Calabasas staff earns public TV acclaim

The city of Calabasas Media Department won five STAR Awards during the States of California and Nevada Chapter of the National Association of Telecommunications Officers and Advisors annual conference in Santa Monica.

MEDIA SPECIALISTS—The award-winning Calabasas Cable Television (CTV) team includes, from left, Arvin Petros, senior media specialist; Michael Hafken, public information specialist; Deborah Steller, media operations director; Jason Mier, media production specialist; Karlo Gorgin, media production specialist; Michelle Vu, information systems assistant; Tony Yin, information systems manager; Carolyn Johnson, executive assistant; and Roy LaViolette, chief engineerThe STAR Awards recognize excellence in government programming from cities throughout California and Nevada.

“This isn’t a minor thing,” said Calabasas Mayor Barry Groveman. “(Calabasas) competed against cities hundreds of times larger than us with millions and millions of dollars in budgets . . . This is the equivalent of the Emmys, as I understand it, for public access television.” CTV, the Calabasas government access channel, won the following STAR awards:

•Best Talk Show for an episode of “Calabasas Teen Forum” during which Calabasas teens discussed the role of religion in their lives.

•Best Public Safety Program for “Every 15 Minutes,” a video that showed emergency response agencies responding to a staged drunk driving accident.

•Best Videotext Bulletin Board, which lists news and upcoming events in the city.

The city of Calabasas won the award for best website (www.cityofcalabasas.com) and won a STAR award for Overall Excellence.

“We have a number of awards around city hall that (the city’s media department) has won,” said Calabasas city council member James Bozajian. “This continues a long string.” Calabasas residents who subscribe to Charter or Adelphia can watch CTV on Channel 3. The city’s media operations department produces programming for CTV.

The city offers live CTV web streaming 24 hours a day. CTV programming also is available through the CTV web archive at www.cityofcalabasas.com, which allows users to watch any program at any time through their internet-connected computer.

—Michael Picarella