Read the MTN Newsletter, The Monitor!

MTN Hours Changing

MTN's hours will be changing starting May 19. Starting on this day, MTN will be open from noon until 9 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays, noon to 7 p.m. Fridays and 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday.

Amy Goodman on April 28

April 28, 2008
6:30 pm
St. Joan of Arc Church, 4537 3rd Ave. South, Minneapolis
$10 in advance, $12 at the door

Presented by Community Media Partners, KFAI, Minneapolis Television Network, and St. Paul Neighborhood Network

KFAI, Minneapolis Television Network (MTN) and Saint Paul Neighborhood Network (SPNN) are proud to present Amy Goodman, co-host of Democracy Now!, and David Goodman, co-authors of their new book, Standing Up to the Madness: Ordinary Heroes in Extraordinary Times. The talk will be held at St. Joan of Arc Church, 4537 3rd Ave. South, Minneapolis on Monday, April 28, 2008 at 6:30 pm. This event is part of the station's "Fresh Voices: KFAI Speaks" Lecture Series.

Hyperion Books describes Standing Up to the Madness: Ordinary Heroes in Extraordinary Times as a timely, inspiring, and even revolutionary look at who wields the greatest power in America - everyday people who take a chance and stand up for what they believe in - but also offers advice on what you can do to help.

This event is open to the public. Tickets are $10 in advance, $12 at the door.

Tickets are also available at the following locations:

* KFAI, 1808 Riverside Ave., Minneapolis, 10-6pm, 612-341-3144×23
* Birchbark Books, 2115 W 21st St., Minneapolis, MN 612-374-4023
* Black Dog Café, 309 Prince St., St. Paul, 651-228-9274
* Cahoots Coffee Bar, 1562 Selby Ave., St. Paul, 651-644-6778
* Mayday Books, 301 Cedar Ave., Minneapolis, 612-333-4719

December 5, 2007

Some opportunities for local mediamakers

Here are links to some opportunities for local media makers:

McKnight Fellowship for Film and Screenwriting

Minneapolis Mosaic Filmmaking Commission (word document)

Walker Art Center - Tell Us A Story About Your Suburb

October 18, 2007

July - September MTN Class Projects

MTN class projects from the July-September 2007 classes will be shown at the following channels. All showings are on MTN 16.

Monday, October 22 at 6 am
Tuesday, October 30 at 11 pm
Friday, November 2 at 11:30 am
Monday November 12 at 7 pm

September 27, 2007

Mayor's Budget Proposes Cutting $100,000 from MTN

On Monday, September 24, Minneapolis Mayor R.T. Rybak released his recommendations for the 2008 City of Minneapolis budget. This is a paragraph of the "Communications" section:

MAYOR¹S RECOMMENDED BUDGET
The Mayor recommends reducing the Minneapolis Telecommunications Network
contract by $100,000 on a one-time basis; this funding is directed to the
Minneapolis Wireless Portals Project. The department will reduce its
capital expenditures by $25,000, a reduction not anticipated in the
financial direction for 2008.

July 11, 2007

MTN Class Projects show on MTN

MTN Beginning Field Class Projects from John's classes this spring will show on MTN at the following times. All showtime are for MTN 16.

Tuesday, July 17 at 11:43 pm

Monday, July 23 at 6:13 am

Sunday, August 5 at 7:43 pm

Friday, August 10 at 11:13 am

May 31, 2007

MTN Carries Celebrate Northeast Parade live

Once again and for the 21th year in a row the Minneapolis Television Network will LIVE cable-cast the 2007 Celebrate Northeast Parade Tuesday June 19, 2007 on MTN chan 16 from 6:30-8:30 pm.

You must live in Minneapolis, and be a Comcast cable subscriber to watch it.

The Minneapolis Television Network (MTN) will re-cable-cast the 2007 Celebrate Northeast Parade on MTN chan 16 on the following dates:

Saturday June 23 @ 8 pm
Thursday June 28 @ 10 pm
Friday June 29 @ 10 pm
Saturday June 30 @ 8 pm
Thursday July 5 @ 10 pm
Friday July 6 @ 10 pm
Saturday July 7 @ 8 pm

May 10, 2007

May 23 Monday Night Live will feature A Vision of Natives in Media

Fast Horse Productions' "Wolf Spirit" A Native American Talk Show and The Minneapolis Telecommunications Network present: "A Vision of Natives in Media," a live call in show. The show will be on Wednesday May 23, 2007, 7:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m
On MTN Channel 16. Call-In Number is 612-746-0553.

