July 2021 www.nat.org.au

Newsletter for Northern Access Television Assn Inc Members Association Number A0024250G

“NAT Celebration Night” finally goes ahead! - Page 10

Community TV to stay “on air” until mid 2024 - Page 3

FEEDBACK AND CONTRIBUTIONS: -By email to [email protected] Inside this Around The Group Page 4 issue…... David McLauchlan Page 6 Chronicles X : Golden Plains Shire Page 8 C31 Melbourne Press Release Page 20 “One Last Time!’ Page 22

2 2 About The Association…. NAT TV Guide Postal Address Digital TV

c/- Thornbury Community Church Channel 44 16 - 18 Martin St Current regular programs on air Thornbury VIC 3071 (Times subject to change and Annual Membership programs may be repeated) $31 ($15 concession) Spirit of Life Office Bearers:- Thursday 12:00pm Chair: Simon Moore Deputy Chair: Michael Costello In-depth Christian Interviews Treasurer: Poppi Athinis Harmony In Diversity Secretary: Paul Spanos In Recess [email protected] Committee Meetings Multi-faith and Inter-faith Program Scheduled as required - please Zontas 100% contact Secretary for times and Sunday 9:00am R Thurs 12:30pm locations. NAT Members Greek Christian Program welcome to attend. Annual General Meeting Immigrant Strong September 26th, 2021 - 2:30pm In Recess at Thornbury Community Church Candid interviews with Leaders. Newsletter Editor Kultur Shok Michael Costello Please send news items to:- Coming Soon [email protected] Multicultural Performances.

Northern Access Television Assn Chronicles X : Inc. is proudly a Full Member of Golden Plains Shire the Melbourne Community Coming Soon Television Consortium Ltd. (Network TBC) 2 Haunted Encounters. Community TV 3 gets three more years “on the air”. Following a big Community campaign, it was action in the parliament that gave C31 Melbourne and 44 Adelaide a further three years on air, just seven days before the stations were due to switch off. The announcement to producers was made by Shane Dunlop in an emailed Press Release on Wednesday 23/6/2021 (see page 20 & 21 to read this) The new deadline for Community TV to leave the air is June 30th, 2024. By then, there will be a new Community TV Online Portal, to be called “CTV+”, where you will be able to watch the best of the two stations on demand. It is expected that this will be promoted by the station over the next three years, so viewers will get used to the idea of the online service. It is up to all to make best use of the extra three years this offers to the program providers.

Part of this year’s campaign by C31 in the leadup to this year’s 3 year renewal

424 Around the Group 25

NAT Annual General Meeting - ADVANCE NOTICE As agreed at the last AGM, the next Annual General Meeting of Northern Access Television Assn Inc will be held on :- Sunday 26th September, 2021 from 2:30pm (unless not permitted) The meeting will be held at Thornbury Community Church 16 - 18 Martin St, Thornbury. All current members as well as those who are interested in becoming a part of NAT are invited to attend the meeting. Official notices will be sent out to members closer to the AGM Now it’s accesstv.net ! Northern Access Television’s future Video Portal has had a name change! The portal will now be known as “accesstv.net”. The website is currently under construction, and when completed, we will hopefully be able to promote the address on NAT programs “on air”. The new name is a more generic name for the site than the previous “natter.video”. The name was chosen in the hope that other TV groups might also join with us on the video portal. Producers for NAT should start thinking about what content they want on the portal, and let Michael know as soon as possible. We will then arrange to link to the content.

24 Production News 255

A bit quiet just at the moment, but potential for the next three years. Like a lot of other Production Groups, the uncertainty over whether Community TV would continue stopped a lot of production, and planning of new productions. However, we stay on the air courtesy of David McLauchlan’s “Spirit of Life” and Takis Manetas’ “Zontas 100%”. “Chronicles X” is on it’s way, and other possibilities include the possibility of a new General Interest program, and further episodes of “Harmony In Diversity”. The development of the “River TV” project in Echuca may also see some specials produced for the station in future. Further episodes of “Kultur Shok” will also be in the pipeline from Omar Pervaiz. As I said this time last year, it is up to all of us to best use the extended time available “on the air”, and help our viewers prepare for when they need to access our programs online in the future. NAT Pens Available We now have a supply of promotional pens, with the Northern Access Television logo and website. Thank you to “PensOnly.com.au” for the printing work on the pens. Supplies of the pens are with David McLauchlan, Paul Spanos (at Thornbury Community Church), and with Michael Costello in Echuca. Please enquire with these people if you would like some of the new pens, while stocks of them last! You can also collect some at the Annual General Meeting.

