AUBURN — Great Falls TV, the Twin Cities’ cable access channel, would move its studio into Auburn Hall and would focus more attention on Auburn events, according to City Manager Howard Kroll’s plan.
Kroll outlined a set of cost-saving changes designed to make better use of the city’s cable station and focus less on Lewiston.
“With the current system, there is limited public programming, and I know Auburn councilors have said they want to see more,” Kroll said.
Great Falls TV is the the local access cable channel housed on Auburn’s Central Maine Community College campus. It provides programming for three channels on Time Warner Cable: local government programming on Channel 7, community programming on Channel 11 and educational programming on Channel 22.
A live feed of the Channel 11 programming and an archive of previously aired shows is available for viewing on demand at the station’s website, greatfallstv.net/webstream.htm. The biggest share of the station’s content is government meetings from Auburn, Lewiston and the town of Lisbon.
Under Kroll’s plan, the channel would continue to broadcast live Auburn City Council, Planning Board and School Committee meetings, as well as Lisbon Town Council meetings.
The channel would also continue to broadcast live coverage of Lewiston City Council meetings, but that’s about it for dedicated Lewiston content.
“Lewiston is not interested broadcasting Planning Board or school meetings and they are not seeking more coverage,” Kroll said. “So this makes a great deal of sense for the city of Lewiston. It makes sense for us because we are seeking more from the service, and we should be paying more.”
As a result, the plan would trim Lewiston’s annual contribution to the channel’s budget from $67,000 annually to about $25,000. Auburn’s share would increase from $51,000 to $55,000.
“We are going to take the majority of services, and Lewiston is only going to seek coverage of their City Council meetings,” Kroll said. “So I could not ask them to pay what they’ve been paying when they don’t expect the same services.”
Moving the studio from Central Maine Community College to Auburn Hall would mean the station would no longer need to pay rent. Kroll would also eliminate one of the two Great Falls TV employees.
“I can’t say it means savings for Auburn, but it will improve our return on investment and it will improve and increase the quality of service,” Kroll said.
Kroll said he’s tasked the station to provide more local content — including local sports and dramatic performances.
Councilors are scheduled to vote on the plan at their June 15 meeting, but Station Manager Phil Larlee said the changes would be a mistake.
“Basically, what you are trying to do is eliminating ‘PEG’ (Public, Education and Government) TV and focusing only on government access only,” Larlee said. “That’s what it sounds like to me.”
Kroll said the changes would require a new franchise agreement between the two cities. He’d like to make the moves and begin operating the station in Auburn Hall in July.
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