After years of declining cable revenue due to the rise of streaming services, Wareham Community Television is working to develop a new brand and vision in an effort to relaunch itself as “community media.”

Adapting to this rebranding is no easy feat, but the WCTV Board has hired Bob Kelly, a consultant from NewTV, to assist the organization through this process.

Kelly said as a result of the Cable Act of 1984, WCTV and other community television organizations began to receive 5% of cable companies’ revenue.

He added now, consumers have “cut the cord to cable” and made the switch to streaming. “It's a reality — revenues are declining.”

Kelly said in his work he has seen the value in deconstructing the old model of production and reconstructing it to meet the needs of the 21st century.

After meeting the staff and conducting an evaluation of the site and equipment, Kelly posted the opening of the executive director position, which resulted in the hiring of a new team of executive staff.

Michael Schochet, who has a background in original programming and marketing, is now serving as the CEO.

Jim Gilbert, who has experience in production, started off running education programming in Barnstable. He is now serving as WCTV’s executive director.

Geoff Wyman, who is now serving as director of operations, began his career in media in 2007 and worked on government programming in Falmouth.

Kelly said, “I'm really excited to work with these professionals over here and the employees that were working here before we got here.”

He added, “This Board is great. They want to do the right thing for Wareham and I think you've lucked out with having these people step up.”

The new team succeeds Executive Director Steve Ruiz. At the helm of WCTV since 2015, Ruiz had to step back from his duties for increasingly lengthy periods of time in recent years to battle health issues.

Schochet said WCTV has already begun taking steps toward its goals of promoting local culture and fostering community engagement.

He said the signal quality has been improved, a new website and logo is getting ready to launch and the organization is working on upgrading its equipment and technology.

“We want to bring us to a level of storytelling that you haven't seen before,” Schochet said.

He said WCTV has done a great job covering government, education and sports, and in addition to this work, it will be producing more of its own original programming.

Recently featured by WCTV was the Riverside Cafe, Adobo Republic and the Wareham Land Trust.

“We're going to get more involved in the community and help tell the stories that are happening around here,” he said.

Reviewing coverage from the past year, WCTV has produced over 2,000 hours of government content and approximately 3,800 hours of education content. 

Schochet said WCTV is also looking for feedback and recommendations for future coverage.

He added the community is also welcome to go to the studio and make content.

“We will help you with that,” he said. “We will show you how to do it.”