About Us
Our Mission: “To provide equipment, training, and channel time to members of the Fitchburg community for the purposes of building community, empowering the individual, and ensuring First Amendment expression through the use of television technology.”
Fitchburg Access Television, Inc. (FATV) is an independent non-profit 501(C)(3) organization. FATV operates the PEG (public, educational and government) access channels on the cable television system in Fitchburg, Massachusetts. As part of this responsibility FATV will provide:
Training and technical assistance in the use of cable television production equipment
Access to production resources
Time on the public access, educational and governmental access channels
A BRIEF HISTORY OF FATV
What was to become Fitchburg Access Television began in 1985 when Jon Giannetti, Gunther Hoos, and Bob Wilson presented the idea of a community television station to city leaders. They also helped negotiate the first cable contract that provided money to support Local Access Television. FATV was incorporated in December of 1987. We were on our way.
Our Homes
In the beginning, production classes were held at various locations including the Wallace Civic Center and even in Jon Giannetti’s living room. Then, for a while, FATV operated out of first-floor space in the Johnsonia Building on Main Street. Partitions between offices, studio and edit areas were often blue tarps. Fortunately, FATV found a much more substantial and usable space in 1991-92. The Fitchburg School Department offered FATV space on the 3rd and 4th floors of its headquarters at 376 South Street. This would be FATV’s home for 14 years and would fuel the growth of local Access TV that continues today.
However, with the need for more space and expansion space at South Street unavailable, FATV began looking for a new home. On the day after Labor Day in 2005, FATV officially opened for business at 175 Kimball Street, which served as our home for 17 years. Overnight, FATV went from 3,300 square feet of space on two upper floors of the School Department Building, to 10,000 square feet on a single, street level floor. This facility boasted two studios, a 25’x44’ studio which allowed for multiple performance areas or a studio audience, and a secondary 20’x22’ studio which was suitable for smaller productions and podcasts. The space at 175 Kimball Street also featured four operating edit suites, a studio control room, and our Master Control room. A full kitchen, conference room, archives, and equipment checkout room rounded out the facility.
In January 2023, FATV moved into our new home at 780 Main Street. The new location, which is located on the first floor of the Rollstone Bank and Trust building, provides the same amenities as the former location, totaling 5,500 square feet of creative space, all designed with the future in mind. In addition to the main studio, which totals approximately 1,000 square feet, the space boasts a podcast studio, three editing workstations, an editing suite, conference room, media preservation workstation, and a green room/waiting area, as well as five administrative offices. The conference room is named for the late David Clark, a lifelong Fitchburg resident who served on multiple city boards, as well as serving as a volunteer board member and sports commentator for FATV. With a commitment to supporting local businesses, FATV worked with local vendors and contractors to complete the renovation.
Remote Production Truck
FATV’s first production truck was donated in 1999 by Sam Calloway. It was a 1986 vending-route vehicle that FATV initially used just to transport portable equipment to production venues. By 2002 Mark Rocheleau, who later would serve as Executive Director, converted the vehicle into a full TV Production Truck. This vehicle served FATV well, but age finally caught up. In 2008, the 21-year-old vehicle was retired and replaced by a new custom-built Production Truck complete with generator, air conditioning, heat and a roof platform that can accommodate up to 2 cameras and their operators. For years, FATV maintained over a dozen “drops” throughout the city, which allow for live telecasts from key locations throughout the community. With the emergence of new technology, FATV now utilizes a remote system that allows live broadcasts from any location that has broadband internet or 4G cellular service. That opens opportunities of live coverage to virtually anywhere in the world.
Today
On the Public Channel, you will find programs of interest to our community, including talk shows highlighting organizations and events in our area, such as the long running Barbara & You, Inside Fitchburg, and Discussing Fitchburg Now. It also features programs like Chess Chat, an in depth show about the world of chess; and FLAP TV, which focuses on local politics. We also feature entertainment shows about local history, thriller movies, and cooking, like I Remember When, Andy’s Little Sci-Fi Horror Show, and Cooking and Kids. All of our locally produced programs air first on this channel, with many of our most popular programs being distributed to other local access channels around the region.
Our Government channel helps keep our citizens informed on everything that happens with our government. FATV produces and broadcasts every government meeting live from the new Legislative Building next to City Hall on Main Street. In addition, FATV helps produce and air any special broadcasts that are necessary to inform the public on any major developments happening in the city as well.
Our Civic channel is available in High Definition everywhere, allowing everyone to see the best that we have to offer in the best quality possible. In addition to putting a spotlight on our more memorable programming, the Civic Channel is also home to coverage of interscholastic sporting events, as FATV has been proud to produce live coverage of every home football game of Fitchburg High School and Fitchburg State University for over 25 years, along with coverage of ice hockey, basketball, and many other sports. The Civic channel is also the home to programming from our public schools, along with their commencement ceremonies, which FATV assists in providing coverage for. We also feature selections from Classic Arts Showcase as part of our programming.
And finally, FATV has a robust content distribution system that allows anyone from around the world to watch us from the comfort of their own homes, or anywhere else. All three of our channels feature live streams in high definition, which are available anytime online through our website, through our apps for iOS and Android devices, and on our over-the-top apps for Apple TV, Amazon Fire, and Roku devices. We also have an on-demand library that is constantly being updated, with additional archived programs available on our YouTube channel.
Fitchburg Access Television is a non-profit corporation that is overseen by an 11-member all-volunteer Board of Directors. FATV has had eight Executive Directors in over 35 years of service to the community…Jon Giannetti, Paul Wieland, Mark Rocheleau, Shelley Wolfe, Dave Svens, Scott May, Glenn Fossa, and Nathan Glenny.
We look forward to continuing to serve the community, now and into the future.