The Hippo : New Hampshire's Weekly : Home- Grown

It’s easy to see why Manchester TV’s Executive Director Jason Cote and Operations Specialist Joe Lahr call psychic and public access TV host Norm Moody the “local Oprah.” Sporting a blue button-down shirt and a crooked smile, he jokes, laughs and gives you a hard time like you’re old pals within minutes of your introduction.

It’s 3:55 p.m. on a Wednesday when I meet him. He’s preparing to begin his show, Norm & Friends, which runs from 4 to 6 p.m. on Manchester’s Channel 23.

Wednesday is a big day at the Manchester TV studio. From noon to midnight, all the shows are live, save a 15-second time delay. Howard McCarthy, who’s in his 80s, starts out the live segment each Wednesday with a song in The Old Lamp Lighter. Then there’s Consider Your Playing Field at 1 p.m., In My Opinion at 2 p.m. and Inside Story at 3 p.m.

Moody greets Mary Georges after Inside Story wraps up, and wanders over to the seat in the back of the studio. The brick wall is to his back, microphone is at the ready and three cameras are pointing at him. Brett Godson sits nearby, manning the cameras.

Moody has been on Manchester TV for 11 years now. He hosts guests, offers advice and tells stories in his weekly show. People call for advice, they call to talk, and sometimes they call just to give him a piece of their mind.

It took him three years in front of the camera before he became comfortable, after lots of encouragement from Lahr. He owes the guys at Manchester TV a lot, he says — he was homeless at one point — and he’s grateful to be able to do what he does each Wednesday.

“I like to believe that we’re helping people here. They want advice from us, and I give it with love and compassion,” he tells me before the show begins. “Every viewer is an important phone call. I always say to them, ‘You are the stars — I’m only the show host.’”

The clock changes, 3:59 to 4:00. The show begins. “It’s going to be a wonderful day!” he tells his audience.

You can have a show, too

The wonderful thing about local access television is that anyone can create any kind of show. You just need an idea.

The challenge is figuring out how to bring that idea to life. If you want to create a show, it’s natural to feel that you need to have camera skills, editing skills, storytelling skills and confidence in order to formulate a sketch that people will want to watch.

That’s where the New Hampshire Coalition for Community Media (nhccm.org) comes in. Within this nonprofit organization are media groups from all over the state, all of which are dedicated to promoting public, education and government (PEG) access television in New Hampshire. They’re there to fight for your voice, to help you promote your message, your talent, your stories to your local community. Visit the Nashua, Manchester, Bedford, Derry, Londonderry or other local access centers in your community, and you’re sure to find the people you need to guide you in creating your production.

The only trouble with public access television now seems to be that not enough people know it exists, never mind that you can be a part of it.

“People are surprised that public access television is even there — that they can produce their own show,” said Dan Young of Access Nashua.

“We’re here to help you produce programs, and our helping is in the technical end of it,” said Manchester TV’s Cote. “We don’t manipulate content in any way, and we don’t take ownership of the content. All we’re here to do is to make sure we get their content out to everybody, and that we do this in a quality way,” he said.

And it’s available for people of all ages and all levels.

“The younger generation has been immersed in [video technology] at a young age, and so it’s a little easier for them to catch on sometimes because they’ve been using it all their life,” said Erin Barry, training coordinator at Londonderry Access Center. But any age can learn. “We have people come in as young as 5 years old, as old as 80 .... We try not to limit people,” Barry said. The 5-year-old did, however, have to stand on a box in order to learn how to use the camera.

The rules

The content of the show is technically controlled by you, the producer. The point of public access television is to enable locals to exercise their First Amendment right of free speech, and so most access centers don’t even preview material before it’s aired, said Jonathan LeDuc of Concord TV, for fear of editorializing.

“Our job is simply to provide the tools, training and transmission for locals to create their own television show,” LeDuc said, “...the only rule is that you can’t make money off of your video.”

But each access center has some guidelines about what can and cannot go on the air, which they’ll explain to you in an orientation. Obscene matter and material that constitutes libel, slander or an invasion of privacy or public rights are prohibited. Material must also be nonprofit or non-commercial. Cote and Lahr say they work in a “reactive” vs. “proactive” manner: Their live station features a 15-second time delay in case anything inappropriate finds its way on the air.

And many community television centers allow residents to sign out camera equipment after an orientation. But if you do sign a camera out, you’re expected to put something on the channel. You can’t just take the camera out “and go to your brother-in-law’s wedding,” Lahr said.

It’s something special, Cote said, that local residentss are able to produce content on public television with so few limits, that they have this freedom of speech and this outlet to express it. Many countries, Cote points out, don’t have anything close to this.

“We want to get voices out, so that voices will be heard, so that people in the community will realize it’s not about the one message, it’s about all the messages. ... It’s not about the studio, it’s about what goes out on the channel, and about the opportunity that’s involved, for the average person to be able to come out and be part of the dialogue without big spending or advertising ... it’s a great democratic leveler,” Cote said.

