Pacifica Takes Over Half Moon Bay Public Access Channel Today

After over 15 years, the Half Moon Bay Coastside area from Montara to Pescadero is being served by a new public access television station.

Pacifica Community Television (PCT), the longstanding public, education, and governmental (PEG) access station for Half Moon Bay's neighbor to the north since 1977, takes over broadcasting on Comcast's Channel 27 today as Pacific Coast Television.

The city of Half Moon Bay and San Mateo County decided to switch providers for public access services in June, when the Half Moon Bay City Council and county Board of Supervisors over longstanding provider Mid-Coast Community Television based on an ad hoc committee's in March. San Carlos-based Peninsula Television, which broadcasts in 12 Peninsula cities, also applied for the contract.

According to Executive Director Martin Anaya, PCT is currently focused on providing content to three main audiences: seniors, youth, and the Spanish-speaking population.

The station will be broadcasting the following Half Moon Bay Coastside meetings live:

• Cabrillo Unified School District
• Coastside County Water District
• Half Moon Bay City Council
• Granada Sanitary District
• Midcoast Community Council
• Montara Water and Sanitary District
• Pescadero Municipal Advisory Council
• Sewer Authority Mid-Coastside

Meetings will be broadcast again on a playback schedule.

"In addition to broadcasting, we'll be live streaming all programming on our website," Anaya said.

Residents along the Half Moon Bay Coastside will also be able to take advantage of a number of additional services from the new station provider.

PCT hopes to add video on demand to the website soon, Anaya said. The service would allow viewers to watch any program online that was originally broadcast on the channel at any time.

For an annual cost of $20, Anaya said, residents will be eligible to become a community producer and create station programming, as well as enroll in production workshops at a cost of $15 - $20 each.

Workshops include introductory video production workshops (basic camera, audio and lighting techniques) to more advanced video techniques (on Digital Single Lens Reflex cameras) to producing a live television show.

Area residents will be able to check out video production equipment as well, Anaya said.

"We'll have staff going down with gear to Pescadero so they can check it out there, rather than going up to Pacifica," he said, adding that the station plans to hold workshops in the area and train new community producers on how to use the camera equipment.

Community producers will also be able to post their own videos to a personal page hosted on the station's website.

"They'll be able to upload content up to half an hour in length," Anaya said.

In addition, members will also be able to transmit their shows live as a video podcast, Anaya said. Anyone will be able to download footage from the video podcast and take sections of it to use, he said, whether it be as part of a news story, a blog or another video.

Though Anaya admitted that programming initiated by Half Moon Bay Coastside residents is lacking now and would need to be built up over time, he pointed out that current programming by Pacifica producers included content relevant to audiences south of Devil's Slide, citing shows by Bruce Latimer (which has featured local acts such as the Montara Mountain Boys) and Mel Zucker about the coastline (titled "Down to Earth") as examples.

"We're working on developing locally produced content from Half Moon Bay, such as a history show put on by ," he said.

"I hope people realize it's a community resource," Anaya said of the station.

To reflect its expansion into the Half Moon Bay Coastside area, Pacifica Community Television is undergoing a name change to Pacific Coast Television as well as launching a new website to reflect that name, Anaya sad. The new website will be located at pacificcoast.tv.

Individuals can also support the station through becoming a "friend" of the station with a $20 annual donation.

The station can be reached at 650-355-8000.