Read “NAT Matters” online! http://www.nat.org.au/newsletter or search “NAT Matters” on the issuu.com website and app. 6

Spirit of Life Despite having to put on repeats for a number of months over the COVID lockdown periods, Spirit of Life is going strong and with the continuation of C31 for the next 3 years it will continue for the foreseeable future in the same studio shot half hour format. Recently I have started uploading the latest episodes to its you tube channel www.youtube.com/user/SpiritOfLifeTV) in HD 1080p format, previous episodes are in SD, as broadcast. On the channel are separate playlists of the episodes done by my two current hosts, Mirella Rich and Geraldine Lee, who each do two programs out of every four week period, with Mirella focusing mostly on the Messages of Mary from Medjugorje and Geraldine more general mainly charismatic focused interviews. Also on the channel is a playlist of of older episodes with Lucia Pace as interviewer.

Love Dialogues Over the last seven months I have been working with Norm Currie, my interviewer for Harmony in Diversity, on a series of Web programs titled "Maroondah Love Dialogues", produced with the aid of a grant from the Maroondah City Council. As well as an interview on the topics of Love, Hope, Forgiveness, Gratitude, and Trust each Love Dialogue program includes a guided meditation based on the content of the interview by Frances Cassidy. They were released via a Facebook page and a You Tube channel as well as a dedicated page on the web site of the Maroondah Interfaith Network, (www.maroondahinterfaith.org.au)

Norm is also developing a web site for the ongoing Love Dialogues concept (www.lovedialogues.com.au) The following description is from the Love Dialogues Website: "What are Love Dialogues? - A Love Dialogue is a practice which

engages in both internal and external discourse with the aspiration that every thought, word and action might reflect unconditional Love, through deep listening the other person is heard heart to heart, without judgment, classification or diagnosis." Going forward With the continuation of C31 for at least the next 3 years Norm and I intend 7 to develop Love Dialogues to include an ongoing program on C31, possibly combining it in some form with a continuation of Harmony in Diversity.

Recently I have been helping a young rapper, Harrison Thorpe "Kawaja" produce a music video titled "Respect" that is available on his You Tube channel (www.youtube.com/channel/UCpG1J-cs373vTBxo_dkDbbw) along with a half hour interview I did with him in the studio which I use to record Spirit of Life and Harmony in Diversity.

This has got me interested in doing interviews myself again, and in possibly doing a regular general interest and arts and music type program that could combine elements of my past programs like Red Lobster Poetry and NAT Chat and Et Cetera (which was a magazine style program me and Michael did 20 years ago). Particularly I am interested in doing more programs like the one-off program about the Spring Hills Stallions Football Club I did a few years ago, focusing on community groups and clubs.

These are just ideas at this stage, and they would be something I would like to collaborate with others on.

8 CHRONICLES X: Golden Plains Shire Coming Soon (Network TBC)

Elly (Elysia Janssen), who is a gied actor and works in theatre and film, has been fascinated by bizarre and mysterious stories she has heard from a young age. Not content to accept the stories as just folklore she decides to create a PAGE 8 podcast ' Chronicles X' and sets out on a journey to invesgate the truth behind the stories. In her journey she comes across the ‘Paranormal GodfatherReserved’ (Gary Sullivan) and for the ‘ TravellingFuture Medium Content’ (Anthony Kilner) who share a common desire to explore the unknown. The Paranormal Godfather is no stranger to mysteries (especially of the supernatural kind). For over 40 years he has invesgated some of the most haunted locaons in Australia and can tell you stories that will make the hair on your arms stand on end. He was also the lead invesgator in the TV show ‘Haunted Australia’. The Travelling Medium on the other hand is a mechanic and published author with a love for travelling and RV's. He is the creator and editor of 'Supernal Magazine' (www.supernalmagazineaustralia.com.au) and the presenter of the radio show, 'Antman's RV & 4x4 Show', on Yarra Valley FM. He is also a gied Medium providing an empathec view to those who yearn for closure and solace.

