Submitted by Thurston Community Media
Thurston Community Media was honored during a virtual celebration last night with three 2021 Hometown Media Awards presented by Alliance for Community Media Foundation. The Hometown awards program was established to honor and promote community media, community radio, and local cable programs that are distributed on Public, Educational and Governmental (PEG) access cable television channels.
TCMedia created the award-winning programs during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, often using on-line platforms like ZOOM to connect with guests and to record video. “Meet the Fur Babies” was the creation of the 2020 Young Producers Virtual Summer Camp. Youth connected with camp faculty via ZOOM and used iPads to record video stories about their pets. Dan Bennett was the faculty for the camp. The program was honored in the Children’s Programming category, student division,
The winner in the Emergency Communications category was “Stay Safe Thurston County: Cheryl Selby.” It featured an interview with Olympia Mayor, Cheryl Selby about emergency communication efforts by City of Olympia during the pandemic. TCMedia staff, Ker Gesulga, Martha Correa, and Robert Kam produced the program, one of more than 50 episodes produced between March 13 and December 31, 2020.
TCMedia’s live election night coverage was the top entry in the Democracy in Action category. “The First Returns: Election Night 2020” was hosted by TCMedia CEO, Deborah Vinsel, and produced by the TCMedia Staff. The program included interviews with candidates, analysis by Amanda Walker, assistant professor of government at Saint Martin’s University, and a conversation with former County Commissioner, John Hutchings, and League of Women Voter’s Thurston County President, Karen Tvedt.
The winning entries can be viewed here:
TCMedia has managed the local community media services and production facility for 35 years, programming four cable TV channels that are seen on Comcast in the greater Thurston County area, three on the Consolidated Cable system in the Yelm area.
“We’re honored to be recognized for our local programming work,” said CEO, Deborah Vinsel. “The Hometown is highly competitive, with the very best in local community media entered from all parts of the country. To win means our work was recognized by the judges as some of the best in the United States. We could not be this successful without the support of our local jurisdictions, our volunteers, our talented staff, and, of course, the community.”
Nearly one thousand entries were submitted. Programs are evaluated on several factors resulting in over 100 award winners in three divisions – student producer, community producer, access center professional. A panel of judges from the industry evaluate the entries. Awards are presented to the most creative programs that address community needs, develop diverse community involvement, challenge conventional commercial media formats and move viewers to experience video in a different way.
