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Truckee station wins community TV awards

Paul Raymore

Ever since it was invented, people have always complained that there is nothing good on television. However, many in the Truckee community know that there is good television out there – much of it being produced right in town at the studios of Truckee Tahoe Community Television, cable Channel 6. In fact, Channel 6 Director John Echols even has the awards to prove it, as local producers recently won two first and two second place prizes at the Alliance for Community Media’s annual Western Access Video Excellence awards in Reno earlier this fall. The Truckee producers who won include Chris Miller, who took first place in the Programs for Youth category for “The Chris Show,” a daily children’s program that many Truckee parents have come to depend on; Producer Gary McNally, who also took home a first place award in the Educational Access category for “Sierra Wildlife” with host Connie Stevens; and Jack Davis and Jack Lighthiser, both of whom came away with second place prizes for their coverage of Truckee High football and girls’ soccer respectively.

Truckee producers submitted approximately 20 tapes to the competition, a testament, Echols said, to the number of quality programs being made at the studio.The surprise of the awards ceremony came when Echols learned that he was one of nine nominees for, and the winner of, the Brian Wilson Community Award, which recognizes people involved in community television who have dedicated themselves to mentoring others.”Brian Wilson was a person in the Alliance for Community Media that everybody knew,” Echols said. “He passed away from cancer suddenly last spring, and he was the kind of person who everybody said was just a leader, a mentor and wanted people to succeed at what they were doing…”Wilson wanted to be remembered with an award for those who kept his spirit alive, and letters were sent out to staff at member stations looking for nominees.

Echols didn’t even know that he had been nominated for the award until he arrived at the conference, he said, and never expected to win it.”It was particularly rewarding,” he said. “It’s the kind of award that really meant something because that’s what I feel like I try to do all day long – help people succeed with something.”Echols’ award didn’t surprise local producer Jack Davis, who called Echols “the backbone behind Channel 6.””He’s taught a lot of excellent students and he’s got a lot of adults who have taken courses and done really well,” Davis said. “He’s had a vision and it’s come to fruition. All of us are very proud to see him win that award.”



Echols said he hopes that all the awards will help clue people in to the fact that impressive things are happening at the Channel 6 studio, which is located at Tahoe Truckee High School. He also hopes to be able to hire a new Community Coordinator soon, who will be charged with getting the word out to the community about the resources available at the studio.”We have some very definite plans to have some programming that will feature community groups or non-profits,” Echols said of his plans. “The goal this year is to make it easier for all levels of people to use the facility.”Other goals the studio hopes to focus on in the next year include producing more programming that features kids, upgrades to the studio and field equipment available for use, putting together a community forum-type show and increasing the public’s overall usage of the facility.For more information on TTCTV, the studio and the opportunities for producing television shows, please e-mail the studio at channel6@ttusd.org, call them at 582-1194 or take a look at their Web site by logging on to http://www.TTCTV.org.


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