NACTV looks forward to upcoming move
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- Published on Thursday, November 5, 2015
Photo by Kira Paterson. Jackie Snider (left), NACTV office manager, and Ivan Traill, president and CEO of NACTV at the former Press building.
By Kira Paterson
Neepawa Banner/Neepawa Press
It’s official. Neepawa Access Television (NACTV) has signed a lease and will be moving into the old Neepawa Press building in the coming weeks. Ivan Traill, president and CEO of the NACTV board, said that they hope to be moving in during the week of Remembrance Day.
The need for the move was caused by the Town of Neepawa deciding to sell the building in which they currently rent space. Traill said that it had been an option to buy the building they are in on Davidson Street, however, many of the other tenants have moved out of the building already. Without rent money coming in, NACTV would not be able to afford the upkeep of the whole building. The only affordable option, other than the Press building, was the basement of the Roxy. But Traill didn’t think that the conditions were good enough for a workspace and the Press seemed to be the perfect fit.
He said that right now, the station is more focused on making sure some important programs, such as the Rotary Auction, get done before they do any moving. He said that the auction is one of Rotary’s main fundraisers during the year and he didn’t want to risk having technical difficulties during the move that would prevent them from airing it.
The exact date for when they can get set up in their new location will depend on when the technician from Brandon can come out to get everything hooked up. Traill said that other than putting in a green screen and finding places to put everything, the building itself doesn’t need any changes.
NACTV is looking forward to the move. The building suits their needs perfectly, having a large area for the studio itself and walls separating the studio from the office space. Traill said that one of the challenges to their current space is that everything is open, so if they’re filming something, everyone in the whole space has to be quiet so that the microphones don’t pick up the background noise.
Another advantage to the new building is that it’s on the main street, which Traill said is much nicer than being tucked away in the back corner of a building with no windows.Being close to their current space allows the signal from their antenna, which is on the Yellowhead Manor roof, to be hardwired to the building. If they had had to move any farther away, a tower would have had to be built to get the signal from their antenna.
Traill estimated the move to cost about $15,000, which would include the hardwiring and getting set up to be broadcasting. There are also additional immediate costs for the station, following the loss of some of the equipment they had been using. CJ97 Radio in Neepawa had lent them some equipment when the owner of the radio station had been on the board of NACTV. When his term on the board expired at the last annual general meeting, he took back what he had been allowing them to use.
Traill said that one of the most important pieces of equipment they will need is a playback machine. The one they have currently is meant for consumer use, so it won’t last very long being used as a commercial machine. He said that the cost of a commercial playback machine can range from $5,000 to $10,000. They will also need two new computers, which Traill said will cost about $2,000 each. He estimates that with the move and all of the equipment that needs to be purchased, they will be spending about $50,000.
The station is expecting to have to borrow a lot of that money, but they also plan on doing a lot of fundraising this year. Jean Borchardt, the head of the fundraising committee, is already planning on setting up a table at the Neepawa-Gladstone Co-op food store to accept donations for NACTV. They also have a concert planned for this spring that will raise some money for them. Traill said that they have had concerts like this one in the past and they have done well. Traill has high hopes for their annual NACTV Showcase, which is coming up in February. He said that the first year they did it, they brought in around $15,000 but in the past years, it’s gone down to about $7,000. He said that leading up to and during the showcase, they will be reiterating how badly they need donations during this time and he hopes that they will be able to get the numbers back up to $15,000 or even $20,000. Traill said that the fundraising committee has a lot of plans for raising money over the year that will be announced.
As for their fundraising through Bigger Bingo, Traill said that they hope to get the numbers back up to what they were normally. He said that with the rumour going around that it had been cancelled, their sales were down significantly last week. But now that the rumours have been proven untrue, he hopes that the sales will go back up to what they were, so that they can get back to making money through it.
With the move and the recent difficulties that the station has been going through, Traill said that the community has been supporting them more than ever. He has had people come up to him who have never worked with the station before, volunteering to help them with the move. He has also had a few people saying they would like to make programs for the station.
He said that most of the volunteers have recently been spending more time trying to raise funds than making programs. So the more people who volunteer and/or donate money, the more they can focus on running the station rather than funding it.
NACTV has some exciting developments on the way, with the new building and getting new equipment. They are on track to making the station “bigger and better than ever,” as Traill had said after the annual general meeting. All they have to worry about is the finances and hopefully that will be helped by the support and generosity of the community they serve.
