Channel Summaries

SCTV-1073 SALISBURY CIVIC: Comcast channels SD 6 and HD Channel 1073    

Some call this Salisbury’s “government access” channel, but that only describes part of our function.  True, SCTV has an agreement with the Town of Salisbury to televise many of the Town’s board and commission meetings.  

We operate out of Town Hall but also conduct live broadcasts from the Salisbury Elementary School for Town Meetings and Triton School Committee meetings.  We cover local elections and other events from the Hilton Senior Center and are expanding our live origination locations to include the Salisbury Public Library, the town green, the police headquarters, and the fire station/emergency management offices.  

We always looking for new ways to improve our government, to help town departments and employees do their jobs.  We want to lower barriers and raise the level of dialogue.  But the Town of Salisbury does not control this channel.

We call Channel 1073 the “government channel” or “Salisbury Civic” because the content of programs on Channel 1073 will focus on the Town of Salisbury and its local government.  SCTV is here to involve Salisbury residents in video production to make their own programs about our town and how it works.  We teach classes and lend out portable camcorders to SCTV members who have taken classes on our equipment so they can make their own programs about Salisbury.

SCTV-1071 & 8   PUBLIC AND EDUCATIONAL ACCESS

Channel 1071 combines public access programming and educational programming.  A major goal is to work closely with the Triton Regional School District, including teachers, students, staff, and the other Triton towns (Newbury & Rowley).  We continue to cablecast (pre-recorded) concerts, and news magazines produced by students at the high school plus Triton School Committee meetings.  We hope to televise many school athletic and extra-curricular activities at all grade levels (we need volunteers).

This is also the place where Salisbury residents can make their own programs to share with Salisbury cable viewers on virtually any subject they want.  Public access has been supported by federal, state, and local officials for over four decades as a free-speech medium for residents of a particular community to share ideas and creative expression using television. 

To attract viewers and get them involved in making their own videos, we are now scheduling some of the best public access programs from centers around the country.  By linking together over the Internet, centers can now import and share programs on a wide range of subjects.  The quality gets better and better.  

Eventually, SCTV hopes to have more and more truly local content.  Until then, please check out the shared series we are carrying on Channel 18 and let us know what you like and don’t like.  But remember:  public access TV, like free speech itself, does not please everyone. In fact, the history of access is full of programs that were designed to be controversial and provocative. PEG access is intended to provide points of view that are not commonly available through the commercial media that dominate TV communications. 

Access TV is about free thinking and the diversity of ideas. It is an outlet for political, cultural, and artistic creativity. Although it provides a powerful tool for individual expression, it more often than not gives local communities an opportunity to define and organize itself.  We hope you will become inspired to make your own programs using the tools of modern communications.