130 New Programs
84 programs produced by NMTV staff
2 program produced by city staff
40 programs produced by the public
84.25 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. 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.
88,491 Online Views from 23 New News, Events, and Municipal Videos
Most Viewed Online Story
MnDOT Holds Open Houses to Preview
Highway 65 Construction
20,600 Views
Summer in Spring Lake Park
Summer is fast approaching and the Spring Lake Park Parks and Recreation Department have months of fun on the schedule. NMTV coordinated with Parks staff to create a series of videos highlighting all the events, including the city’s signature Tower Days. New shortform videos highlighted the city’s tree sale and Tower Days schedule, while Parks employees Anne, Claire, and Patrice visited the studio to record a special half-hour summer preview. All of these programs will air on North Metro TV and on the Spring Lake Park city channel.
Marquee Sports in Blaine
Some big summer events on their way back to Blaine. Eric Nelson shared the news of a major player coming to this year’s 3M Open. Scottie Scheffler, the number one player in the world, has committed to the tournament and fans are excited. Meanwhile, the National Sports Center will serve as one of the venues for the Special Olympics, with golf and pickle ball among the featured events. Both events are expected to bring thousands to the north metro.
Centerville Lake
An overabundance of algae, fueled by too much phosphorus, placed Centerville Lake on the impaired water list. In May, a special barge began patrolling the lake, spreading an alum treatment meant to curb phosphorus and starve the algae. Eric Nelson spoke to Matt Kocian of the Rice Creek Watershed District, who explained that this project started in 2024. The alum treatments are now complete and Kocian thinks there is an excellent chance that the lake could soon be off the impaired list. Visit the lake here.
Memorial Day Ceremony
TJ Tronson took on the herculean task of recording this year’s Memorial Day Ceremony at Veterans Memorial Park in Blaine. TJ filmed the entire event himself, single-handedly operating three cameras, plus microphones, and editing the entire piece together. Coverage was requested by Blaine Council Member Ford and the event was as moving and amazing as ever. You can see the entire ceremony here.
Lexington Fire
The Lexington Fire Department has entered into an interim fire service agreement with the SBM Fire Department. SBM Deputy Chief Matt Grantz explained how rising costs and staffing hurdles made the move necessary and how it will provide time for the city of Lexington to decide what is next for the 70-year-old department. For now, SBM will handle administrative services, effectively acting as the LFD’s chief. Watch the story here.
E-Moto
North Metro TV has embarked on a partnership with the Blaine Police Department to produce a series of videos addressing community concerns about the proliferation of e-motos. These vehicles differ from ebikes by their greater power and throttle-based operation. The BPD contacted NMTV after noticing area youths riding the vehicles unsafely, even providing the station with video footage. The department recognizes that many riders and parents are unaware of the laws governing e-motos, which cannot be driven on sidewalks or trails and which require a license or permit to ride on the street. NMTV and the BPD plan to release several videos over the summer to bring residents up to speed. See the first video 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
Boys Volleyball
Blaine at Spring Lake Park
1,887 Views
4 New Games with 1,197 Online Views
2 Game Recap Videos Received an Additional 3,097 Online Views
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 6 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 32 Attendees
Senior Tech Support at MAYC – 3 attendees
Birth of Animation at MAYC – 9 attendees
The Wizard of Oz at Cardigan Senior Living (paid) – 20 attendees
130,317 Attendees for Archived VOD Classes
Home Movie Transfers
52 Transfer Hours
16 Video Tapes
9 Film Reels
42 DVDs
$2,290 in Fees Collected
Public Access Producers produced 40 new programs with 43.25 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
299,303 Videos Views
740 New Subscribers
7,310 Content Interactions
1,613,727 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
10,475 VOD Views
817 Livestream 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 29 city meetings with 22.5 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 – 152 replays, 163.75 hours
Centerville – 56 replays, 71.5 hours
Circle Pines – 150 replays, 81 hours
Ham Lake – 59 replays, 37 hours
Lexington – 93 replays, 70.25 hours
Lino Lakes – 68 replays, 46 hours
Spring Lake Park – 151 replays, 99 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 – 23 videos, 0 slides
Centerville – 15 videos, 0 slides
Circle Pines – 15 videos, 0 slides
Ham Lake – 14 videos, 0 slides
Lexington – 15 videos, 0 slides
Lino Lakes – 14 videos, 0 slides
