Article Date: Oct 11, 2006

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Cable Company hopes to offer more local shows

Aberdeen High School Football games are currently being broadcast on Direct Communications Cable, on channel 99, The Aberdeen Channel.

“We set up this channel when we first acquired the Aberdeen Cable system from Cable One last year,” said Brigham Griffin, Marketing Director For Direct Communications. “In examining how we could enhance the cable product and make it most appealing to the Aberdeen community, and succeed where Cable One had failed, we decided it was vital that we put the local back into local programming. This was the one thing we could offer that would make us special, and give us something that Dish or the other national satellite carriers could never provide people—true local content.”

The first Aberdeen game to be broadcast on Cable was the district playoff game in October last year, where Aberdeen faced West Jefferson at the ISU Holt Area. I spent the entire morning looking for a place to buy Canon GL2 cameras, which would give us a broadcast quality picture, and we eventually had to drive like madmen down to Salt Lake to buy them, because nobody in all of Idaho carried a high-end camera. We spent the afternoon trying to set up all this new equipment, and that night, we were at the arena in Pocatello till midnight, and then rushed the DVD back to the Aberdeen cable head-end to put it onto the system. I hope at least some people watched it after all that.”

Today, Direct Communications contracts with local Aberdeen High School students to film and produce the games—students like Kyle Brown, a senior interested in broadcasting and film editing. He travels to all the football games, films them using equipment provided by Direct Communications, and then takes them home to edit on his computer before uploading them via high-speed cable internet to the servers that stream the local channel content. It is a fully digital process from start to finish, and the games are usually available by Saturday afternoon each week.
This was the vision first set out by Leonard May, Direct Communications president, who for many years has emphasized that their communications outlets should be used as an opportunity  to develop the talents of the youth in the communities served by Direct Communications.
“Someday I would like to see not only sports, but also plays, school and community events and local talent displayed on local channels. We want to give each school their own channel, teach them how to use the technology and equipment, and give students a chance to develop career skills and showcase their work,” May explains.
Other content currently playing on Channel 99 include BYU student films, and next week, Aberdeen Idol will be broadcast on cable.

“You can’t see this stuff on satellite, so hopefully in time people will realize the value of having a local TV provider in town. People are hungry for entertainment relevant to their lives. Do we ever tire of watching our own home videos, or looking at our photo albums? Someday I would love to have an exclusive Aberdeen news broadcast each week, show local weddings, even host local reality shows, and especially would love to see more student films. If you are the kind of kid who goes around with a camera making your friends reenact scenes from Lord of the Rings, we want to hear from you.”
Dave Kearns, principal of Aberdeen High School, has been involved with this project from the first broadcast. “I think it’s a fantastic service to the community as well as the school. It’s been a wonderful experience for Kyle and a good experience for us.” He says. “But, I don’t think a lot of folks are aware of it, so the challenge is making people aware that the games are available. The football players are excited; the coaches are especially excited. It’s been neat for all the kids. My goal is to see a broadcast class offered and the kids all getting involved in broadcasting.”

To submit any of your own work for broadcast, contact Brigham Griffin at Direct Communications at 548 2345.