ERCN Community Access Television Founding Members: Jim Burlingame, Gene D'Ambrose, and Joe Russo
In the 1970s, Peoples Cable TV was granted permission to string cable lines in the towns and villages of Monroe County, taking four years to complete the task. By the early 1990s, improved reception through fiber optics occurred. Gene D’Ambrose, Jim Burlingame, and Joe Russo were the driving forces to push for ER to have a station. In the very beginning, one camera was used to film shows. Joe and Jim would go to the Fairport Electric building where Fairport had its TV station. The programs were put on the air delivered over Fairport’s channel. Finally, with the approval of our Town/Village Board, the East Rochester Community Access Station went on the air on November 23, 1993. The station was called East Rochester Community News (ERCN – TV 12).
The studio was located on the second floor of the Fryatt House on Main Street. Volunteers Mary Cilento, Ralph Morabito, Mieli Battaglini, and Teresa Willette began producing shows like –All About Town, One on One, Talking Golf, The Village Gardener, What’s Cooking, and God with Us. Throughout the years the channel has also covered East Rochester events, Town/Village Board meetings, school stage productions, and high school sports. Volunteers Carm Scalise, Bernie Allen, Mike Siriano, Joe Scalise, Dave and Colette Morabito covered sports. Along the way, Mark Maccio, a video production professional at Kodak, joined the group adding his expertise, especially in generating the opening and closing program logos. In 2013, when most of the sports crew retired, new volunteers came onboard—Tom Dezio, Jeff Renner, Dave Altman, Jim Hauser, Jim Benson, and John Schroth. Coach Dennis Greco produced a weekly Bomber game recap called “Bombs Away.” Nick Cohen took over the task of covering monthly Town/Village Board meetings. Over the years, many other volunteers have helped.
In the early years, producing programs took a lot of time and effort with a lot of heavy equipment. Shows were played and switched out manually at the station. Later, automated playback of tapes allowed for a full day of broadcasting without the station being manned. By the early 2000s, digital cameras and non-linear editing made production faster.
East Rochester and Pittsford have always been tied together through the intertwining of cable feed wiring. This means we have been sharing the channel and cost with Pittsford. While initially Pittsford did not produce their own content, they do now. In 2013, Fairport decided to close its station. In exchange for running Fairport’s Board meetings, East Rochester was able to take over their broadcast area.
In 2013, ERCN became the first cable access channel in the County to broadcast with a professional streaming service provider—Telvue. In 2014, ERCN became the first cable access station in the County to have a Roku channel. Viewers are also able to view our programs on smart phones and tablets. Changes came in 2015 when Spectrum took over Time-Warner and reassigned all cable access stations in upstate New York from Channel 12 to Channel 1303.
There are now over 1500 archived programs that are rerun regularly. Over 500 on-demand shows of historical programming, Town/Village Board meetings, and recent events can also be viewed.
The volunteers who make ERCN possible have been invaluable in the continuing effort to maintain our local TV channel. From the beginning, their team effort has made ERCN one of the most professionally run peoples cable TV channels in the area.
Information for this article was derived from our Centennial History book, Jim Burlingame, and John Schroth (Station Director since 2013).