116 New Programs
81 programs produced by NMTV staff
2 program produced by city staff
33 programs produced by the public
81 hours of new programming
NEWS – EVENTS – MUNICIPAL VIDEOS
North Metro TV News is produced by Danika Peterson and Eric Nelson. Each month, the news team researches, shoots, and edits several news stories. Special Events Coordinator TJ Tronson also contributes videos, when not managing city meetings. Trevor Scholl is North Metro TV’s Municipal Producer. Trevor works with city staff to create videos and stories at city request. These stories are distributed online via NMTV social media channels and compiled into the NMTV News program, which airs on channel 15. The stories relevant to each member city also air in between scheduled programs on the city channel.
73,197 Online Views from 18 New News, Events, and Municipal Videos
Most Viewed Online Story
Construction Comes to Blaine’s 109th Intersection This August
20,685 Views
Some necessary changes are coming to two major intersections along 109th Avenue in Blaine. At a Blaine City Hall project open house, Jorge Bernal of the Anoka County Transportation Department answered residents questions and laid out what they can expect. The intersection at 109th and Raddison will receive dual left turn lanes, new pavement, and a new signal system. The intersection at Tournament Players Parkway will also see a signal replacement to improve traffic flow. The work is being done in advance of the Highway 65 Improvement Project and will begin in August. Learn all about it here.
Fighting Fires Together
Centennial Fire District Station One is now SBM Fire Department Station Four. It is all part of the ongoing process of joining these two departments together. Trevor Scholl spoke to SBM Fire Chief Dan Retka and Circle Pines Mayor Matt Percy about the new union, benefits for residents, and improvements to the station. With Station Four now housing firefighters 24/7, living quarters had to be installed. The result is minutes shaved off response time for residents of Circle Pines and Centerville. See the station here.
Spring Break with Blaine Baseball
The Blaine High School Baseball team is going on spring break! Thanks to some successful student fundraising efforts, the team is looking forward to some training in Tampa, Florida. Last year, the Bengals finished the season 22-4 and spent part of the season as number one in the state. Coach Ted Erickson is looking to build on that success for the 2026 season and sees the time down south as crucial to player development. Coach Erickson told NMTV’s Eric Nelson that the spring training will offer the team a huge advantage over players that have to transition directly from the gym to playing games. See the story here.
Community Gardens
When the City of Blaine opened registration for its community gardens, all sixty spots were snatched up by noon that same day. Lizabeth Rynders of the Blaine Parks and Recreation Department was not surprised. She told Eric Nelson that the plots are always in high demand as Blaine residents enjoy the feeling of community and the opportunity to get out into nature. Soon, the plots will be overflowing with fruits, vegetables, and colorful flowers. See the gardens here.
Helping Seniors
The Anoka County Community Action Program is working to make local senior citizens feel seen. Staff and volunteers assemble quarterly care packages, make phone calls, and even in person visits to members of the 60 plus community who may feel forgotten or left behind. Senior Programs Associate Director Sarah Anderson told Trevor Scholl about the program’s success and their then current Valentine’s Day theme. See the story here.
Under the Boardwalk
Eric Nelson visited Bunker Hills Regional Park to see the new $2 million boardwalk which is nearing completion. Eric spoke to Jeff Perry of the Anoka County Parks Department about the project, which includes not just the 1,000 foot boardwalk, but a wildlife observation area as well. Perry said that the new boardwalk has been built with the future in mind, needing very little maintenance and possessing a lifespan of 30 to 50 years. He added that the new boardwalk is stable, replacing a floating boardwalk that could be uncomfortable for some cyclists. See the new boardwalk here.
Volunteers Needed for 3M Open
The countdown to the 2026 3M Open is already ticking and organizers are looking for volunteers. Eric Nelson spoke to Volunteer and Charity Coordinator Nate Grossman about opportunities for local golf enthusiasts. Grossman said that 2025 set an all-time record for volunteers, with 1,650 people pitching in. This year, they are looking for at least that same number. Volunteers work three half shifts and get perks in return, like full week access to the tournament, free parking, meals, and a swag bag. Learn all about it here.
