Worcestershire Journal - TV at us, but not for us
by Karl - December 9, 2008 5:26pm
It probably matters a lot less now than it used to, but having a broadcast TV station seems to be an important part of a city’s identity. As a result, Worcester is nearly invisible to the outside world and, more importantly, to itself.
We do have two stations, but neither provides Worcester news or other programming.
- WUNI, Channel 27, that provides Spanish-language programming for the Boston area. (The call letters stand for “Univision Nueva Inglaterra”, which is Spanish for New England.) WUNI doesn’t even call itself a Boston station.
- WYDN, Channel 48, that runs Daystar religious programming.
Other cities in New England are much richer in television offerings. Providence (including New Bedford/Fall River) has five stations. Springfield has four. Heck, Burlington VT, in conjunction with its partner city across Lake Champlain, has six stations.
Some of the Boston stations try to provide Worcester coverage. WBZ, for example, has a Worcester bureau in downtown. A search of Worcester news stories on the WBZ web site, however, shows eight stories, including one each about the beetles and the firefighters’ memorial. Oh, and skiing is good at Wachusett.
NECN, in conjunction with Charter, provides Worcester News Tonight. A search for Worcester news on the NECN web site, however, produces a few more local stories, but not a lot for a week.
| WBZ | NECN |
|---|---|
 |
 |
Charter’s local service is, IMO, pretty good, with a regular diet of news, sports, and public affairs programming. Heck, it even warrants its own Wikipedia page. (Wikipedia provides a pretty good overview of media outlets in our fair city.) Of course, satellite and over-the-air TV watchers don’t receive Charter’s material.
To be sure, with the increased concentration in media ownership and the resulting shared content, there’s really very little that’s left for local content in any of the media. Mike’s reviews of online journalism show that the denizens of the blogosphere are increasingly trying to fill the news coverage gaps. 
Meanwhile, the broadcast industry is resisting efforts to require more locally-originated programming.
So, we’re left with lots of television choices from our left and right, up and down, but not many opportunities to see ourselves on the tube.
Karl Hakkarainen is a writer who resides in Holden and Phillipston. In addition to holding a variety of technical and management positions in high tech, Karl has been a newspaper reporter, freelance writer, and short-order cook. He has maintained a personal blog, A Traveler From the World of Work, since 2004.
A broadcast outlet in Worcester will not make the market numbers it needs to sustain itself. NECN produces Worcester News with Charter staffers filling in new packages. A daily news is costly. It appears to be struggling on the ad side.
Has Karl ever hear of WCCA TV 13. It is not broadcast, but neither is Charter Tv3. Seeing that Karl mention Charter, I thought it be appropriate to point to WCCA TV, “The People’s Channel”. WCCA TV is TV By, For and Of the People. The people of Worcester at least. The station has one of the highest numbers of video available on line than all the local Charter and Broadcast channels combined. Shows that can be downloaded, in addition it’s programming streams in real time as viewers can also watch it on cable channel 13 in Worcester. No other station I am aware of presents as many hours of local originated programming as WCCA TV 13, “The People’s Channel”. Karl’s article is about broadcast television venues, however as he mentioned a cable channel, I figure he might as well mention one that is sort of the non-commercial flagship that offers a real window into Worcester. Incidentally, the station is constantly searching for journalist who are willing to volunteer on a community produced news program. At WCCA you can be your own anchor person. How is that for an identity? Find out more by visiting wccatv[dot]com. I invite journalist to contact me at the station, work with us perhaps to develop a real sustainable news program. I can be reached at 508-755-1880 ext. 11
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