What is ‘good’ public access television?

So now that you have an idea for a show and you’ve learned how to use the camera, you’ve come to the most important part: How do you make your show worth watching?

Nashua Access Center’s Dick Gagnon describes good public access television as television “not shot in front of the blue curtain.” (Or, in some centers, the white curtain, maroon curtain or brick wall.) Shows should have a good opening with graphics and good editing with smooth transitions.

It’s also important to set a certain tone for each show. This can be done with creative use of sets, music and good tools.

It’s always refreshing to see shows that go outside the norm — that are filmed outside or that require advanced editing and research, Gagnon said.

“The extra work shows, and it adds variety,” Gagnon said. He and Young work individually with each producer to give character to their shows, to help them figure out how to tell the story through scenes, narration, sets and multiple shots.

The goal, Gagnon said, is for people to watch and say, “Wow. This is on public access?”

People don’t know just how good their shows can be, Gagnon said. Public access is not funded like commercial television, but, “you don’t have to be fully funded to make your show fully professional,” Gagnon said. Access Nashua is decently funded, but it’s not necessarily the money that makes a show good. It’s the work that goes into it.

Lots of times, what you’ll see here is just as good as what you’ll see on commercial TV, Gagnon said, sitting on the sofa chair next to the giant green screen at the Nashua Access Center. He’s adept at working one on one with each hopeful producer. They usually spend the first part of their meeting talking, brainstorming about the show, coming up with ideas. He and Young are very determined that you get the look you want for your show, whether it be in the studio, outside in the snow or in a fully functioning kitchen.

But there is one big difference between public access television and commercial television: You might personally know the people on your public access channel.

You should see this

Whenever Gagnon travels, he likes to check out the local community access channel. He does this for a couple of reasons. It enables him to measure how well Nashua compares to other public access centers, for starters, and it also helps trigger new ideas.

“In the past 10 years, I’ve traveled a lot for conferences, as well as for another company I’ve worked for, even on vacation. But a lot of times, what I’ve caught on the local channel when I was in New York or out west, in Minnesota, I honestly wasn’t that impressed,” Gagnon said. The access center in California he learned about at a conference with a $5 million budget was a bit ahead of what New Hampshire has, but for the most part, “I really think that New Hampshire is more advanced than a lot of Midwest and West Coast states,” he said.

It’s true that political topics are common on local access television — but wait before you flip the channel because you’re beyond tired of politics.

There are no political ads on public access television. Instead, the political shows offer the opportunity to see more than 30 seconds of each local candidate, which is about what you’ll see on major news networks, said Mary Wing Soares.

Soares is a Londonderry resident who created one of these shows through the Londonderry Access Center. Her experience began when she took on the role of producer on a show that was already established. She also filmed shows at the library, helped film Londonderry Olde Home Day and recorded other events around town. Once she had a year under her belt, she created a few more shows, one of which was a roundtable discussion with candidates for local office.

“I saw that this hadn’t been done in our town before,” she said. “We’re very structured in our conversations with politicians, but I wanted to create a roundtable discussion — one in which we felt comfortable interrupting one another,” she said.

“I’m interested in our town and our town politics. I like that these shows exist and that these shows are re-broadcasted. I also like the ‘about town’ kinds of shows, the kind that highlight different businesses, things that are happening in the town,” she said.

Many folks become involved because they were invited to appear on another show as a guest, Gagnon and Lahr both said.

“You come here, you’re invited to be on a show — it could be something you didn’t really know about, and then, all of a sudden, you had a great time, and you want to do your own,” Lahr said.

“Once people come and they find a place here, it becomes part of their life,” Lahr said. “It’s not for everybody, going on TV. Making yourself semi-famous is not for everyone, but for the people who do it, it becomes part of their very core. ...They’re passionate about something, whether it’s politics, God, the city, entertainment, sports.”

It’s not just on-air talent that’s needed — most access centers feature just one or two full-time employees, if that. Many of these centers rely on the interest they generate. Londonderry boasts nearly 100 volunteers and 34 different shows. The more people are involved, the more people will watch, and the more people watch, the better the shows will be.

It would be nice if each access station had enough interest and participation to run local shows 24/7 on its public access channel, but not every town is as big as Manchester or Concord. So some stations opt to use “filler” shows, said Goffstown Television’s temporary coordinator, David Suitor. The melting pot of public access shows at nhccm.org, the website of the New Hampshire Coalition for Community Media, has system downloads that local stations can use — for instance, Goffstown used to regularly download the Londonderry Access show Political Chowder, Suitor said. He also uses websites like pegondemand.tv and the national website pegmedia.org (although they’re useless to locals; you need an account to maneuver around them freely). Gagnon of Nashua has run Windham’s cooking shows on the Access Nashua station, he said, and he enjoys Keene’s public access station, Cheshire TV, as well.