8-17-07 - It's official - KJ Flewelling is leaving WMCI this year after four great years of building the program and working with the very talented students at MCI. Kris Bridges is taking over as the new WMCI station manager and he has a lot of great ideas for the future of the broadcasting program. Please help me welcome Mr. Bridges to WMCI. Drop him a friendly email and let him know what a great job he's doing! I'll miss WMCI very much, but it's time for me to move on to my next project. I'll be taking over the Tech Coordinator position at Great Salt Bay Community School in Damariscotta, Maine this fall. I'll miss everyone here very much, but I'm very confident that Mr. Bridges is the man for the job here at WMCI and I'm sure the students will continue to grow and further their education in broadcasting under his tutelage. So good luck to all & stay in touch! If you'd like to email me at my new position my email is kjflewelling@u74.k12.me.us . Before I sign off for the last time on this page I'd just like to say a few thank yous. Thank you to MCI, Doug Cummings, and the Town of Pittsfield for putting their faith in me to begin this program. Thank you to Jennifer Whitesel and Jim Horner at MCI for their support and help over the years. Thanks to all of the faculty (past & present) at MCI for making this school a great environment for learning and growing - not only for the students education but the teachers and staff personal and professional growth as well. Thanks to the great IT staff on campus for their help when things went horribly wrong! Thanks to all of my students I've had from the past 4 years for making this job an enjoyable experience and for the countless hours they put in making the station what it is today. And a very special thanks to my wife Erin for putting up with all of those 60 hour work weeks - stumbling in after shooting the Friday night football games and just generally putting up with my high stress levels of trying to make this broadcasting program the very best in the state. And with that I leave you in the very capable and creative hands of Kris Bridges! Good night and good luck!
8-08-07 - Wow - has it really been that long since I last posted news??? This past spring and summer have been extremely busy since we've been trying to get the podcasting of WMCI radio off the ground. Class of '07 Senior Caitlin Carbonneau did a great job of building a booth for the recording and radio station operations! We're sending off seniors all over the US this coming fall to all kinds of great production schools! The afore-mentioned Caitlin Carbonneau is off to NESCOM andMark Neace is off to Full Sail College. Keep checking this page in the next few weeks for some very exciting news.
12-01-06 - Happy first day of December! It's been a few months since my last post, but things have been pretty hectic around WMCI lately. Recently the students took a trip to WABI TV 5 in Bangor for a great tour and sat in on the 12:00 noon news. That experience opened a lot of eyes for the kids & what it takes to get the news on the air. Currently the students have begun working on their mid term projects - writing some really great scripts and each class will be voting today on which scripts will go on to the next stage of production. A few new additions in the archives - check out the animated shorts feature - 5 student 5 minute animated short films. We'll have a whole slew of winter sports coming your way over the next few weeks. In the meantime - we'll be broadcasting some classic games from last year. Well, until next time - stay tuned.
10-20-06 - Well, we're almost to Halloween and we've got a lot of great scary shows coming your way. The students have been working on a new music video show and are also producing their first short computer animated films due to be released just in time for Halloween! On Halloween night be sure to check out George A. Romero's classic horror film, Night of the Living Dead, and after that stay tuned for the extremely informative program on how to survive a zombie attack! The students have been hard at work and now get to go on a well deserved field trip to WABI TV 5 in Bangor where they will be part of a live news broadcast and get to see all of the technical elements that go into producing the news and running master control of a television station. Don't forget that if you'd like any of the varsity sports complete seasons on DVD we are just an email or a phone call away and the proceeds go to keep WMCI running so order yours today!
9/1/06 - Welcome back to another great year at WMCI. If you are new to WMCI's programming we hope you'll be pleasantly surprised at our students level of production skills. If your an avid viewer, well, we've got a lot in store for you this year, starting off with a new sports show incorporated into our sports broadcasts hosted by some new students of WMCI - Ben Glidden, Hannah Tessman & Jared McCaw! Check out their bios on the crew pages! We're also excited to have Shawn Stackhouse back to do some early season sports commentary for us before he heads of to The New England School of Communications for - you guessed it - sports commentary! In addition we're currently in the planning stages of a new comedy show headed by some of MCI's most notorious students, Trenton Kelly, Cameron Porter and Cody Greeley. An exciting new element we've added to WMCI this year is a partnership with WABI TV 5 in Bangor Maine to have some of our top students intern with WABI's great News and Production teams! I'm looking forward to a great year of high end, quality broadcasting with my students! Enjoy the shows!
