By Town Crier Staff Report
Mountain View’s community TV station KMVT-15 recently took home more national honors for its programming than any other cable station in Northern California, including top honor for overall excellence in the nation. This is the third time in six years that the station has earned this award.
“Winning this national award for a third time is a tremendous recognition,” said KMVT President Rita Gardiner after the Alliance for Community Media announced the winners at the annual Hometown Video Festival in Texas earlier this month.
“The community of Mountain View can be proud of this honor, as KMVT continues to live up to its national reputation as a leader in community television. We are fortunate to have a city that strongly supports our efforts. Without that support, we could not achieve the successes we have enjoyed these past years,” Gardiner added.
KMVT was judged on how well it addressed community concerns, in addition to technical quality and execution. The station also won five recognitions for four different programs: first place in performing arts for Wendy Fleet’s coverage of the Western Ballet’s “Sleeping Beauty”; runner-up in informational and educational categories for Lindsey Wong’s “Arts for All”; and first place in the gay and lesbian programming category for “Outlook Video.”
Since 1982, KMVT has been offering Mountain View residents a public forum and a break from commercial or mass-produced programming.
Backed by the federal requirement that cable operators must provide the public with uncensored access to the airwaves, KMVT offers locals the means to produce their own cable TV programs. Additionally, the station’s staff produce a number of popular local interest shows.
“You name it - from A to Z - we show it,” said Doug Broomfield, KMVT station manager, in a past interview. “It’s very broad but it’s also very exciting. A lot of (commercial) channels have programming themes. We have everything.”
Yet Broomfield emphasized that while KMVT gives area residents the freedom to use the airwaves, the station doesn’t fit the typical image of a public access channel with just a few individuals broadcasting their agendas.
“A lot of times on access stations you see the same show 63 times,” Broomfield said. “We’ve made a real effort to get new programs so that you don’t say, ‘Is this the only show that they have?’
“It is quite an honor to be voted the local station that does this best nationally,” Broomfield said, referring to the general excellence award in recognition of the station’s ability to connect with the community.
“We’re here to give the people in the community a speakers platform. We provide the training and tools for using that platform. This (public access television) is one of the only places left in the country where the average citizen can access the media uncensored,” he said.
Broomfield said the awards couldn’t have come at a better time in the station’s history. KMVT is scheduled to move to a new facility in January. It will celebrate its 20th anniversary in April.
The Alliance for Community Media’s Hometown Video Festival attracted more than 1,000 entries in 46 categories from across the United States and two Canadian provinces. The festival is the country’s largest and longest-running community media competition.
For more information about KMVT, call 968-1540.
