Franklin TV: Override? Part 2

A Big Turnout

by Pete Fasciano, Executive Director 04/28/2024

1. CALL TO ORDER – Chair Tom Mercer opened the meeting shortly after 7 PM.

4. ADJOURN – 10:40 PM.

Jamie Hellen and Lucas Giguere framed the issues and presented the numbers, followed by 2 hours of public comments. Some were reasoned. Others, less so. There is a strong causal link between money and passion.

Parents want better for their kids. Retirees want to rein in their taxes. Town and School services struggle to bridge that divide. I tallied over 400 in the auditorium. Another 300-ish watched online. Many more watched our Town Hall TV channel.

the second part of the meeting had the Town Council and School Committee members aligned to hear from the audience.  Photo S Sherlock Franklin.news

We all struggle to make a buck. We also struggle to spend less of it. The Town – the people who watched – and – even us at Franklin.TV. We know well how everyone works to make ends meet. We’re in the same position. As a nonprofit organization, we benefit from Town services, like everyone else. We volunteer to pay taxes to the Town – like everyone else. We cost the Town – nothing.

All of our financial support comes from cable TV – Comcast and Verizon. As more viewers ‘cut the cord’, canceling their cable service, we receive less support.

When folks want to watch big events (like the budget meeting) they call for details. 

“How can I watch the meeting?” 

“We’ll show it on Comcast channel 9 and Verizon 29.” “ – I don’t have cable.” 

“You can also watch us live on our YouTube channel.“

I provide details, explaining how to find our live streams on the internet – for free. As Franklin’s local TV studio, do we at Franklin.TV provide value? Consider that the ‘fair market’ rate to televise this meeting alone was well over $20,000 dollars. That funding has to come from…

Thanks for listening to 102.9 wfpr●fm. 

And – as always – thanks for watching.

Get this week's program guide for Franklin.TV and Franklin Public Radio (wfpr.fm) online  http://franklin.tv/programguide.pdf   

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