5/5/06 - Well, it's been awhile since my last post updating the ongoing events here at WMCI. There's a lot going on with graduation coming up - we have 12 senior projects we're currently helping out with, a BIG community project that WMCI is doing in conjunction with MSRHS and Sebasticook Valley Hospital, not to mention baseball, softball, tennis, drama and music. Today we just finished editing the Pittsfield Library's Benefit Bluegrass Concert which happened the last weekend in April. What a great show! If you can't catch it on WMCI check it out in our archives! I have had much time to co-ordinate a late spring fundraiser this year and unfortunately we are behind in our fundraising campaign, so if anyone out there would like to generously donate a few dollars our way it would sure help! That's it for now - thanks for staying tuned & we hope you continue to enjoy WMCI in the future. Please - let us know if you have any suggestions for WMCI by emailing me at kjflewelling@mci-school.org. Have a great spring!
3/15 - Mid March greetings from WMCI! Spring is on the way, change is in the air, so to celebrate we're making a new addition to the WMCI line-up. Check out Democracy Now! every morning from 7:00 am to 8:00 am just after our Council Meetings. A different view news source that you won't find anywhere else! Hopefully during the last week in March - Monday the 27th through Sunday April 2nd WMCI will air our second annual fund raiser. This year we hope to do a classic movie marathon all week long so tune & throw a few bucks our way if you like what you see. Remember, WMCI relies on local sponsors like you to continue to bring education to our students in the field of broadcasting and production and quality programs to our viewers. So please help us out, call us up - get a WMCI Sweatshirt, Fleece, T-shirt, hat or coffee mug and help ensure the success of your local/educational access TV station!
2/28/06 - And now.... Sean Stackhouse, the voice of WMCI Sports is here to give his thoughts on the end of the Huskies Basketball season.
Well, the basketball season is all over here in Pittsfield. Post-grads are done, boys are done, girls are done, that leaves us to reflect on how the seasons went. For the boys, it started with a pair of huge transfers, literally. Andy Tracy from Ellsworth, and Eric Sobey returning to Pittsfield from Bangor Christian. MCI started off very strong, winning their first few games before falling to Maranacook at the buzzer in Readfield. Tracy and Sobey were both as advertised, and the great defense of Cody Hart went, for the most part, under the radar. MCI snow plowed through the 1st half of the season with relative ease, only losing to Maranacook and Medomak Valley. In the 2nd half, they lost only to that same Maranacook team, but also got blown out in Thorndike as they lost to Mt. View, almost the same way Mt. View got blown out here at MCI. MCI went scoreless in the 3rd quarter of that game, just like the 2nd quarter against Lincoln Academy. As the season progressed however, Andy Tracy became bothered with his left arm, an injury suffered in a huge OT win over Camden Hills. That was all the reason junior Victor Quint needed to step up his game, and show that he's going to be a huge part of the MCI team next year. MCI finished only one heal point out of 4th place, behind Medomak Valley. In the preliminary game, MCI was able to hold off the John Bapst Crusdaers in the 4th quarter to give MCI a post-season win over Bapst for a change, and send them to the Auditorium where they would face Medomak Valley. In that game, it was MCI who tried to lead the 4th quarter rally, but turnovers plagued them and that was that. The biggest thing MCI had going for them was size. They could always pound the ball inside against most teams in the KVAC, while still having 3-point range with those big men.
As for the girls, they had a surprise season when you consider what people around the state were saying. Most of the talk was about Victoria Huff but nobody seemed to anticipate sophomore Jenna Lorentsen coming up as huge as she did. She averaged a double-double in rebounds and points all year, won the MVP honors in the John Bapst Round Robin Preseason Tourney, and also won Player of the Week honors from the Bangor Daily News for her brilliant performance against Rockland, in a huge upset here in Pittsfield. Early on the girls started hot, winning their first 4-5 games, but then they hit a stretch where they really struggled right around the middle of the year. However, in the final stretch of the year MCI won big game after big game, all very close ones especially at home. They beat Mt. View by 1, they beat Belfast by 2, and got a huge win over Rockland, all despite terrible 1st half performances. It was the 2nd half where they gained their composure in the locker room and came out firing. However, needing a win at Winslow on the Black Raiders' senior night in order to host a prelim they got blown out badly as the wheels simply fell off. That put them against, guess who? John Bapst, at their home court, the Bangor Auditorium. MCI stayed very close for 3 quarters, and even forced a handful of turnovers against Bapst's stallball offense, but they simply fouled too often and couldn't get any calls to go their way when they needed them, and ended their season about 4 games shorter than they wanted to. The MCI girls definitely benefited from the inside-out combination of Victoria Huff and Jenna Lorentsen, but also Kasey Dodge was able to come up with huge 3's and even bigger defense, especially at the end of the year which included an 8-steal performance. They played very well as a team and will definitely be back next year, only losing a few seniors, only one that started. Best of luck to the girls and boys teams next year, and of course I'll be around to check out my share of games, and hopefully, wins.