HIGH SCHOOL SPORTS
NMTV presents high school sports games live on channel 15 and on YouTube. Kenton Kipp and Ted Leroux lead a team of talented videographers in capturing every exciting moment for Blaine, Centennial, and Spring Lake Park High Schools. Games are produced using our HD production truck and the vMix single camera system.
Most Viewed Online Sports Video
Game Recap: Section 5AA Semifinal: Boys Hockey Centennial vs Blaine
6,350 Views
9 New Games with 3,553 Online Views
19 Game Recap Videos Received an Additional 51,262 Online Views
Guns N Hoses
North Metro TV was proud to once again broadcast the annual Guns ‘N Hoses hockey game. As with last year, coverage was provided by the NMTV Sports Team. The team spent the whole week grappling with unique, location related challenges, but were able to broadcast the event live without a hitch. In the end, the guns won the game by one point. You can see all the action here.
CHANNEL 15
Most staff produced programs air on cable channel 15. This includes North Metro TV News and Sports Den, a weekly sports round up.
NMTV staff produced 7 new, full length programs, creating 3 hours of new content.
CLASSES AND PUBLIC ACCESS
North Metro TV offers its facilities and equipment to members of the public and helps them make and air their own programs! Eric Houston manages the department and offers support to our local producers. He teaches classes on a variety of topics, including video production, film history, and even how to use the internet. Eric also runs NMTV’s popular home movie transfer program, which helps community members put their old tapes, photos, and film reels on digital formats.
3 Live In Person Classes with 18 Attendees
Free Tech Support at MAYC – 3 people
DIY Antiques Valuation at MAYC – 12 people
Informational Tour at NMTV – 3 people
4,441 Attendees for Archived VOD Classes
Home Movie Transfers
397 Transfer Hours
109 Video Tapes
29 Film Reels
$1,997 in Fees Collected
Public Access Producers produced 23 new programs with 16.5 hours of content for Channel 14.
ONLINE VIEWING STATS
While North Metro TV does not have access to cable TV ratings, we can track how many people watch our shows and videos online on platforms like Facebook and YouTube. These statistics reflect both new and existing, legacy content.
SOCIAL MEDIA VIEWS
165,577 Videos Views
369 New Subscribers
4,127 Content Interactions
950,433 Impressions
In addition to airing on our cable channels and on social media sites, many of our programs – like city meetings – are available On Demand on our website and on Roku, AppleTV, and Amazon Fire.
VIDEO ON DEMAND
1,307 VOD Views
8,740 Livestream Views
NMTV WEBSITE STATISTICS
11,623 Users
34,954 Page Views
CITY MEETINGS
North Metro TV staff members manage all aspects of city meeting video production for our member cities. This includes providing staff to record and direct the meetings, scheduling replays of the meetings on cable channel 16, providing online and Video On Demand copies of meeting, adding bookmarks to VOD meetings for easy viewing of individual topics, creating podcast versions of meetings, creating and managing closed captioning of all meetings, and seeing to the repair and maintenance of city hall video equipment.
This month, NMTV staff recorded 27 city meetings with 25.5 hours of video.
Meetings are scheduled for replay on cable based on schedules requested by each City. Additional, full length video programs, produced by NMTV staff, are also scheduled on the channels. Shorter videos and promos are loaded onto the CG servers, rather than being scheduled as separate playbacks. These short videos play back in a repeating cycle, along with graphics pages, and air on the channels between scheduled programs, 24 hours a day. The following data represents how many times a meeting was entered into the Tightrope scheduling system and played back on each City channel along with the total length of all programmed content.