On the show, Martha Fast Horse will interview Syd Beane, Senior Community Development Specialist for The Center for Community Change, and Becky Beane, Director of Wicoie Nandagikendan Urban Early Childhood Language Immersion Project. (A project of The Alliance of Early Childhood Professionals).

May 1, 2007

Video Voices Go Live

The Video Voices program, the long-standing collaboration between South High, the Humphrey Forum, and MTN, will present a series of live shows created by the High School students in the program. Here are the dates, times and subject matter of the shows:

Friday 5/4 Studio A--10-12 pm "Global Warming"
Monday 5/7 Studio B--8-9 pm "Minneapolis Urban Art"
Monday 5/7 Studio B--9:30-10:30pm "Influence of hip-hop on young Somalis"
Friday 5/11 Studio A--10-12pm "Anti War Protest"
Monday 5/14 Studio B--8-9pm "Libraries"
Monday 5/14 Studio B--9:30-10:30pm "Revitalizing Native Am. Languages"
Friday 5/18 Studio A--10-12pm Schools:Intel.-Des.+Lunch+pub vs private)
Saturday 5/19 Studio A--8-10pm "The New Twins Ballpark"
Monday 5/21 Studio B--8-9pm "Veterans Home"
Monday 5/21 Studio B--9:30-10;30 "Interracial Relationships"

January 11, 2007

MTN Playback Changes

MTN is moving into the 21st century in its Programming Department. On President?s Day, February 19th, MTN will switch to a new computer server playback system, which will allow us to schedule programs 24 hours a day, and even on holidays.

In our current system, somebody is actually playing tapes and sending the signal out on all three channels during the evening. MTN has used this system from its very beginning. This has limited us to being able to program only seven hours of shows a day, from 5 pm to midnight. The 5 to 10 pm shows are recorded and replayed to fill up most of the rest of the hours of the day.

In our new playback system, our Playback Director, David Paul, will be recording programs onto the hard-drive of our server system. The computer will be playing these files according to the schedule. The computer will be able to work 24 hours a day, and on holidays.

This 24 hour system will allow us more room for new programming on MTN?s three channels. The evening schedule of series programs has been so full lately that it has been nearly impossible to schedule the new programs that continue to come in to MTN.

One change that might not be as popular with producers who have been on for some time, is that programs that received multiple repeats in a single day will not receive as many repeat plays. This will allow us to make room for all the new programs that come to MTN.

But the advantages easily outweigh the disadvantages. For example, our new system will also allow us to accept programs on DVDs. And to make it more convenient for you to drop off tapes (or disks), Jim Derks has built an after-hours drop-off box next to MTN?s main entrance. You can drop off your program through the slot whenever St. Anthony Main is open.

We will need two business days to enter each tape into our playback system. Instead of the old Monday deadline, the deadline for submission of your tape depends on the day of the week that your show is playing. This new drop-off schedule starts February 19.

Series producers have been sent a mailing with information about re-aplying for their old time slot, or getting a new one. If you need one of these packets, please contact the MTN Program Manager.

And look for the changes on the channels starting on February 19th. That day is a holiday, and MTN will be closed, but our computer will be cablecasting shows at their regular times.

If you see Nate Mains, Jim Derks or David Paul in the hallway, thank them. All three have put in a great deal of hard work to get this system up and running.

November 10, 2006

Colby will be recognized at December 1 Appreciation Night

Executive Director Pam Colby of the Minneapolis Television Network (MTN) will be recognized for her twenty years service at the "MTN Appreciation Night," on Friday, December 1. The stars of community TV in Minneapolis will gather to celebrate at MTN's Studio A.

Part of the celebration will be shown live on MTN 16, from 8 – 8:30 pm. The celebration itself will run from 6 to 9 pm and feature food from MTN's downstairs neighbor, The Aster Café.

