LONGMEADOW – Longmeadow Community Television (LCTV) recently announced their new Executive Director, Tracey Durant, who is replacing longtime Executive Director Dave Bartlett. Durant is no stranger to the LCTV studio – she’s been working for the company for 17 years.

Durant told Reminder Publishing that she was first introduced to community television while in high sch/ool in Rockland. Similar to Longmeadow, Rockland’s Public Access TV station was located in the high school. Durant enrolled in a TV production course and “loved it.” She took the course again during her senior year and also began volunteering with the station to record School Committee and Board meetings.

“Eventually, I went on to recording and editing various other projects for the town. I enjoyed the creativity of producing television and video pieces and just expressing ideas through that medium,” Durant said. “I also enjoyed working with the public and helping them develop projects that represented activities of interest and importance to the local community.”

After high school, Durant went on to study television and film at Bradford College where they had collaboration with Haverhill Community Access TV. During her college career she transferred to Hampshire College and worked part time at East Longmeadow’s Community Access Television station. When her time with Hampshire College was complete, two months after her graduation Durant was hired at LCTV.

When she first started at LCTV, she began as a program coordinator, developing schedules for cablecasting shows and programming them for air. In addition, she worked as crew – directing, camera operator, editing, and more for all of their productions. After a year had passed, she was promoted to Cable Access Coordinator, where she was then responsible for maintaining equipment and volunteer coordination in addition to production work.

“There are a lot of things I love about working at LCTV. First, I just really enjoy the work,” Durant said. “I love being able to work in television in an environment that is solely focused on serving the community. With a small staff, you also have the opportunity to do a little bit of everything – directing, editing, camera work, working the public, outreach, marketing, etc. Every day is different and that keeps it interesting.”

In addition to her enjoyment of the work at LCTV, Durant notes that when she first came to LCTV, she was impressed with the equipment and facilities that they have. Durant states this is due in large part to the work of their Board of Directors securing a strong contract with Comcast.

“When I started at LCTV,” Durant explained, “Gil Lefkovich was the executive director and he was not only a wonderful leader and great boss to work for, he also had been general manager of Channel 40 and brought a level of professionalism to public access that is not always seen. I learned a lot from Gil and am honored to have had the opportunity to work with him.”

When Durant was pregnant with her first child in 2007, Lefkovich passed away. Durant asked the LCTV Board if they would allow her to stay on staff part-time, and they subsequently created a part-time position for her.

“David Bartlett came on at that time as the director, though he took the title of station manager, and he along with the support of the Board supported me in continuing to work part-time, allowing me to set my own schedule around the demands of raising a young family over the past 10 years as I went on to have three daughters in addition to my son,” Durant said. “I cannot say enough about how fortunate I was to have a boss that respected both the work I do and the challenges of balancing a career with parenting. I am incredibly grateful to Dave for being able and willing to envision a flexible schedule.”

In 2013, tragedy struck Durant’s family, as one of her, at the time, one-year-old twin daughters passed away suddenly.

“In 2015, I started a small nonprofit, The Callie Rose Foundation (CRF), in her honor to benefit families at Baystate Children’s Hospital who were facing the serious illness and/or death of their child,” Durant explained. In 2016, a woman contacted Durant to make a donation to CRF, and when they talked, the woman shared that she was considering going back to school to get a degree in Nonprofit Management and Philanthropy. Durant had not heard of this degree previously, but instantly, she said she knew she should go back to school to get her degree in that field.

“Not only would it help my work with CRF, but I had hopes of coming back full time to LCTV in more of a leadership position at some point and I knew a degree in Nonprofit Management would be incredibly beneficial,” Durant said. “I had two decades of experience working in public access television, mostly on the production side, but I wanted to expand my skills on the management side.”

Durant applied to Bay Path University’s program, was accepted, and less than a month after her meeting with the donor who sparked it all, she started the program.

“I graduated in May of 2019 and already the education I received in the program has proven invaluable to my work at LCTV,” she said. The opportunity for Durant to become executive director was all in the timing, as Bartlett was ready to retire at the end of June, just as her youngest child was old enough to enter a preschool program.

There are many opportunities that Durant looks forward to taking as she settles into her new position. She notes that community outreach is an important aspect to the work she will be doing moving forward. Durant explained that Longmeadow has a “robust community TV station” and that she wants to let the town know what LCTV is and what they do.

“I think many people know us for broadcasting Select Board and School Committee Meetings in town, a vital service for sure, but I don't think as many people realize how much a community TV station has to offer,” Durant stated.

Durant is looking to build a group of active volunteers so that LCTV can increase the amount of locally produced programs on their channels. She explained that the goal of any access station is to have the majority of the programming be locally produced. Additionally, she explained that she wants to increase their work with students and would love to have regular programming produced entirely by students.

“I also am hoping to do more programming with our senior population and preserve some of the great history we have in town,” Durant said.

As more and more of the population shifts from watching television traditionally through cable to streaming services, Durant notes that she sees this as a “great opportunity to increase viewership” because it will give the station more flexibility to put out content in a way that “better suits people’s viewing habits.”

Funding for LCTV and any public access channel is a “significant issue” according to Durant, as all public access stations are funded by a percentage of revenue from cable subscriptions based on a contract negotiated with the cable company. As residents drop cable, Durant explained, LCTV sees a reduction in funding.

While the traditional cable model of watching television may be slowly becoming obsolete, Durant firmly believes that the value in the services that LCTV provides is still relevant, if not more so than ever.

“Public Access is the only means that many residents have to actively engage in town politics.” Durant continued, “Since many can.t attend the all the meetings, they view them online either through live streaming or on Demand on our YouTube channel. Even most news outlets that report on the town meetings utilize the meetings we put online for their information.”

In her new role as Executive Director, Durant said she looks forward to being an advocate for the value Public Access brings to communities and to support LCTV through that transition so they can hopefully come out a “stronger, more robust and active station.”