Blaine – 136 replays, 107.25 hours
Centerville – 48 replays, 45.75 hours
Circle Pines – 146 replays, 60 hours
Ham Lake – 51 replays, 26 hours
Lexington – 84 replays, 33 hours
Lino Lakes – 70 replays, 56 hours
Spring Lake Park – 99 replays, 47.75 hours
Bulletin Board
A bulletin board, or graphics pages, play on the city cable channels in between scheduled city meetings. These display information about the City, local events, and other issues of interest to citizens. With the installation of the CG servers, Eric Houston updates the information on all seven channels. He works closely with City staff to ensure that all requested informational slides are created and posted to the satisfaction of the city. Even though Eric is doing the work of creating the informational pages, the Cities maintain editorial control. In addition to the graphics pages, the CG units play video. Each video’s producer is responsible for posting any short videos that are displayed. The following work was done for City CG servers this month:
Blaine – 20 videos
Centerville – 6 videos
Circle Pines – 11 videos
Ham Lake – 5 videos
Lexington – 5 videos
Lino Lakes – 11 videos
Spring Lake Park – 7 videos
Closed Captioning
Closed captioning is an additional service provided by North Metro TV. Every city meeting is closed captioned live via our Tightrope system. That process is assigned a per-minute price by Tightrope. Once the meeting is recorded on our servers for repeat airings, that version of the meeting must be captioned separately. This is accomplished through a system owned by North Metro TV and does not incur additional costs. The following data tallies the number of minutes of captioning provided to each city for the month.
Blaine – 217.5 live minutes of closed captioning, 217.5 minutes of post closed captioning
Centerville – 269 live minutes of closed captioning, 269 minutes of post closed captioning
Circle Pines – 60 live minutes of closed captioning, 60 minutes of post closed captioning
Ham Lake – 123 live minutes of closed captioning, 123 minutes of post closed captioning
Lexington – 65 live minutes of closed captioning, 65 minutes of post closed captioning
Lino Lakes – 303 live minutes of closed captioning, 303 minutes of post closed captioning
Spring Lake Park – 96 live minutes of closed captioning, 96 minutes of post closed captioning
City Meetings On Demand
NMTV has created a Video on Demand service, with agenda item bookmarking, for our cities’ meetings. To accomplish this, each meeting goes through several steps. The meeting must first be transferred and transcoded from the playback server to the video on demand server. Once that is done, a staff member must go through the meeting, entering a bookmark at the start of each agenda item and entering the corresponding chapter titles. Next, the meeting is linked to the NMTV website’s city meeting page for Video on Demand. Finally, PDF copies of the meeting agenda are attached to the video. The following meetings were bookmarked and/or placed on VOD for the Cities this month:
Blaine – 4 meetings bookmarked and placed on VOD
Centerville – 4 meetings bookmarked and placed on VOD
Circle Pines – 4 meetings bookmarked and placed on VOD
Ham Lake – 3 meetings bookmarked and placed on VOD
Lexington – 2 meetings placed on VOD
Lino Lakes – 5 meetings bookmarked and placed on VOD
Spring Lake Park – 3 meetings bookmarked and placed on VOD
City Meeting Podccasts
NMTV provides a city meeting podcast service. Depending on each city’s wishes, any or all meetings can be converted. All podcasts are available across six platforms: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Podbean, Amazon Music/Audible, iHeart Radio, and Pocket Casts. Links to each platform are available on each individual channel’s website and at northmetrotv.com/podcasts.
Blaine – uploaded 4 city meeting podcasts, 32 total downloads
Centerville – uploaded 4 city meeting podcasts, 57 total downloads
Circle Pines – uploaded 2 city meeting podcasts, 15 total downloads
Ham Lake – uploaded 2 city meeting podcasts, 25 total downloads
Lexington – uploaded 2 city meeting podcasts, 19 total downloads
Lino Lakes – has decided not to convert city meetings to podcasts
Spring Lake Park – uploaded 3 city meeting podcasts, 18 total downloads
City Meeting Transcripts
NMTV also provides a city meeting transcription service. Depending on each city’s wishes, any or all meetings can be transcribed. The transcripts are generated using an online platform called Otter.ai, which creates an interactive transcript that is broken down by speaker. Anyone using the transcript can click on any word to hear the meeting audio. Once created, links to each transcript are sent to relevant city staff, who often use the transcripts to help with creating meeting minutes.