Each with a unique perspecve to the world, Elly, Gary and Anthony decide to travel across the beauful Golden Plains Shire uncovering fascinang historical facts, hearing emoonal stories of heroic acons and sacrifice, cringing at disturbing acts of infamy and murder, and mysfied by unsolved mysteries, urban legends, Dreamme tales, and stories of mythological creatures of the region.

But it is not all about mysteries and murder, they also take me off to have fun and enjoy the amazing vistas of the Golden Plains Shire, the cultural events of the region, the sumptuous food and wine on offer, and to meet the colourful (and somemes ec- centric) characters of the shire.

9 It all comes together in Elly’s podcast Chronicles X, as Elly, Anthony and Gary get together to discuss the journey, reveal what they have uncovered, talk about the interesng people they’ve met along the way and reflect on how the experience has changed their view of the mysterious and infinitely bizarre world around them.

The TV show Chronicles X reinforces the importance of our local history, heritage and stories, with an emphasis on the crical need to preserve, not only the stories, but the actual historical buildings, landmarks or relics of the past. All of which, can then serve to rouse our curiosity about the human experience that lies therein.

Chronicles X: Golden Plains is produced by Myscal Guides Studios and Mead- ow Media via Northern Access TV. The Golden Plains Shire episodes are generously supported by a Community Strengthening Grant provided by the Golden Plains PAGEShire. The Meredith History Interest 9 Group and Meredith Music Fesval are also graciously supporng the TV series as community partners.

The cast and crew are made up of local independent actors, filmmakers and historyReserved enthusiasts who for volunteer Future their me Content to produce local content that depicts historically and culturally important locaons, stories and events.

10 “NAT CelebrationChanges Night” 30

AroundA brief 16 meetingpeople from Northern Access Television, past and pre- sent, attended the long postponed “NAT Celebration Night” on

Saturday afternoon, June 19th, 2021. The night featured a light meal, followed by a video presentation of early NAT Test Transmissions, and a nice presentation from Takis Manetas of highlights of the “Zontas 100%” program’s history. Attendees included Chris Field, who was a long-time chairperson for NAT, as well as the rst Chairperson of NAT, Roger Holdsworth, who is still involved in Community Broadcasting on Radio PBS., also presenters and crew from our current productions on C31 Melbourne, “Spirit of Life”, “Zontas 100%”, “Mystical Guides”, and “Kultur Shok”. The light meal and refreshments were put on for us by the Thornbury Community Church ladies, led by Poppi Athinis. With four ministers of God present, it was no surprise that a prayer was offered, and this was done by Spero Katos of the “Zontas 100%” program, prior to the meal. A good time was had be all discussing how far Community TV had come in the past 31 years of Northern Access TV productions on the public airwaves. Many apologies were sent from those who could not make it, however we will try to do it again in the near future for some of those people. Thank you to Adam Burrage of Kyad Photography and Media Services for these great photos of the event on the following pages:- Watch C31 Live! C31 Melbourne is available on the internet - your computer, tablet, mobile, whatever you use!

View the station as it is being broadcast in Melbourne -anywhere! http://www.c31.org.au/live Changes 3011 7

A brief meeting

812

BACK: (Left to Right) Paul Spanos, Spero Katos, Michael Costello, David McLauchlan, Chris Field, Noray M Neberay, Omar Pervaiz, John Stewart, Stelios Kokotos Changes 3013

A brief meeting FRONT (Left to Right): Poppi Athinis, Takis Manetas, Ellie Manetas, Lina Katos, Simon Moore, Geraldine Lee. Photography by Adam Burrage - Kyad Photography and Media Services 14 Changes 3015 7

A brief meeting

Thank You...

1624 Future Directions 25

Towards a collaborative future for Northern Access Television Can you see a future for NAT where our TV productions are more collaborative, instead of individually based? A future where there are separate meetings for the Committee, and for Production? A future where most projects are funded properly by grants, which help the group as a whole make equipment acquisitions ? A chance for the group to grow with people who want to crew on PAGEproductions? 16 These suggestions are being made by Stelios Kokotos - and they certainly are something to think about. Reserved for Future Content For quite a while at NAT, our meetings have been about the political process of running the group, but is it time to start looking at holding regular ”open” Production Meetings, where community members can make their suggestions for possible productions, and those that want to work on the productions can express interest in being part of them?

For a while, our projects have been very individually based, often with few crew members working on them. Should we be trying to crew our programs with larger crews, with dedicated people in each position? Maybe not for every single production we do, but at least making an effort to do some collaborative production on a semi-regular basis.

