ITEM PHOTO BY OWEN O’ROURKE
Sean Donahue, director of operations, Richard Coppinger and Robert Tucker, from left, talk television in the control room of Lynn Community Television in Lynn City Hall.
By THOR JOURGENSEN
LYNN — Lights, camera, action. Lynn Community Television hopes to be in full broadcast mode by mid-February, with local government-oriented programming and shows focused on interesting Lynn residents.
The cable public access provider has purchased equipment required to broadcast LCTV shows on Comcast channels 3 and 22 and Verizon channels 37 and 38. The four-month-old provider currently broadcasts on Lynn Educational Television channel 15 and on YouTube, with director of operations Sean Donahue and two coworkers working out of City Hall room 302.
“We are building resources and equipment and we are rapidly reaching the point where we will be broadcasting every night,” said former City Councilor and LCTV board treasurer Richard Coppinger.
Mayor Judith Flanagan Kennedy named Coppinger, former Councilor Robert Tucker, attorneys Michael Marks and Michael Cerulli and Fire Department veteran Joseph Carritte last September to a board charged with reviving local public access cable television.
Kennedy’s action came after months of claims, counter accusations and lawsuits naming Lynn Community Media Access, Inc. (LynnCAM), the city and state Attorney General’s office. Legal filings detailing financial mismanagement and misappropriation claims remain active in Superior Court, but LynnCAM is no longer broadcasting and cable access money paid to the city by Verizon and Comcast is going, at Kennedy’s direction, to LCTV.
Tucker and Coppinger said LCTV’s programming goals include interviews with local “people of interest,” expanded public meeting broadcasts and shows produced by local residents who sign up to be LCTV members.
LCTV broadcast the Jan. 4 city inaugural ceremonies and the Jan. 7 Union Hospital hearing in City Hall.
Coppinger and Tucker retired from their respective jobs in 2015, but both men said they are devoting a significant amount of time, along with fellow board members, to expand LCTV.
“We’ve made tremendous progress in the first three months,” Tucker said. “We basically started a corporation from ground zero.”
The board is drawing up membership guidelines and searching for a broadcast studio space.
“Our goal is to get out of 302 as soon as possible,” Tucker said.
Kennedy said board members are closely following LCTV’s bylaws to provide local residents with membership opportunities and give members a chance to elect board members.
Without local public cable access, Kennedy said “there is a void” in information resources for local residents.
“It’s the city’s voice. It can reach almost every diverse audience,” she said.
