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Date: 4/11/2023
GRANBY – Local media group Granby Commmunity Access and Media may be closing by the end of the fiscal year if no one steps up to run operations.
According to a release from GCAM, departures of staff have revealed inadequacies of the non-profit model for overseeing the station. Issues began last year after previous GCAM Director Alex LaMarche stepped down for a new opportunity to head the cable access channel in Hadley. Shortly after, GCAM lost their treasurer due to time commitments.
GCAM is a nonprofit local media group that consistently records town board meetings and local high school sports for the community’s gain. Now the executive board of the non-profit sits at three members, GCAM President Mark Bail being one of the remaining members.
Bail noted that LaMarche did a “great job” running the station, but the board did not have the proper knowledge to fill the position. Duties since among the nonprofit’s daily tasks have been split up between three part-time employees.
“They do a good job for us, but the board needs to know more and take an active role. And frankly, none of us has the time or interest,” Bail said.
Bail added he had plans to meet with the superintendent for a conversation on options with the school’s involvement to see if there were any potential ideas there. He also noted that if that failed and the town was disinterested in taking over the station, they would need to hope for people to step forward and take things over or dissolve the non-profit.
“It’s just been very hard to find anybody. Cities or towns, when they have to appoint people, they’re even pretty hard pressed to find people to take on responsibilities,” Bail noted.
Granby is the only area town to not have the cable station as a town department Bail pointed out, and this is a key factor in why he believes the town should step in and take over operations.
“I think the town should assume operations of GCAM. We are receiving $80,000-90,000 in franchise fees every year, which cover our costs. Thanks to previous GCAM Boards, we also have sizable investments,” Bail said. “Even with the gradual decline of Comcast cable subscriptions, there’s enough income to keep the station running for years.”
Bail said while he believes this is the best option for the future of GCAM, he also noted there has not been a ton of interest from the town’s end. He added they offered the proposition to the town but there was little to no interest in advancing those discussions.
“Ninety-nine percent of what GCAM does is for the town, mainly taping the meetings of town boards. The rest is covering high school sports,” Bail said. “It makes no sense that four or five, unelected people on our executive board should decide whether Granby should have their meetings videotaped, but if the town doesn’t take GCAM, that could be what happens … it doesn’t seem very democratic to me to have five people making decisions for the cable coverage of our entire town.”
Town Administrator Chris Martin did not return a request for comment by press time.
Bail did note when speaking with Reminder Publishing that the town had recently came back to him looking for more paperwork from the station, so he said he is not counting them out taking over just yet, while they have not shown much interest past this.
“Taking on a new department and taking on new responsibilities and stuff, I think they really do need to be careful and thoughtful about that and also think about how it would affect the town budget even though now our income is more than enough to pay for things,” Bail said. “I think if the town takes it over, I don’t think there is a financial loss but I think they need to be able to come to that conclusion themselves.”
Bail called his employees through this recent stretch “fantastic” and noted they are all recent college graduates.
“They know what they’re doing operationally, and our bookkeeper’s doing fine, but somebody needs to take over and really think about what’s going on and be able to have oversight,” Bail said.
In the meantime, Bail is scheduling an upcoming Zoom meeting sometime later this month for the GCAM membership. Members are Granby residents who have previously signed on to be members of the nonprofit. The meeting will look to members for their thoughts on the process and what the best options going forward are for the group.
“I don’t know what the answer is, either the town steps up or four or five people decide they have what it takes to step up and run GCAM,” Bail said. “If those things don’t happen, we’ll take the steps to dissolve the nonprofit, auction the equipment and donate what we have left to a worthy charity.”