Transmission Project

Project Details

AMP and CMAP have identified potential collaborations which would leverage opportunities for community engagement and capacity building locally and regionally due to the combined strengths and geographic proximity of these organizations as well as their fiscal need to collaborate.

1. Conduct Community Needs Assessment and organizational research to identify new opportunities for collaboration in the areas of infrastructure, technology, marketing, staffing and community products and services at each community media center.
a. Report to Executive Directors on the Community Needs Assessment Results

2. Out of the results from the Community Needs Assessment, work with AMP and CMAP staff to develop collaborative approaches and regional coordination to implement/integrate media education programs, curriculum and outreach, marketing and social media campaigns, and technology automation.

3. Identify potential partners and funders to sustain the coordination of the regional efforts

Project Goals & Outcomes
This project will generate capacity-building opportunities for two community media centers, AMP and CMAP, through generating:

–Greater resources through researching and integrating opportunities to increase available and future resources (financial, technical, human, and physical) available to both organizations through consolidation and collaboration for outreach, funding, new fee-based technology, marketing and video production services for non-profits, education, and local residents.

–Greater efficiency through consolidating existing technology and utilizing new open source tools for use by both stations to create automation, engage members, and distribute local video content through social media networks, streaming live video, and by creating centralized, more accessible community media resources in two regions.

–Greater effectiveness by enabling broader outreach/marketing, sharing curriculum and staff, increasing technology efficiency and greater fundraising capacity to achieve current and future fiscal sustainability for each organization

Program Need
-Organizations are technology-focused with room to grow
-Impending financial crisis to traditional funding sources is forcing innovation
-Initial collaboration has highlighted the increased need for potential regional consolidation with regard to technology, finances and marketing

The financial realities facing community media centers nationwide are sobering. AMP and CMAP currently receive 88% of their funding through local cable TV franchise agreements.

A new state-wide cable franchising law (DIVCA) was adopted in 2006 ending local cable franchises in favor of statewide franchising. Both AMP and CMAP have ended or will end their local franchise agreement with their respective cable operators in 2009, leaving their financial futures uncertain and requiring decreased budgets.

This situation calls for drastic budget cuts, (75% of operating costs) and innovative thinking by community media centers, including new ways to adapt to the funding cuts such as regional consolidation and collaboration between community media centers.

Communities throughout the state are losing their public access cable services as local governments in fiscal crisis choose to re-appropriate all or the majority of their cable franchise fees.

The rapid pace of technological change is another key challenge. Both AMP and CMAP have begun to build a foundation for emerging technologies to prepare for these new opportunities to shift the community media model. Each has developed different technology efficiencies that could be merged for greater capacity building and to leverage future revenue opportunities. New open source tools are available to streamline and automate public access systems. In collaboration, these two stations could together implement new tools and strategies to adapt, survive and thrive during these economic and technological changes.

While each station provides excellent community media resources, neither station has organizational history to access community funding commensurate with the services provided.

To move away from a government-subsidized model to a community-supported model with new revenue streams, community media organizations need to consolidate resources, technology and outreach to maximize their ability to serve their communities. This project will research and implement a new model for community media.