Boothbay Region Community Television
About Us
Public access television in our community began in 1995 when Neal Verge conceived of it as a means for the YMCA to be able to bradcast Y and school sports. As there was no knowledge of the fact we could even have a local television station, when the original contract with the cable company was signed by the towns in 1992, no provision was made to secure the financial support of a community TV station through cable franchise fees or other means.
BRCTV and its board of directors existed as an ad hoc committee of Boothbay Harbor town government until incorporating as a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization in 2002 (under the name Boothbay Region Access Channel 5). The organization has been entirely volunteer-run up to the present date (more about that later, in the "What Community Television Does" section). Until 2001, sports and a few local events (Windjammer Days, Fishermen's Festival) made up almost the entirety of programming due to the interests otf the volunteer producers, who were very few in number.Beginning in that year, a small but dedicated group of volunteers began a conscious effort to improve the quality and diversity of the programming on the channel, in the hopes that they would thereby be able to interest more volunteers, better serve the viewing audience and raise the level of awareness in the community about what needs can be met by locally-produced television.
It has been a long, hard climb, but we have left the days of broadcasting the same, possibly three-year-old football game four times a day behind us! We have broadend our volunteer base to include producers interested in local politics, arts, documentary, history and community events of all kinds, while maintaining and improving the quality of the sports and local goverment coverage our volunteers provide.
Contact Us
Phone: (207) 633-5022
Write to:
BRCTV
261 Townsend Ave.
Boothbay Harbor,ME 04538