We often have not bothered chasing funding and grants for our projects? Should this change? A benefit of funding projects is that equipment could be obtained to be owned by the group, for when new members wish to try their hand at production. It might be a big change to current practise, but it might be a change worth pursuing for the future? Let’s discuss these suggestions at the next AGM in September.

24 More Around the Group 1725

Special NAT

Stamps Using the Australia Post “MyStamps” service, I got a supply of NAT 30 years stamps made up. This supply of stamps is almost finished, so this might be your last chance to save them off your envelopes. I took advantage of a discount deal available 18 months or so ago and got a semi-bulk supply of the stamps (well, I bought 200 of them!) Never do things by halves!

NAT Cake for the Celebration Night. In case you were wondering, the cake for the Celebration Night was from the Ferguson Plarre “Design a Cake” service. Ordering for this is done online.

Thank you to the staff at the Burwood One store for looking after the cake until we were ready to pick it up.

Member’s Projects 18 River TV.net - Echuca/Moama’s Own Towards Online TV for Echuca / Moama Michael Costello RiverTV.net will be an online TV service for Echuca / Moama. The service will be based around a YouTube channel and Facebook page, as well as a dedicated website.

Echuca / Moama is an historic Tourist Town around 2 and a half hours out of Melbourne, and is where Michael Costello is now located.

PAGEThe idea behind1619 “rivertv.net”is to get local people involved in Video Production, and sharing the finished productions on the YouTube channel and Facebook Page. Like any project of its type, the limit is only theReserved people who join for the project,Future and theContent ideas for video coverage in Echuca / Moama are almost endless.

It is possible that some of the productions can be modified for C31 Melbourne programs, providing an opportunity for broadcast for the content, and a chance to promote our region in Melbourne.

One possibility is the provision of a Video News service for Echuca / Moama. This would incorporate reports read to camera, as well as on site reporting where possible.

Development of the project is a bit slow at the moment, but already some people have expressed interest in it on our Facebook page.

Keep an eye on rivertv.net for further developments !

19

Regional TV Australia Web Project Michael Costello Regional TV Australia is a website dedicated to the TV Stations outside the five major Capital Cities in Australia. We are interested in the history of Regional TV, mainly in the pre-Aggregation era, but also in the current operations of the major Regional TV networks. The project started as the “regionaltv” YouTube Channel in April 2008, where I set up a list of “favorites” from the many regional clips posted by members of YouTube.

Regional TVPAGE Video Interviews 16 Regional TV Australia has started recording interviews with former Regional TV staff about their experiences in the Regional Television Industry. The aim of the InterviewsReserved is to record for people’s Future stories ofContent their time in the industry and how things were done in the industry in bygone eras, which is very different to what we have now. To date, we have recorded a number of these interviews, which are featured on our webpage and YouTube Channel. We have had very positive feedback about these interviews

Spread the word Regional TV Australia is the website that is dedicated to remembering and recording regional TV history for future generations. We can only achieve this with the help of those who were a part of the regional TV family. So if you are still in touch with other regional TV staff, let them know about our project. We would love to speak to them too!

Join the project If you have an interest in Regional TV and would like to join the happy crew who work on the project, please feel free to let us know! We are always looking for people to help us out on the website and the videos we produce.

Your suggestions are welcome If you have any suggestions for our project, we would love to hear them! Just email, write or phone us, and we will look at incorporating them into the project. More details - regionaltv.org

2620 27 C31 Melbourne News Community TV Wins 3 Year Extension. PRESS RELEASE FROM C31 MELBOURNE —WEDNESDAY 23/6/2021 With less than seven days unl switch off, an amendment to broadcast legislaon was passed in the Australian Senate overnight and confirmed in the House of Representaves today, providing an extension of three more years of free to air broadcast access to Community TV staons C31 Melbourne and Geelong & Channel 44 Adelaide, through to June 30, 2024.

A renewal term of three years is a welcome relief for C31 Melbourne staff, volunteers, program makers and the wider community whose support has been unwavering over the past seven years as the Community Television sector has connued to fight to retain their free to air broadcast licences. This decision ensures that Community Television’s valuable contribuon to the wider arts industry can connue unl at least 30 June 2024 and assists the sector in building its financial and digital capacity to connue broadcasng to audiences around the country.

