Please forgive this being somewhat stream of consciousness in its style. Unfortunately this stream is meandering and doubling back on itself at points.

I am working on ideas as to how to surmount the problem of having no production space in which to produce “television” locally. The key at this point is going to likely be videoconferencing. There are many things you can do on that front. I’m going to have to mine texts like Chris Kenworthy’s Digital Video Production Cookbook: 100 Professional Techniques for Independent and Amateur Filmmakers and Lenny Lipton’s Independent film making for production ideas that can be adapted. Video conferencing and green screens can provide a virtual stage to work from for the time being.

The format and style for any news broadcast is probably going to emulate the Random Access segment used by Computer Chronicles. That’s a far better format than the Hometown Happenings program on Conneaut CAT TV. At best we can do a quick headlines service in the style of CNN Headline News from the late 1990s. That would be the best way to leverage what resources we do have.

Quick headlines daily at a time I have yet to figure out in video podcast format is the target. With video conferencing, judicious use of already available tech tools, prudent purchasing of limited tech supplies, and lots of patience I do think something could be bootstrapped. The initial planned scope was always meant to restrict such a service to start with just Ashtabula City plus the townships of Ashtabula, Saybrook, Plymouth, and Austinburg. That’s a pretty big area by itself in the state’s largest county by area.

Collaborators would be needed to cover government meetings, school events, and monitor scanner traffic to see what can be heard on the MARCS channels. Yeah, that sounds almost like a normal newsroom for a small town. Across those four townships and one municipality you have a ton of things that would need to be covered. The problem would not be a lack of stories. The problem would be a lack of manpower to go find stories to report.

It all comes down to money, I fear. This town wants to go neo-Amish. Frankly that bit of sociocultural weirdness is a big problem I have yet to figure out how to surmount.

More consideration is needed for all of this…