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Date: 3/30/2022
SOUTHAMPTON – Jeff Mastroianni, recently hired to manage Easthampton Media, came before the Select Board last month to ask for capital improvement money. In turn, Select Board member Maureen Groden asked for what the public access station is supposed to provide and hasn’t.
“I know you recently started, but there has been a lot of change in leadership at Easthampton Media,” Groden said, examining the contract between the town and station. “The contract also says we’re supposed to get an annual report, and a presentation on your budget … and that’s been really inconsistent. So that would be a good thing to finally get.”
Easthampton Media provides public access services for both the towns of Easthampton and Southampton.
Mastroianni appeared before the board to ask that $50,000 in grant money from Charter Communications be redirected to capital equipment purchases. The grant became available at the five year mark of the 10 year contract signed between the town and station. According to Mastroianni, the first of two capital equipment grants paid for cameras and playback decks that station personnel currently use. That equipment has passed its end-of-life date. Now the second grant from Charter may be redirected to cover new purchases.
“This $50K we’re looking to spend right now will eat up a good portion of our capital budget for the next five years,” Mastroianni said. “When we cover your meetings in town we bring out $10,000 to $15,000 in gear … [and] we want to make sure we can fulfill our mission and provide those services.”
Mastroianni and Town Administrator Ed Gibson have been conversing about the redirection of the grant monies. Gibson’s comments revealed the town is not altogether satisfied with how the station has served its needs for broadcast services.
“We talked a little about upgrading the equipment up in the second floor meeting room,” Gibson said. “We talked about upgrading the equipment in the library so the School Committee meetings could be broadcast … I also recognize … you need equipment at your offices to broadcast the content.“
Mastroianni told the board that one benefit realized from upgrading the equipment will be closed captioning. Offering closed captioning services will add $6,000 to $10,000 to the station’s budget. Broadcast capabilities will also improve. The station manager explained that with the current equipment the station can’t broadcast on all three channels. The most important upgrade, a new playback system, would enable not only closed captioning, but also streaming.
“We are behind most other public access organizations in terms of the services we are able to provide,” Mastroianni said. “We are not able to stream our channels. Most other stations our size are able to do that…That’s one of the things that is a big issue for us, given the fact that people are going away from going over the wire, in media content, and more toward streaming.”
Board member Jon Lumbra needed more information.
“I’m gonna need to see something, like here’s the equipment we want to get, here’s the list, here’s the cost, the whole 20-page proposal you’re gonna use,” Lumbra said. “Where’s the $50,000 going? On top of that, all the little requests we have here, like a switch that would turn all our microphones red. Is that even going to get addressed if we turn that $50,000 over?”
Groden informed Mastroianni that not having a ‘kill switch’ for the microphones, the feature mentioned by Lumbra, significantly hampered the broadcast capabilities of the boardroom. The board must go to another room for executive sessions because it is not clear when the microphones are all inactive, a requirement when sensitive topics are discussed. Recordings also cannot be made from the boardroom. Groden suggested a further conversation about changes that would improve the town’s multi-media needs.
Mastroianni said if the board wanted to redirect the grant monies toward equipment purchases, rather than operating costs, a letter needs to be sent to Charter Communications stating the preferred uses of the money, followed by a vote by Town Meeting to appropriate the money.
Gibson said the Select Board would have to vote to put the article on the agenda of Town Meeting, which will require more discussion on the local level.