Blaine – not participating
Centerville – created 4 city meeting transcripts
Circle Pines – created 4 city meeting transcripts
Ham Lake – created 3 city meeting transcripts
Lexington – not participating
Lino Lakes – created 5 city meeting transcripts
Spring Lake Park – created 3 city meeting transcripts
Equipment Consulting and Technical Support
The NMTV Station Engineer is also responsible for overseeing the maintenance and repair of city hall video systems related to recording city meetings. He is also available to answer video questions and consult on city equipment purchases. The Engineer provided the following services to the cities this month:
Blaine
- Responded to a report of malfunctioning cameras
- Swapped existing cameras between room to provide functioning cameras to the council chamber
- Discussed purchasing replacement cameras with city staff
Centerville
- Communicated with Metro Inet staff on upgrades to staff laptops
- Provided on site support to Metro Inet staff to ensure proper software upgrades on staff laptops
- Discussed system upgrades with City Administrator
- Provided Zoom support to city staff
- Replaced damaged headphones in control room
Circle Pines – no assistance required
Ham Lake – no assistance required
- Advised Fire Department on purchase of a new television for Fire Station #2
- Investigated audio issues in the council chamber
- Corrected an audio recording issue with a city meeting
Lexington – no assistance required
Lino Lakes
- Investigated audio issues
- Discussed possible system upgrades with City Administrator
- Met with Z Systems to begin assembling a quote for system upgrades
Spring Lake Park
- Reviewed a quote from Z Systems for a Ross Card
- Tested and repaired various systems in the Multi-Purpose Room
- Provided a second day of Multi-Purpose Room trouble shooting
STATION AND FRANCHISE ADMINISTRATION
Co-Executive Directors Eric Houston and Danika Peterson manage the North Metro TV station and staff and act as franchise administrators. Franchise administration is the day to day management of the member cities’ cable television and broadband internet franchises. This includes resolving customer concerns, ensuring both quality service and availability to all households, ensuring maintenance of the rights of way, negotiations of new franchises, regular renegotiations of existing franchises, collecting PEG and franchise fees, conducting regular audits of franchisees, and handling any legal issues through the Commission Attorney.
Broadband Franchises
- Met with Blaine City Manager to discuss broadband franchising
Building Maintenance
- Explored options for replacing a networked hard drive with Station Engineer and Programming Coordinator
2027 Budget
- Began budget planning, including creating projections, studying past trends, and preparing recommendations for the Commission
Video Production Staff
- Met with video production staff to create and enforce editorial standards for news and municipal videos
- Worked with sports staff, event personnel, and Lino Lakes city staff to work through technical difficulties surrounding Guns N Hoses
ADA Compliance
- Met with Blaine city staff to discuss options and goals for April
- Attended informational webinars
Staff Communication
- Continued regular meetings with station staff to foster communication and understanding and to create a more efficient workplace.
- Conducted employee annual reviews
- Continued with regular, twice monthly producers’ meetings
- Continued with monthly full staff meeting
- Continued with monthly NMTV Sports team meeting
Miscellaneous
- Reviewed Legal Report
- Read industry articles
- Attended webinars and meetings hosted by MACTA
- Created meeting agendas and packets
- Wrote monthly report
- Administered employee payroll and benefits
Viewer Comments
- Each month, the Co-Executive Directors field viewer comments over the phone and via NMTV social media channels. Here are some of this month’s highlights:
- Lino Lakes City Clerk Roberta Colotti regarding staff working to record a meeting even after the city control room failed:
- “We appreciate you and your team’s efforts to cover the meeting last night by being innovative.”
- Brian Fritz, commenting on a Facebook excerpt of a Blaine City Council Meeting celebrating local heroes:
- “Love stories like this.”
- YouTube user A_Pa-Plainjane commenting on a video about the impact of cold on local trees:
- “Pleasant short video about ultra cold temps and bugs, and how trees deal with cold- thx”
- YouTube user luistigerfox commenting on a 2013 interview video with local artist Joyce Vander Wyst:
- “This old interview means so much to me… Joyce is my grandmother and I miss her very much since she passed. [I don’t know] if you’ll see this or anything, but thank you.”
- Home Movie Transfer customer Tami Westphal:
- “My family and I want to express our gratitude for all your professional talents in putting together such a beautifully touching tribute for my dad’s memorial service. We absolutely love the video!!”