Thanks Sean - We'll see you in the spring sports season!
2/3/06 - Well, it's February in Maine, but it sure doesn't feel like it! We've had unseasonably warm temperatures this winter & I think it's making a lot of people around here ready for an early spring. Alas, Puxatawny Phil has seen his shadow and it looks like we're in store for another 6 weeks of winter. That's okay though because WMCI is excited to announce it's bringing classic movie nights to channel 7! Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday from 7:00 to 9:00 pm EST you can find classic movies from the 1920's through the 1960's. We've got some great stuff too! With names like "The Brain that wouldn't Die" and "Danger Flight!" or "Bride of the Gorilla" you can't go wrong! There are some great actors showing up in these films like Humphrey Bogart, Errol Flynn, Loretta Young, and Christopher Lee. Another new development is WMCI will be bringing back that age old tradition of Saturday morning cartoons. Maybe it seems a bit arcane in an age of having television channels devoted solely to cartoons, but part of the novelty is the wait for that blessed morning. Getting up early and sneaking into the living room while your parents are still asleep to watch cartoons is something I think most people can remember doing. Maybe less so today. So WMCI wants to bring that Saturday morning tradition back! With old Max Fleischer Superman cartoons, Flash Gordon Serials, Dick Tracey Serials, Radar Men From the Moon Serials, Betty Boop, Popeye, Woody and Casper and more! We hope you enjoy these new additions to WMCI! Stay tuned!
1/3/06 - Happy New Year to All! Well, in 2006 WMCI is looking to continue to increase the amount of programs we produce now & continue to increase the quality of our broadcasts over Adelphia channel 7 and on the net. We're making some great strides in updating our archives! Check out the all new Town & Country Home & Property Guide or take a look at the new gamewave episode or the review show or the computer how to show called Tech Talk here on WMCI TV. And if that isn't enough for you look for some all new student films coming to WMCI at the end of January. We are still looking for sponsors to help us out to continue to grow or broadcasting program here at Maine Central Institute. You can help by ordering some great WMCI clothing. Just click on our sponsor WMCI link on our home page! We look forward to a happy, healthy and entertaining year with you all. Stay tuned for more exciting updates to come!
12/9/05 - We've got some new additions to the archives today! Check out Mark Neace & Matt Houston's first episode of Gamewave - plus the MCI Invitational Tournament Vs. Winchendon & Notre Dame Prep are now uploaded. Enjoy!
12/6/05 - Today I'm undertaking the task of redoing our archive section. I've re-encoded all of our material at a higher frame rate so that the playback won't be as choppy as it has been. This will take a few days so please be patient. The MCI winter sports season has begun as well so look for the basketball games in the archives or take a look at our schedule to see when a game you want to watch might be coming up.
11/30/05 - Well, the polls are up and running along with a new message board that you can post your comments to and give us some feedback. Let us know how you think WMCI can improve!
11/29/05 - Only a few weeks of shopping time left before the holidays! Get your family members a great gift & help support the WMCI TV Broadcasting program here at Maine Central Institute by clicking on the support WMCI tab in our info section. There you can order great WMCI T-shirts, heavy hooded sweatshirts, hats, mugs, & fleece! Just drop us an email with your order & we'll get back to you with the details!
11/28/05 - Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! Some archives are now in the WMCI vaults for previewing. Just go to our archives page & search for what you'd like to see for WMCI programming! We are currently working on our polling section so you the viewers can tell us what you think is working and what you'd like to see for changes at WMCI. More to come very soon!
11/14/05 - We've officially launched. The archives are currently under construction. They'll be up and running soon.
WMCI in the News
- 10/08/05 Bangor Daily
- 10/08/05 Maine.gov
- 10/13/05 Portland Press Herald
- 09/13/05 Morning Sentinel
- 05/07/03 Pittsfield.org
