great reputation. City Chief of Staff Don Marr, who served on the council from 2002 to 2006, said he used to dread the topic. The low quality of the content, few residents using the studio and lack of necessary equipment resulted in disastrous discussions, he said.

The city is now getting its money's worth, Marr told the council Tuesday.

"Our community is benefiting by the quality of programming that's going on the channel," he said. "We haven't always been able to stand here and tell you that."

The operational budget comes from the city's general fund, which includes franchise fees from cable providers and sales tax. In 2010, the budget rose from $90,000 to $105,000, according to information from the city's Media Services Department.

That was when Anne Shelley took over as executive director of what had been Community Access Television for 20 years. She and Fritz Gisler, then media services director, got the operation back on track and rebranded the channel as Fayetteville Public Access Television.

The nonprofit corporation the city contracts with to provide the service, also known as Community Access Television, changed its name to Your Media. When Robinson took over for Shelley in 2012 he focused on expanding the user base to the arts, nonprofit groups and community organizations.

"Having five years of consecutive growth in the operation is very unusual in that most public-access channels around the country are going away," Robinson said. "Communities don't know how to engage the resource and utilize the resource, so we are thrilled we've had the opportunity to develop this and see it succeed."

Aside from Fayetteville, Springdale has a government channel and Bella Vista has a volunteer public-access station.

The number of participants enrolled in Fayetteville's programming classes rose from 100 in 2012 to 217 in 2015, with about 150 qualified producers currently on the books, Robinson said. The first quarter of this year had 81 new shows, he said.

The classes are free to the public. The community-platform show "FPTV Open Mic" lets residents walk into the studio and speak their peace for up to five minutes with no training or experience necessary.

Carol Kick, chief of voluntary services with Veterans Health Care System of the Ozarks, recorded a clip to invite everyone to see the Moving Wall, a replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, that will be in Fayetteville from Thursday to May 22. "FPTV Open Mic" airs periodically on the channel throughout the week.

"I think it's fabulous. I think they're very professional," she said. "I was dutifully impressed."

In 2015, the operational budget increased to $157,000, enabling staff to receive salaries and health care comparable to media services employees and creating a full-time director of education.

The Television Center, home to FPTV, the Fayetteville Government Channel, Fayetteville Public Schools TV and the Media Services Division, has gotten a significant upgrade. The P.E.G. Television Center Equipment Fund, a yearly capital improvement project, provides for the purchase, replacement and maintenance of equipment and production for those four entities, Bankston said. The share of $50,000 per year from the 2012-2017 Capital Improvement Project cycle is separate from the operational budget, he said.

Bankston, who took on his role in 2015, made it a priority to renovate the interior of the Television Center and change the "vibe" to something more inviting. The $250,000 digital upgrade to the equipment was made possible from its own separate Capital Improvement Project fund, paid for in increments that wrapped up last year.

The studio got a state-of-the-art console and displays, software upgrades and converted programming from standard definition to high definition, the industry standard, Bankston said. The center made digital cameras available for checkout instead of the old tape models in 2014 and rentals more than doubled from 203 to 433 in 2015.

Fayetteville Public Television also went national in 2014 by making the channel available online for anyone to view on Livestream. The channel joined YouTube last year, bringing online views to 19,000 from 10,000 in 2015.

Public-access television in general has a certain connotation, Bankston said. Most people think of low production value and unintended camp akin to the online series "Between Two Ferns with Zach Galifianakis." Staff at Fayetteville Public Television intend to change that, he said.

"It's not just a channel anymore. It's a facilitator of messaging and content and we're training people," Bankston said. "It's more than just the little knob on the dial."

NW News on 05/13/2017