The Center for the Arts of Homer Becomes Homer’s Public Access TV Station

Matt Brooks: [00:00:00] Good morning. I’m Matt Brooks on X 1 0 1 Always Classic in for another edition of happening in Homer. And well with me in the studio this morning time, Marshal, director of the Homer Center for the Arts. It’s been a while since you’ve been in the studio. How’s it been going?

Ty Marshal: It’s been great. Thanks Matt.

Glad to be here.

Matt Brooks: Well, we’ve been hearing a lot of things in the local news that. There’s a lot of stuff going on at the Center for the Arts and well, instead of asking you questions, how about you go have before?

Ty Marshal: Sure. I’m sure everybody’s heard about the, designation for the Center for the Arts to become the, access management operator for a Homer public access television station.

And so that’s generally, I believe channel two in the Courtland area. And so, you know, it’s kind of a long story as to how we got here, but. It started out with one of our, founders and longtime supporters, David Yeaman, who recently passed away. We were all very crushed about that. But he and his, family created a grant for us to build out a recording studio.

And so we began to work on that, and we [00:01:00] were, beginning construction and the architectural engineering process for that. And we opened up the ceiling and we saw these beautiful 1893 timber wow ceilings. It was really great to peek back into history. And so that kind of, opened up. Our imaginations, right?

What, what could we do with this space? How can we expand upon a recording studio? And this studio is intended to serve the community right at affordable prices. So whether that’s a local band who wants to record an album, or a individual who wants to start a podcast, the idea is that this is an accessible studio for the community.

And so as we, moved through time, we went and took a visit to Auburn Public Theater. The center staff and I often visit different art centers around the state. And so it was kind of like a learning visit. And while we were there, we, we realized that Auburn Public Media access is housed in their building.

Wow. And so we started looking around their studio and saying, you know, what, what do you do here? And how do you do this? And so that was very [00:02:00] inspiring. At that point we thought, well, maybe we should expand the recording studio and to serve more, right? Yeah. And how can we do that? Well, video kind of became the answer.

And so now it’s not just a recording studio, it’s an entire production suite that we’re planning. And we’re really looking forward to that.

Matt Brooks: And if I remember correctly, once this is all said and done, it’s. The first village to do so?

Ty Marshal: I think so. I think, my, what I’ve been bragging about is, Homer New York is the first village to have a local radio station, a local newspaper, and now a local television.

Station. And so that’s really, I think, makes us unique.

Matt Brooks: Yeah, and it’s always great to hear about these just unique facets. ’cause Homer is such a interesting and great community. And having the radio station on one side of the green and a public access channel on the other, it’s gonna really make it special.

Now you’re still in the middle of, construction, correct? Yeah. Yeah. So. And a lot of this stuff is, there’s a lot of things that have to be put into a row. What’s the timeline? I know you can’t, it’s not set in [00:03:00] stone, but yeah,

Ty Marshal: we’re giving ourselves three to six months for complete build out. So right now we’re in the construction phase.

That also means that we’re looking at different systems to use, for both audio recording and video recording. But I’m gonna say probably about three months. We’ll have it. Built out, we’ll start testing it and seeing, you know, working all the things out, all the technical things. But what I’m encouraging the public to do is to think about public access.

This is homer’s another avenue for Homer’s voice, right? And so if there’s community members that have ideas for shows. Best part is 2026. We can record these on our phones now.

Matt Brooks: Yeah.

Ty Marshal: And we can edit them in, you know, open software on the web. And so we’re encouraging people to think about becoming producers and, and creating their own shows and, reflecting Homer’s voice back onto itself.

Matt Brooks: It’s, it’s amazing to think about just all the possibilities of having a public access channel right here in the village. And especially if the timeline gets, we stick with the timeline [00:04:00] you’re talking about when the weather warms up, people wanna be outside. Yeah. You’re gonna have a lot of opportunity to get some great B roll and maybe make some great programming too.

Absolutely. Now, Ty, we are running a bit out of time, but, you’re encouraging the public to get involved if people, I mean, whether they wanna have their, their hand on the pulse of things, see what the, how the timeline, actually gets strung out as if they have questions about how to become a producer.

How do they get ahold of you or the, the, the information that they need.

Ty Marshal: We’re, gonna probably have everything on our website very soon, right? And so this, we, we just received the des designation from the village a couple weeks ago. And so right now we’re setting up systems and so if they give us just a little bit of time, we’ll have a, a link on our website.

That’ll give you all the information you need. And we’re, we’re beginning to build that out now. Of course they can follow us on social media, Facebook, and Instagram, or call the office, where they are, Monday through Friday from 10:00 AM till 4:00 PM and again, this is just a venture that we hope will be able to better serve the community.

Matt Brooks: Yeah, I am, I am excited for it. And once you get all the production done, I’m gonna take that stroll across the [00:05:00] green and check out this new studio. ’cause not only is it a great new studio, but it’s a great. Public facility that, will, will serve, serve a great deal of people. That’s

Ty Marshal: the idea.

Matt Brooks: Yeah. And thank you again.

Joining me this morning, Ty.

Ty Marshal: Thank you, Matt.

Matt Brooks: It’s been to be here and it’s been another edition of Happen and Homer here on X 1 0 1.