Brunswick community celebrates 40 years of BAT

Community NewsBrunswick Area Television Manager Tom Keppler (left), along with volunteer program hosts Buck Wilford and Duane Risko (from left) listen as Mayor Ron Falconi delivers a commendation to the station at its 40th anniversary open house Oct. 20.Brian LisikBy Brian Lisik, special to cleveland.comBRUNSWICK, Ohio — Show hosts, city officials, residents and Brunswick Area Television (BAT) employees and show hosts gathered Oct. 20 for a Community Media Day open house at its 4274 Manhattan Ave. studios, this year marking the public access station’s 40th anniversary.In his proclamation to the station, Mayor Ron Falconi - whose own “Meet Your Neighbor” show has been part of the BAT programming canon, congratulated the staff and show producers for “40 years of outstanding [service] informing, educating and connecting residents.”During the event, visitors had an opportunity to visit studios, the control room and the station podcast facility, meet BAT volunteer hosts and producers and view the debut of BAT’s debut our anniversary video.The station, as a function of the city of Brunswick, has produced local government programming for cable subscribers since 1986. In 2002, BAT expanded operations to allow the community an easy way to produce their own programs, opening the floodgates to a wide variety of unique programming.BAT offers training and free equipment loans to volunteer producers, with the philosophy that public access television was designed to allow community groups, not for profit organizations and individuals a way to promote their causes, issues and interests to the community. Volunteer hosts at the open house took time to discuss their programs - from the serious and topical, to the downright zany. These included Buck Wilford from Brunswick Community Church; Elizabeth Howell and her co-host Rev. Cynthia from the “Psychic Sushi” and “Fairy Godmothers’ Pod of Wisdom and Knowledge” shows; Mary Lou Budziak from “Wild Ones”; Shawna Sudyk from “The Shawna Show”; Duane Risko, who hosts a number of shows covering numerous topics including “The Fire,” “The Fire Report,” “In the Spotlight” and “Talkin’ Buckeyes”; the “Salute to Service” show, hosted by Ed Zackery, sirector of the Medina County Veteran Service Office; representatives from the Medina County Public Library and the Northern Medina County Chamber Alliance; former show hosts Richie Muniak Nick Collins from “EVGtv,” a video-game review show that Muniak said aired “six amazing episodes six years ago”; and Kirk Maynard and his plush partner, Nutty T Squirrel from “The Chad and Bunny Show,” “Nutty’s Treehouse” and “Granny’s Haunted Parlor” - shows described by Maynard as “about nothing, but when it’s finished it’s something” written for “adults who want to be a kid again.”BAT Manager Tom Keppler also spoke on BAT’s new weekend “Kids’ Block” programming, and thanked each of the show hosts and producers.“If there is an overlapping theme, it is that you all have your area of expertise,” Keppler said, adding that this is the true beauty of community access television.”BAT Access Specialist Ben Staunton added his own personal thank you to the station volunteers.“I appreciate every single one of you,” Staunton said. “If there wasn’t a you, there wouldn’t be an us.”Read more news from the Brunswick Sun.Brian Lisik was on staff at Sun News for 12 years. From 2001-06, Lisik was a reporter at Sun's Medina office, he wrote for the Nordonia Hills Sun from 2006-2009, and covered city, crime and school news for the...