MTN provides public access to the Minneapolis cable system. MTN offers classes to teach community members TV production skills, equipment and studios they can use to make their own shows, and channel time on the three MTN channels on Comcast cable.

In addition to her years of service at MTN, Pam Colby is an independent video producer. Her work as a producer includes "Wellstone!" and "The Unapologetic Life of Margaret Randall." Colby is also the President of the Board of the National Alliance for Media Arts and Culture (NAMAC), an organization that supports and advocates for independent film, video, audio and online/multimedia arts.

August 4, 2006

Imagine fourth graders discovering actual artifacts from the days of flour milling along the Mississippi River. Find out what they learned about their city's history from archaeologists and staff members from the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board.

Real Archaeology: Digging In at Mill Ruins Park is a video about students from Jenny Lind Community School in Minneapolis who participated in an archaeological dig at Mill Ruins Park. They worked with real archaeologists to find artifacts in the site of a row of flour mills that were torn down years ago. This show was produced by MTN Production Services for the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board.

The video can be seen on MTN on the following days and channels:

July 14, 2006

MTN Program Manager Martin Hallanger announced at the MTN Board Meeting on April 13, 2006, that MTN has purchased a Princeton Server Group video server and will begin playback of programming through the server by the fall. This server will allow MTN to schedule programs 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The server will playback programs on MTN's three public access channels and the Minneapolis Public Schools channel 15.

Producers will drop off all tapes at MTN's St. Anthony location. There, tapes will be transferred to a hard drive which will be taken to the server at MTN's Plymouth Avenue location.

The server will allow MTN to increase the hours of live programming in its schedule, and will reduce wear and tear on tapes submitted by members. It will also allow MTN to accept programs on DVD.

Watch for notices in the upcoming issue of the Monitor, and on the MTN web site, for details on the implementation of the video server. Implementation of the server may require that some program producers change their series time slots. If you have any questions about this, please contact Program Manager Martin Hallanger.

July 3, 2006

County Board Fights to Save Community Cable Television

The Hennepin County Board unanimously passed a resolution sponsored by Commissioner McLaughlin June 20, opposing any federal regulation that reduces the power of local government to approve and administer franchised cable television providers. The resolution was in response to pending legislation in the U.S. Congress, the Communications Opportunity, Promotion, and Enhancement Act (COPE) of 2006.

The bill passed the House of Representatives and is now being considered by the U.S. Senate.

The bill would have a serious economic impact on community cable channels like Metro Cable Network Channel 6. "The bill allows broadband/video service providers to pick and choose which neighborhoods to serve," explained Commissioner McLaughlin. "It allows these providers to bypass other neighborhoods completely. One of the hallmarks of our local Metro Cable Network Channel 6 is its ability to communicate directly with anyone who has cable – and that is why Hennepin County pays for both live broadcasts of our meetings and a repeat Friday evenings. This is a core way for us to communicate with constituents, and it will be jeopardized by this Act if passed. The same would be true for thousands of units of local government around the country.

Equally important would be the loss of access to cable programming time for community groups and individuals. "We have an incredible system of community access here in the metro area," McLaughlin noted. "Now is not the time to undercut it with a national takeover."

June 22, 2006

The Celebrate Northeast Parade will be replayed on MTN 16 at the following day and times:

Thurs, June 22 at 10 pm
Friday, June 23 at 10 pm,
Saturday, June 24 at 8 pm,
Sunday June 25 at 3 am, 8 am and 1 pm,
Thurs, June 29 at 10 pm,
Friday, June 30 at 10 pm,
Saturday, July 1 at 8 pm,
Sunday, July 2 at 3 am, 8 am, 1 pm,
Thursday, July 6 at 10 pm,
Friday, July 7 at 10 pm,
Saturday, July 8 at 8 pm,
Sunday, July 9 at 3 am, 8 am and 1 pm.

May 8, 2006

The Art-A-Watch video festival will be on Saturday, May 20 at 7 p.m. at MTN's Studio A. Come and see this free showcase of video work created by Northeast makers and/or about Northeast Minneapolis.

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