A new half-hour community-based television program in Springfield, “People Are Talking,” debuted last week four times daily on Comcast local government access channel 17—8:00 am, 12:00 noon, 7:00 pm, and 11:00 pm. Each episode will air for two weeks.
The show will include segments on news, neighborhoods, and a special guest, and will feature positive developments in Springfield. It will also include public service announcements meant to inform citizens of important and timely news, programs and opportunities.
“There’s so much to showcase, and we have a venue now to do it,” said the host of the show, Azell Murphy Cavaan, the city’s community relations director. The effort was called for by Mayor Charles Ryan, and is made possible in part by the combination of paid and volunteer work of the show’s producer, Springfield resident Aaron Williams, who Cavaan called “a perfectionist.”
“We’re trying to do it in as professional a way as possible,” Cavaan explained, with an effort toward avoiding the shaky-camera syndrome often associated with public-access television programs. “Aaron loves the city, and he is in large part volunteering. What he’s being paid is far less than what somebody would get for what he’s doing. He’s from this area; he loves Springfield. He’s been trying to do something like this for a long time. He wanted to do it, and we needed somebody who could bring an air of professionalism to the product.”
True to Cavaan’s words, Williams said, “I have a special love for Springfield, and I wanted to be a part of any solution that would make it a better city, using whatever skills, talents I have, and team up with as many people as possible to showcase the good in the city. It was like a match made in heaven that this opportunity came along, to have the opportunity to work with Azell.”
To prepare for the show, Williams took a six-week course offered by Comcast in video production. “I have a passion and love for arts, culture, and video,” Williams said. “I’m educated in business with a marketing degree, but I’m trying to use the skills I’ve acquired throughout my life, and just apply them to the situation at hand, which is collaborating with positive people and just make things happen.”
“I operate the camera,” he added. “I’m editing the footage and the graphics at this point. I’m just out here doing it.” Williams said he is enjoying it so far, and the various challenges that can arise doing video work out and about with changing circumstances and all different types of people.
Each episode will open with an interview with the mayor, in the show’s City Hall “studio”—actually an empty, well-appointed office. But largely the show will bring to residents’ living rooms the sights and sounds of the surrounding community. “We’ll try to get out as much as possible,” Cavaan said, “in the neighborhood or in the environment of the guest we’re having on. We try not to be in the studio too often.”
The first episode of the show features Joe Sibilia at Gasoline Alley; residents of Old Hill in and around the neighborhood (”We couldn’t get [Old Hill Neighborhood Council president] Omega Johnson,” Cavaan said, “she’s a very busy lady”); and some discussion on the steps of Symphony Hall (pictured). Also included in the first episode: Springfield Museums executive director Joseph Carvalho; chairman Michael Rollings of the Business Friends of the Arts, Inc., who also works as Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer at MassMutual; and David Starr, one of the founders of Business Friends of the Arts—an advocacy group that supports the Springfield Symphony Orchestra, the Springfield Museums, WGBY, and CityStage/Symphony Hall.
The show is “just on a trial basis,” Cavaan explained. “Our hope is to get grant funding. At this point we’re not sure how we’re going to sustain it. It’s a small amount of money that we have right now, to do a few episodes.”
When asked whether this was an attempt for the city to do its own journalism, Cavaan replied, “I would say that it is an alternative, additional source of information. It’s not competitive with our local news programs or the newspaper. We’re not trying to break big stories or get the scoop. The focus is to highlight positive happenings, individuals, and events in the city, and shine a light on the attributes that very few people know about in the city of Springfield. We’re not trying to bring people hard-hitting news as much as we are trying give them another option to learn about their city from the point of view of what’s good, interesting, exciting, and new.”
Viewers’ feedback will be welcome. Cavaan said the city plans to have an online feedback form set up and ready to go by the time the first episode is aired Monday at 8:00 am.
Williams described the city as a human body, with various parts that all have different functions and purposes. “It is very important that on an everyday basis, they all work together in harmony,” he said. “When one part is not functioning, most likely the other parts try to pick up the slack.” He said he feels very humbled by his role in producing the new show, and it’s just one piece of all the things that have to work together to help Springfield succeed as a city. “All this variety, it can work together just like the human body. That’s what I’m trying to do.”
