By James Hanlon
Leader Staff Writer
With new equipment, Oxford Community Television can produce new programming for the Oxford/Addison areas.
Four County Community Foundation (4CCF) has awarded OCTV three grants totaling $5,100. OCTV used the grant awards to purchase much-needed equipment for filming and compensation for production and editing staff.
Production Manager Teri Stiles, who wrote and submitted the grant, says “it’s wonderful” to have upgraded versions of their old equipment. The station’s cameras are outdated, and one or two consistently breakdown, Stiles said. Thanks to the grant, the station now has two new field cameras, two new tri-pods and one new microphone kit.
The grants will support three original programs for different age groups:
Read Me A Story is a program for viewers aged 0-5. The interactive story-time is recorded bi-weekly, year round, in collaboration with the Addison Township Library. Host Pat Mueller, a retired Oxford Early Learning Center education coordinator, reads stories to children in a very animated way.
Kids Cooking Healthy Foods is a program for middle school youth filmed in collaboration with Freedom Kitchen, a local plant-powered Paleo/Keto Cafe with an open-air concept which makes it ideal for cooking classes. Freedom Kitchen recently received a grant of its own from 4CCF to teach a six-week nutrition class to kids. OCTV will film these classes, hopefully beginning in mid-July.
Senior Moments — Beyond Bingo is a program for the senior population, filmed in collaboration with Oxford Township Parks and Recreation and Independence Village senior living community. OCTV films high quality enrichment activities, such as cooking and exercise, in weekly installments over a six-week period. These shows air daily so seniors who are unable to attend outside activities are able to participate.
Running the local access station during the COVID-19 pandemic has been a challenge. Since media was considered an essential service under the stay-at-home orders, Stiles and Station Manager Bill Service continued going into the station, alternating with each other on different days.
Stiles said it was important to continue getting updated local information out to the community. “We were here and available,” Stiles said.
Recently, they shifted their programming priorities to focus on featuring businesses reopening and businesses affected by the M-24 construction project.
Although they have not been occurring in-person, OCTV continues to air recordings of local government meetings made available via the video conference platform Zoom.
Back in February, Stiles and Service were honored for their work at OCTV with Leadership Awards at the Oxford Chamber of Commerce State of the Community Breakfast.
OCTV covers local government meetings, school activities and events, sports, festivals, parades, fund-raisers and charity events, nonprofit groups, local merchants, church services, concerts and compelling human interest stories. OCTV can be viewed by Charter/Spectrum cable subscribers on Channel 191. AT&T U-verse customers can tune in on Channel 99.
OCTV programs can also be viewed on YouTube. To learn more about the station, visit www.occtv.org.

  OCTV, Teri Stiles