Fanwood Community Television was established in the 1980’s by volunteers that included Joe Nagy and George Weiss. The channel, first broadcast on Comcast channel 35, is part of the commitment by cable companies to provide public access stations to local municipalities. When Verizon launched its Fios network, it too provided a channel to Fanwood, channel 24. Fanwood Community programming is now simulcast on both channels, though the live Council broadcasts didn’t appear on Fios until 2014. Transmission lines that bring the programming to viewers from our “studio” (second floor of the old train station) and the Council chamber are provided free by Fios and Comcast, though they have been poorly maintained over the years. This resulted in some transmission failures earlier this year which we believe have been corrected.
The actual programming, including the onscreen bulletin board, video playback of event programming and the Council meetings, are provided by the Borough through a contract with Ed Cologna Productions and the day to day attention of Michael Lewis, who programs the equipment that generates the onscreen material. This equipment was purchased by us through a grant we received from Comcast two years ago. There is still money remaining in this grant.
In the 25 years or so that have gone by since the creation of the TV station, communications have evolved to other platforms that are at people’s fingertips. Below is a link to the final results of the online survey about Fanwood Community TV and our other communications platforms. We had 100 respondents.
