New and improved local TV broadcasting opportunities have finally arrived in town. Among the many unique after-school opportunities available to teens, the Scituate Community Television station provides Scituate High School (SHS) students and community members with the opportunity to share ideas with a local audience and also learn about the processes involved in TV broadcasting.

While the station is open to all of the Scituate community, most of the staff members involved in the local production are SHS students. This year, SCTV9 is the newest version of community TV in Scituate. According  to John Roser, the Director of Scituate’s Comcast Cable station, it was only in the past few years that Scituate’s community television shifted from cable stations in Norwell to its own cable station, on the local Channel 9.

Employees who aid Mr. Roser now compile professionally home-made videos for Scituate alone. Every day after school, student-employees meet after school to brainstorm, organize, film, and edit shows or videos for local channel 9 and the SCTV9 YouTube channel, ScituateCommunityTV.  In the Broadcasting room on the first floor of SHS, the team has a chance to earn a paycheck after school by filming features on interesting people, places, and ideas around Scituate. The room is equipped with everything from professional cameras and lighting to a green screen. The technology is an entirely digital.  Editing the videos on the Sony VegasPro editing system is a tedious but rewarding process.

“It’s a win-win,” Mr. Roser said. Not only are costs covered entirely by a Comcast Cable TV fund set aside entirely for SCTV9’s purposes, but the non-profit organization “reflects all of the Scituate community,” Roser said. It archives Scituate’s history and current, events which could have otherwise been lost or unavailable to the public.

Junior Gina Brazao is working on a TV show involving her MoPed and mole rats, although it is still a work in progress. Other videos include tapings of Scituate Community theatre, airing movies on Channel 9, recordings of weekly town meetings, Scituate Talks, informational lectures every Thursday evening until November, and News Broadcasting. Junior Katie Albanese is an editor and organizer for many of the SCTV9 projects, including filming and the production of the public theatre airings of movies on the weekends.

“Working there has made me realize that I want to be behind the camera,” Albanese said. Working with SCTV9 has helped her find an interest in Visual and Media Arts, for a future career in production, filming, and animation. It has the same possibilities for others, too.

SCTV9 is open to the public and encourages community members get involved in features and videos produced on the station. Members of the SCTV9 crew advertise and communicate with their followers via social networking sites like their Facebook page and Twitter account, accessible by a link on the Town of Scituate website. To fill out an Event Coverage Request form or to contact John Roser or the SCTV9 staff directly, email them at [email protected] or call (781)-545-8750, ext. 104.

With the bustling creativity downstairs at Scituate High School and around Scituate, fresh ideas are always needed to keep this local TV station and its audience growing.