Somerville Cable TV

Before all this technology stuff I did artwork "the old fashioned way".

In the early 70's that included advertising art, theatrical lighting and film animation.

Then I discovered video, and spent the rest of the 70's working with video and cable TV - mostly on community -oriented projects, art pieces and documentaries.

The page at right lists some of the things I did during this first period of my career. You can click on a couple of them for more detailed info.

Somerville, MA
Municipal Cable Project

Community Cable TV Channel
Channel Director & Manager (18 mo.)

By the early 70's cable TV systems were becoming common throughout the country. Accessible technology and the wealth of channel space seemed to hold great promise. The US government mandated that local cable TV systems must provide significant resources to the communities they served. As an outspoken community advocate, I was selected by the Somerville Mayor's office to head up one of the first community-run and operated cable TV stations in the United States.

I directed Channel 84, operating from Somerville (Massachusetts) City Hall and transmitting directly over the city's cable system, the Municipal Cable Project produced two hours of local "live" programming nightly on a 5-days-per-week basis. Our coverage included:

sketch for Channel 84 logo "We've got our eye on you."

local news
governmental information and event coverage
health and education
issue-oriented documentaries
interviews with political and community figures
social services
cultural and arts features
local high school sports
school schedules & announcements

Local sports was undoubtedly the most popular service we provided. We also pioneered interactive "call-in" programs that allowed access to community leaders. Eventually our coverage was taken over by the cable company itself (Warner Communications). I reported directly to the Mayor's Office of Cultural Affairs, successfully lobbied for and was the community liaison to the local cable company.

As Director of the Municipal Cable Project :

Negotiated active programming relationships with the local community college, the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Media Lab), Earthworm, Inc. (an environmental organization), Boston educational broadcast TV channel WGBH and local government social services agencies.

Got additional funding from local agencies: Cable Advisory Board, Aging Center, Adult Education and Public Library and received support from the Alternate Media Center in New York City..

Trained and supervised an operating staff of seven local citizens, including several untrained "jobs program" participants and community volunteers.

We operated successfully for 18 months before a budget crisis during the recession of 1975-76 brought this innovative experiment in local community programming to an end.

Back to
The New Media Emerges

Sony's PortaPak (which appeared in 1972) was the first "hand held video recorder" available to the general public. It was exciting, fun stuff. I was selected for this leadership role by the Community Cable TV Advisory Board because of my strong advocacy and documentary work in the city of Somerville.

Channel 84 was a little in-joke play on the broadcast TV channel spectrum. Traditional VHF channels are numbered 2-13. UHF channels are numbered 14-83. As a cable-only channel we were "one step beyond". And then there was the obvious reference to "1984".....

Skills & Techniques : Early 1/2" and 3/4" reel-to-reel B&W and color portable video; multi-camera studio; post-production editing and graphics; network head-end (local cable origination point)