Spring Lake Park – 18 videos, 14 slides
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 – 278 live minutes of closed captioning, 278 minutes of post closed captioning
Centerville – 293 live minutes of closed captioning, 293 minutes of post closed captioning
Circle Pines – 74 live minutes of closed captioning, 74 minutes of post closed captioning
Ham Lake – 163 live minutes of closed captioning, 163 minutes of post closed captioning
Lexington – 90 live minutes of closed captioning, 90 minutes of post closed captioning
Lino Lakes – 143 live minutes of closed captioning, 143 minutes of post closed captioning
Spring Lake Park – 102 live minutes of closed captioning, 102 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 – 3 meetings bookmarked and placed on VOD
Ham Lake – 4 meetings bookmarked and placed on VOD
Lexington – 2 meetings placed on VOD
Lino Lakes – 4 meetings bookmarked and placed on VOD
Spring Lake Park – 3 meetings bookmarked and placed on VOD
City Meeting Podcasts
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, 61 total downloads
Centerville – uploaded 4 city meeting podcasts, 84 total downloads
Circle Pines – uploaded 2 city meeting podcasts, 15 total downloads
Ham Lake – uploaded 2 city meeting podcasts, 15 total downloads
Lexington – uploaded 2 city meeting podcasts, 23 total downloads
Lino Lakes – has decided not to convert city meetings to podcasts
Spring Lake Park – uploaded 3 city meeting podcasts, 25 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 3 city meeting transcripts
Ham Lake – created 4 city meeting transcripts
Lexington – not participating
Lino Lakes – created 4 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 – no assistance required
Centerville – no assistance required
- Matt Waldron coordinated Z Systems quote for city control room upgrades.
- Matt Waldron installed a new computer in the city control room to allow for improved control of Zoom during city meetings.
Circle Pines – no assistance required
Ham Lake
- TJ Tronson repaired a signal issue that prevented the council chamber monitors from working.
- TJ Tronson coordinated with city staff to perform a Teams test prior to use in a city meeting.
- TJ Tronson addressed an issue with audio static during a live meeting.
- Matt Waldron attempted to repair the audio issue, but was unable to reproduce the problem. He then conducted a full review and test of the audio systems.
Lexington – no assistance required
Lino Lakes
- Matt Waldron and TJ Tronson conducted a training session with city staff in the Lino Lakes control room.
- Matt Waldron coordinated Z Systems quote for city control room upgrades.
Spring Lake Park
- TJ Tronson and Michele Silvester to implement coverage of Council Workshop meetings, beginning in June.
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
- Monitored communications between member cities and broadband providers, offering assistance where needed
- Met with Commission Attorney and Blaine city staff to discuss broadband franchising status and related logistics
- Created detailed document to effectively track broadband franchising developments across all member cities
Pedestal Repair Project
- Made contact with Century Link regarding repair of the badly damaged pedestal at 4000 Woodland Drive
- Revisited site to see if repairs had been affected
- Contacted Century Link again and was told that the repair ticket had been deleted
- Received contact information for local Century Link staff from Patrick Antonen and attempted to contact them
Station Business
- Created timelines and memos related to staff reductions
- Met with Lino Lakes HR department and Commission Attorney on staff reductions
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
Cable Customer Service
- Requests forwarded to Comcast
- Judy Turnquist of Blaine called to complain that she was unable to watch city council meetings on her television. The sound and image appeared scrambled. We reached out to Comcast on Ms. Turnquist’s behalf. The cable company ultimately sent a technician to her house and replaced a faulty cable box, restoring service.
- We also receive a steady stream of phone calls from Comcast customers who call us in error after finding our number on their bill. We typically provide them with the proper number for Comcast and recommend calling them directly to resolve the issue. If they cannot resolve the issue in this way, we invite them to call back. We received 8 such calls this month.
- 2 general billing questions
- 1 question about how to watch the Minnesota Lynx
- 1 question about how to cancel Hulu
- 2 questions about Peacock
- 1 request from outside the member cities
- 1 complaint that a cleaning lady had broken the internet
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:
- Toyo Kang commented on NMTV’s video about the County Highway 10 resurfacing:
- “This is great!!!”
- Chip Phet was astounded by the number of parks in the City of Blaine:
- “Did the man say 54 different parks just in Blaine? We explored 7 of the 54. What are we doin’ with our lives?”
