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View Winners → KGEM Corner #2
Monrovia Weekly Apr 01, 2016
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By Lance Mungia
Hello and welcome back to KGEM Corner, where we discuss what is new with your local Monrovia public access community television studio.
Did you know right here in Monrovia we have a place with everything you need to make your own local television show, where all you need is to show up with is some creative ideas and a desire to learn … for free?
In life, we never trust the word, “free.” Well, our studio at 847 E. Olive Ave., right here in Monrovia, next to the Boys and Girls Club Teen center, is indeed a “free” resource for anyone looking to get involved with community television as a volunteer producer.
KGEM studio is your local voice. It is called Public Access TV, for a reason. Laws were made years ago that guarantee you, as a resident, the right to a voice on community cable without the filter of the mainstream media. That is KGEM. It is your free speech, and also an opportunity to invent, entertain, inform, and ultimately craft video art that can enlighten or inspire our community in ways unique to us in this community. Whether one community member walks in the door or a dozen in the course of our day, we are here to serve you, and you will find capable, generous staff to greet you and show you the ropes.
Over the last year, we have already produced 70 local volunteer produced programs for Monrovia cable, which you can see by tuning into KGEM channel 3 and KMAC channel 98 on Time Warner Cable. There is no guideline for the shows you produce except having the gumption to do so and something to say. You come in, take an orientation, and you can either shoot live in the studio, or create the next great American documentary. Your call. Shows done by local Monrovia residents this year range from an art show, to a gospel show, to shows about science and economics, to gardening. All produced right here by folks who walked in the door.
At a time when local is becoming more and more of a rare commodity, to have high quality, volunteer made television right here in Monrovia is truly a gem to be treasured.
Okay, really, it is not free. It is paid for by franchise fees from the cable company and a few cent fee from your monthly cable bill and beyond that the studio space and our state of the art camera equipment, computers, software, and knowledgeable staff in residence are all subsidized by other production work our non-profit Community Media of the Foothills does, which is why the next community studio closest to our similar budget in So Cal, but without the same kind of external revenue, is not producing anything and has not upgraded equipment in years.
We have been a community partner in Monrovia for 30 years. Community production is in our bones and we are proud of that as an organization. Stop by and find out more or go to www.foothillsmedia.org.
