Weigel, Bergman to be honored as 2024 Friends of Access

Two long-time community media volunteer producers will be recognized next month at the 2024 spring Wisconsin Community Media conference as Friends of Access.

The Friend of Access Award recognizes people in Wisconsin who understand, support, and champion community media.  Typically the award recognizes those who have made a significant impact on the success of a media center or someone who has been involved in community media for many years and has demonstrated a dedication to its mission.

This year’s honorees are Mike Weigel and Nancy Bergman. Weigel has been a long-time community media producer for Marshfield Broadcasting, while Bergman has herself been a long-time producer for WTCO in Trempealeau County.

In nominating Mike Weigel for the honor, Marshfield communications director Tom Loucks said, “I believe Mike deserves the Friend of Access Award because he puts in numerous volunteer hours in weekly. Not only does he film and edit events every week, but he also programs the city’s Producers’ Channel daily as a volunteer. He has been dedicated for over 25 years and never gives up. He looks for programs daily to share on the channel and is instrumental in building promos for the channel too.He is always trying to make things better and get the word out in the community.”

In nominating Nancy Bergman for the award, WTCO digital media director Kevin Bargender said, “Her dedicated work and service to Trempealeau County in helping entertain, educate, and inspire viewers on countless amounts of topics ranging from historical to legendary has been invaluable. Nancy has represented Trempealeau County in a positive way for the past 30 years and continues to look for ways to innovate and better herself in making videos. She is an integral part of WTCO and is a household name for people living in and around Trempealeau County. When people think of WTCO, they think of Nancy. Her passion and dedication to the station does not go unnoticed and because of this, I believe she is worthy of this award.”

Both Bergman and Weigel will be honored during the Best of the Midwest Media Fest. The 2024 fest will be held at the Lismore Hotel in Eau Claire at 6:30 PM on Thursday, May 16, 2024. The awards will be presented jointly by the President of the WCM Board of Directors and the person who submitted the nomination.

The WCM Board of Directors approved these nominations at their February 2024 board meeting.

For more information on the Friend of Access awards, go here.

Congratulations to Mike Weigel and Nancy Bergman and a big thanks to all they have done for community media!

WCM announces the 2024 Best of the Midwest Media Fest winners

Wisconsin Community Media has completed the judging, scoring, and compiling of the entries in the 2024 Best of the Midwest Media Fest. Notifications were sent to winners and non-winners the week of March 18.

To purpose of the Media Fest is to recognize the outstanding video and radio programs that are produced by Midwestern professionals and amateurs who use PEG media centers or low-power FM stations to produce and/or distribute their programming. The Fest also seeks to encourage excellence in community programming by providing constructive feedback on each program entered.

Top-scoring entries, including Excellence and Achievement award winners, will be highlighted at the Best of the Midwest Media Fest Banquet and Show on Thursday evening, May 16, 2024 at the Lismore Hotel in Eau Claire, Wisconsin. The event is open to the public. Tickets are $50 and can be purchased through this webpage.

If you entered a program and did not receive a notification, please contact Andrew Black at ablack04@gmail.com.

179 entries were received for this year’s Fest. Of those entries, 44 were presented with Excellence Awards, 46 with Achievement Awards, and 56 with Merit Awards. 82 percent of the entries were chosen to receive one of the three awards. Information on ordering plaques and statuettes is here.

Congrats to all of the winners. We look forward to seeing you on May 16!

Black joins WCM as executive director

Wisconsin Community Media is happy to announce that Andrew Black has accepted the role of WCM Executive Director.

Black will take over from Interim Executive Director Jeff Robbins effective April 1.

Until recently, Black had been the media production coordinator for West Bend Community Television, where he produced programming for the City’s Public, Educational, and Governmental (PEG) cable access television channels, including live broadcasts of public meetings, event coverage, studio productions and specialty video productions for the City of West Bend.

“I'm thrilled to be leading Wisconsin Community Media,” said Black. “Community media stations are a lifeblood of their communities and give a platform to local voices. I'm committed to supporting our stations and independent producers by ensuring they continue to thrive through our mission of advocacy, collaboration, and education.”

Wisconsin Community Media would like to thank Jeff Robbins, who stepped in when the organization needed an interim executive director following last year’s retirement of long-time director Mary Cardona. Robbins has accepted a position with Wisconsin Public Radio and began with that organization on April 1.

The WCM Executive Director works closely with the WCM president, WCM board of directors, and WCM committees and interacts with all members to further WCM’s goals and initiatives. The executive director is responsible for managing the day-to-day activities of the association, implementing public policy initiatives, organizing conference and workshop events, authoring public and internal communications, posting on social media, maintaining the WCM website, developing relationships with organizations, and performing other work as assigned by the WCM board.

Welcome aboard, Andrew!