Bulletin Board Spotlight: FCTV, Falmouth, MA

Falmouth Community Television (FCTV) is a nonprofit community media center with a multi-zone bulletin board. The bulletin board is displayed between shows, but also has its own, one-hour programming slots at 2 a.m. and 2 p.m. (and has a page on the FCTV website). On screen, the bottom zone is a mix of weather information, programming information and tweets from FCTV, the local newspaper and the town itself. The right zone is reserved for internal notices and information, while the left side shares content submitted by the community.

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Tony Sadera, communications manager for FCTV, designed the layout using the station’s branded colors, fonts and styles. The “look” was built in GIMP and Photoshop, then broken into the background pieces needed to create the borders between the active zones. Sadera shared a design tip that levels up the appearance and readability of their bulletin board. "We incorporate spacer zones to ensure that a broad range of dynamic feeds are displayed consistently within each zone in the layout,” he explained. “These zones contain only graphics, like a border or part of a background image, and serve as margins around message zones to ensure that the variable messages display neatly within the parameters of zone design.”

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Most messages are emailed to FCTV from organizations, but the FCTV staff also adds content proactively from press releases, emails, and even flyers. “We have many Cablecast CG templates dedicated to our town departments,” Sadera added, “but a lot of the displays are created by our facility assistant, Marcia Huyette, who is also an accomplished graphic artist.”

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Need to provide better information to your community? Learn more about Cablecast CG Bulletin Board here.

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