History of Hershey’s Mill Cable TV

picture of HMC TV20 Logo

From 1993-2021

by Don Trauger – Kennett (Updated 2-11-21)

Channel 20 began in 1993 founded by Milton Brown then a resident of Newbury      Village. He felt this community needed a presence on cable TV to provide communications and entertainment to the residents of Hershey’s Mill. He and a retired KYW cameraman, also a resident, would shoot videos in Milt’s basement. Shortly after, $5,000 “seed” money was borrowed from the HOA to buy an Amiga computer for the TV bulletin board system.

This basic concept has not changed but it has been greatly expanded to fill the needs for this present day community. Along with the TV presence our first TV-Guide was published in April of 1997. It consisted of only 4 pages, 2 of them in black and white. The inside pages showed the grid for the Happenings program times, movies, and tee times. We only had 3 print ads in that issue out of a total of 7 advertisers. Obviously it was a small start but it was the beginning of better things to come.

We started our operation by sharing office space with the Community Center (Winfield Hall) staff. We outgrew the space and moved to the Paoli room. Our on-air equipment was located in a shack where Suburban Cable’s service was connected. Suburban Cable was bought out by Comcast but the shack and equipment remained. Changing our programming required a trip by car to the shack which was located on Greenhill Rd. toward Rt 352 just above our Security building. As we expanded our needs outgrew our facilities of the Paoli room in the Community Center. Wooldridge Construction built our present facility and we moved in 2000. This provided additional office space, a studio and a video editing room.

In Winter the ground around the shack often was a sheet of ice. I was very happy to move our on-air equipment into our present facility. In 2010 we added additional office space a conference room and storage. Our growth and operation of Ch. 20 (now HMCTV) is completely paid for by the advertising revenue we receive from our advertisers. Residents do not pay anything toward the operation of HMCTV. All monies that were either borrowed or received via a bank loan to fund the expansions were paid back quickly.

At the present time the Guide & Digest has been expanded to 72 color pages/issue including numerous articles of community interest. Our advertising now includes over 40 advertisers that have joined us. All of this would not have been possible without our dedicated volunteer staff which has been instrumental in the ongoing success of our station.

Another HMCTV event is our summer concert series which is a big favorite. We try to book the bands that play the songs we all remember. It’s a great summer party!

We also have our own web site at https://hersheysmill.org.This community web site provides residents access to the latest Activities Calendar which is updated weekly, some village events, and many other interesting links. Of course Tech Tips is also there which has past articles that have appeared in Guide & Digest. In February 2010 we put HMCTV on the Internet with the ability to stream our Happenings program. To view Happenings on your computer go to our web site and move your mouse to TV & Digest, then move it to HMCTV and click Original Programming. Finally, click HMC-TV’s Happenings Programs. If you have missed a show or you vacation in Florida in the winter and want to stay in touch, Channel 970 is at your fingertips.

For most of Hershey’s Mill’s history HMCTV was Channel 20. Now that we have moved to Verizon FIOS, it is now at channels 970 (Happenings, Movies and TV Bulletin Board) and 971 (TV Bulletin Board).

 

HMCTV is a 501(c)(3) non-profit that operates 24 hours/day, 7 days/week, 365 days/year community TV station. It offers our own Happenings program, popular movies, a computerized bulletin board and summer concerts. We also publish the monthly Guide & Digest and a yearly Resident Directory. HMCTV is a separate entity and is not part of the HM Administration