White River Junction
A public, educational and government (PEG) access channel airing on local 8 and 10, the station “allows the community to debate local issues, showcase artistic expression, and celebrate school and community happenings,” according to a news release from CATV. It serves Hanover, Hartford, Hartland, Lebanon and Norwich.
Under Franzoni’s leadership, the station invested heavily in the educational component of PEG and grew from being Vermont’s smallest PEG access channel to its fifth largest, the release said.
Sophie Bodnar, the station’s assistant director, said Franzoni has demonstrated “an unwavering commitment to bringing diverse media education opportunities to the Upper Valley.”
“From summer video camps, in-school elective programs and annual community film competitions, Bob has developed education programs that encourage creativity, community, leadership and fun, both inside and outside the traditional classroom,” Bodnar said. He’s created a culture at CATV “that values collaborative education opportunities for media makers of any age.”
Linda Carbino, a CATV board member and producer of the show Walking Through Life, called Franzoni “a great mentor.”
His love for the station “is obvious and outstanding,” said Carbino, who started her show in 2005 after sharing her ideas with him.
The board’s search to find a successor will begin this week, board chairwoman Peggy Allen said in a telephone interview on Friday.
A former Norwich business owner, Franzoni first became involved with CATV when that town’s Selectboard asked him to represent them on the station’s board of directors, he said in a telephone interview on Friday.
He became technical director in 1993 and executive director in 2005.
Initially located in Hanover, where the idea for a public access television channel originated, CATV moved in 2005 to its current home in the Tip Top Building, the release said. The move “gained the station another channel specifically for educational offerings and provided the opportunity for expansion.”
A former longtime business teacher at Thetford Academy, Franzoni’s earliest projects included a program to teach video production to Hartford Area Career Technology Center students.
He also spearheaded a video studies program for Hartland students. Students in the class have attended media-related conferences and events, and recently some took part in the Alliance for Community Media Conference in Boston.
“At Hartland Elementary School we believe in developing the whole child, and CATV presents a great way for us to accomplish that mission,” said Jeff Moreno, the school’s former principal. “Our CATV students’ confidence, speaking skills, planning skills and collaborative skills are a few of the aspects of the program we have noticed improve the most through working with CATV.”
Looking back, Franzoni is most proud of the station’s work with nonprofits and its educational and government programming.
He enjoys seeing students’ creativity and their excitement about video projects, he said Friday. “The key to video is imagination.”
He also values CATV’s role in documenting government meetings, which are among its 5,000 programs available for viewing on demand.
The station’s recordings, backed up on archive.org, have received 40,000 hits, he said. “Not everyone can get to school or selectboard meetings.”
The recordings, “from gavel to gavel,” must remain unedited, and he laughed, recalling some of the antics they’d captured on film. “We’ve had fistfights,” and during the first meeting they ever recorded, someone turned to the camera and told a joke.
Of course working at the station has also had its challenges.
“When we first started off, there were a lot of headaches and problems,” said Franzoni, expressing gratitude for his wife of 45 years, Deborah Franzoni. “She was always there supporting me.”
When announcing his plans to retire, he thanked “everyone who made CATV what it is today,” from the original board of directors, to the volunteers, government boards, staff and students, the release said.
“I will miss you all, and especially our current staff members,” he said.
Franzoni and his wife plan to retire to Vermont’s Lake Bomoseen, near Castleton, where he hopes to work with the Hubbardton Battlefield, a state historic site, and “just relax,” he said Friday.
Aimee Caruso can be reached at acaruso@vnews.com or 603-727-3210.