Fall River Community Television wins national award

Fall River Community Television (FRCTV), the public access television operation formed through an agreement between Bristol Community College and the City of Fall River, has been recognized as one of the best public access stations in the United States for 2009.

The award, Overall Excellence in Public Access with budgets of under $200,000, is given by the Alliance for Community Media (ACM), a national organization which advocates for public, educational, and governmental access television. According to FRCTV Director Keith Thibault, the awards are the industry’s version of the Emmy Awards. “This is one of the highest honors we can achieve in the business,” he said. Thibault is on the Board of Directors for the state and regional chapters of the ACM.

Earlier this year, Fall River took second in regional competition, which is not broken into categories based on budget. First place went to Cambridge, who competed in the highest budget category in nationals.

FRCTV has been telecasting since 2000, providing Fall River residents and organizations with the resources to communicate through local cable television. In addition to Thibault, staff members include Ricardo Rebello and Michelle Dumais.

The award will be presented in July at the ACM national conference in Oregon. FRCTV can be found on channel 95 of the Fall River Comcast cable television system.