Bedford TV Gives and Receives Awards for Excellence

Bedford TV’s 2013 scholarships were awarded recently. Pictured (l-r) are scholarship recipient Craig Kelly, BTV Director Madeleine Altmann, scholarship recipient Melina Morris, and BTV Production Manager Greg Dolan. Courtesy photo

Submitted by Bedford TV

Bedford TV has announced the names of the 2013 intern scholarships recipients— Bedford High School seniors Craig Kelly and Melina Morris— who were recognized by BTV for their dedication and creativity. The station awards two internship scholarships annually to graduating seniors, made possible by the sale of DVD recordings of events that Bedford TV makes available to the public.

Bedford TV's Executive Director Madeleine Altmann and Production Manager Greg Dolan display the station's most recent award. Courtesy image — *Bedford TV’s Executive Director Madeleine Altmann and Production Manager Greg Dolan display the station’s most recent ACM award. Courtesy image*

Additionally, Altmann announced that Bedford TV has received two Hometown Media Awards at a recent Alliance for Community Media (ACM) conference in San Francisco. The first award was presented for “Overall Excellence in a Small Station” which, Altmann explained, is one of four categories based on station size and budget.

The second ACM award was for the website of Bedford TV’s program “21^st Century Learning”, produced by Bedford residents Don Thomas. The website was created by Paula Gilarde. Episodes can be accessed through https://www.21stcenturylearning.bedford.tv/

At the ACM conference, Altmann said that over 500 attendees from across the country convened to celebrate the work of local access televisions stations.

“We won ‘Best Small Station’ in the country,” Altmann said. “We won against people who have twice the staff. This is our third victory [over the years] in this category.

“At Bedford TV, we make the most of the resources we have,” Altmann continued. “Between Greg and me—we have come up with a winning formula for work flow and for removing barriers for people in the community who have ideas for programs and want to turn their vision into a reality. We are also very ‘can-do,’ positive people and we follow through.

“The technology facilitates our ability to process material quickly and end up with a polished product with high production values,” Dolan said. Altmann agreed, “We have more powerful tools that can do the jobs faster.”

At conferences for community broadcasters, Altmann and Dolan have given a number of well-received presentations on the subject of how to maximize the assets of a small station. “We gave workshops on small station success at Gillette Stadium and at two different ACM conferences,” Altmann said. “We are seen as iconoclasts in the field. Someone at this last conference came up to us and said, ‘You guys are amazing. You pack a real punch for such a small station and even really big stations can learn from you.’”

People interested in discussing program concepts are welcome to contact Altmann by email, [email protected], or by phone, 781-275-5004.

Bedford Television can be seen on Verizon on channels 38, 39, and 40 and on Comcast on channels 8,9, and 10. Access the station’s daily and weekly Program Guides as well as selected Youtube uploads at https://www.bedford.tv.

Editor’s Note: Bedford TV celebrated its success and honored its scholarship recipients at its recent annual meeting. Click here to see photos of the event.