C31 Melbourne General Manager Shane Dunlop says, “It is with great pride and considerable relief that we announce today’s news. A licence renewal of three years will finally provide Community TV staons with the stability we have gone without for almost a decade. We are glad that common sense has prevailed, and we look forward to the next three years, connuing our 27-year tradion of providing an accessible, vibrant, and important service to Melbourne’s diverse communies and beyond.”

C31 Melbourne Chair Mike Zafiropoulos AM connued, “The C31 board would like to acknowledge the efforts of our wonderful staff, producers and program makers over the last few months. We have also been overwhelmed by the showing of public support and are heartened by the collecve resolve to fight for a posive outcome for Community Television in Victoria. Thank you.”

ALP Senator Marielle Smith said, “Taking community TV off air was a destrucve and wasteful decision – it costs the Government nothing for them to keep broadcasng, and there’s no plans to use the spectrum for years. This result is an admission that the Government got it wrong, and a huge win for our community and for the Community TV staons.”

2624 2721 C44 General Manager Lauren Hillman added, “This is a huge win for the Community TV sector in Adelaide and Melbourne and we are honoured to be recognised and valued by the Australian Senate. The power of community should never be underesmated, and we are so very grateful for all the support across the board which has resulted in this fantasc outcome for the Community TV sector.”

Federal Member for Mayo Rebekha Sharkie MP, who was instrumental in the negoaon to provide Community TV with this lengthy renewal said, “I would like to thank Communicaons Minister Paul Fletcher for listening to our community and our valid arguments for keeping C44 and C31 on air and working with me to dra an amendment to set this meframe in legislaon. I would like to sincerely thank Senator Rex Patrick for pung up my amendment in the Senate when my Centre Alliance colleague Senator Srling Griff had to take a leave of absence. The amendment does set a clear deadline for 2024 but this will allow C44 & C31 to work through the Media Reform Green Paper process and give the staon sufficient me to really plan its future.”

The Australian Community Television Alliance - ACTA recognises the last seven years have seen unprecedented polical support across all pares for Community TV. C31 Melbourne also extend their sincere gratude for the advocacy and support from;

Senator Marielle Smith, Shadow Minister for Communicaons Michelle Rowland MP, Amanda Rishworth MP - Australian Labor Party Rebekha Sharkie MP – Centre Alliance Senator Rex Patrick - Independent Senator Simon Birmingham – Liberal Party of Australia Senator Sarah Hanson-Young, Tammy Franks Greens MLC, Adam Bandt – Australian Greens Rod Barton MP - Transport Maers Party Minister Luke Donnellan MP, Minister Ros Spence MP, Minister Danny Pearson MP for Essendon – Victorian Labor Party Lord Mayor Sally Capp, Deputy Lord Mayor Nicholas Reece – City of Melbourne Commissioner Viv Nguyen, Deputy Commissioner Bwe Thay – Victorian Mulcultural Commission Gerard Mansour, Commissioner for Senior Victorians – Commission for Senior Victorians

22 “One Last Time!“

As things stand, this is the final issue of “NAT Matters”. in this printed form. The newsletter will most likely continue as a web publication, with maybe some more occasional print editions, or a NAT yearbook.

So with the print edition coming to an end at this time, we wish to thank those that were involved in the production of the newsletter over the past couple of years.

The early issues were printed by “Echuca Moama Print & Design” in Echuca, where Michael is located. Some of the issues were also “self printed” in Michael’s shed! Then a big development came in , when the printing of the newsletter was moved to “MVP Print” of Seaford, when it turned into the full colour publication it is now, with bleed to the edge of the pages. MVP Print have been great to deal with, as it took on this new challenge of being published in “magazine format”. Thanks to all the printers who were involved in bringing you the newsletter.

23

At the moment, l am still on the Dialysis machine three times a week in Echuca Hospital. The reduced hours to myself has been a big adjustment, as has the reduced ability to travel, after being fairly “free and easy” for most of my life. The changes brought about by Dialysis, at least for the foreseeable future, mean that it will be harder to travel down to Melbourne to keep shooting TV programs. Therefore, it will be likely my new productions will be based around Echuca and District. Stay tuned for further news on what I get up to. Until the newsletter returns again, which may or may not happen, it’s goodbye for now from “NAT Matters”. Best regards to all from Michael Costello 31

River TV Echuca Online TV for Echuca / Moama A new local online TV service is coming soon…… rivertv.net