Oxford Community Television (OCTV) was one of many public access stations honored with an award Friday evening during the 2017 Philo Festival of Media Arts held at the Orion Center on Joslyn Rd.

An episode of the OCTV original program “My Life” was named winner of the “Military” category. The episode is a compilation of interviews with local veterans of World War II, Korea and Vietnam.

“The greatest experience was meeting all these guys,” said John Oetjens, the show’s producer and host.

Hosted by the Central States Region Alliance for Community Media (ACM), the Philo Festival is for professional, volunteer and youth producers and filmmakers in Michigan, Indiana, Ohio and Kentucky. The festival is named after Philo T. Farnsworth, the father of modern television. Orion Neighborhood Television (ONTV) served as the host for this year’s festival.

Receiving this award with Oetjens were Russel Currier (editor and cameraman), who grew up in Leonard and attended Oxford High School, and Ashley Pointe (editor).

“I can’t thank our station manager, Bill Service, enough because through his connection with the American Legion, he talked a lot of these fellas into coming in (for) our program,” said Oetjens during his acceptance speech.

This was OCTV’s third Philo Festival award since 2015.

“My Life” features riveting, in-depth interviews with people, primarily senior citizens, living in the Oxford area. The show debuted in October 2013 and since then, 135 episodes have aired. It can be seen at 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. Monday through Friday and again, at 10 a.m. on Saturday.

Oetjens was particularly impressed by the WWII veterans he interviewed.

“One of the things that amazed me most about the World War II vets (was) their level of patriotism when they were just high schoolers,” he explained.

“The only thing on their mind when World War II was going on was joining the military and they couldn’t do that fast enough.”

He heard a number of stories from veterans about creating “false birth certificates” so they could “volunteer” for service when they were still too young to enlist.

“This one guy did it so many times that the recruiter got to know him personally, practically,” Oetjens said. “About his fifth time around, (the recruiter) held it up to the light and he says, ‘Well, not quite, but you’re doing better.’”

The Mistress of Ceremonies for this year’s Philo Festival awards ceremony was Oxford resident Connie Miller, host of the award-winning OCTV cooking show “Connie’s Kitchen.”

A promotional video, featuring Miller and filmed/edited by Kyle Snage, for last year’s Unicorn Festival at Treetop Lodge was nominated for the Philo Festival’s “Best in Show” excellence award. Although it didn’t win, the judges called it “funny and creative” and “very entertaining.” They said it was “nicely put together” with “very good” technical production.

OCTV Production Manager Teri Stiles accepted an invitation to join the board of directors for the Central States Region ACM.

“I am so excited and so humbled,” she said. “I can’t wait to learn from them. I can’t wait to be involved with that group of like-minded people. I’m thrilled.”

Founded in 1976, the national ACM represents more than 3,000 Public, Educational and Governmental (PEG) access organizations and community media centers throughout the United States. ACM works to protect the interests of these access centers and those who use PEG facilities and equipment to advance their causes through cable television and the internet.

The Central States Region serves Michigan, Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky.

“They’re promoters of public access television and they’re always looking for new ways to help it,” Stiles said. “The biggest thing this organization does is help public access stations sustain public access.”

She can hardly wait to take advantage of ACM’s various educational opportunities, so she can apply that knowledge to OCTV to determine what things the station is doing right, what things could be improved and what new ideas could be implemented.

“There’s just so much I can learn from them,” Stiles said.

OCTV can be viewed by Charter cable subscribers on Channel 191. AT&T U-verse subscribers can tune in to Channel 99. Programs can also be viewed at YouTube.com.