Spencer brings passion to Naperville community TV

Liz Spencer is very excited about the Naperville Little League championship games.

She doesn't have any kids playing and she's not necessarily a baseball fanatic, but that doesn't really matter.

This is mid-July and Spencer is excited because she's the executive director of Naperville Community Television, Channel 17, and her crew is preparing to shoot the games later in the week for broadcast.

The kids will be playing under the lights and before the cameras and it's hard to get much better than that.

"They take it so seriously," she says. "To me, that is the epitome of community television."

Elizabeth Braham Spencer's steadfast focus on reaching out to Naperville residents and covering the stories important to them has transformed what was once a typical community television station into one that earns national attention.

Since she arrived at NCTV17 seven years ago, the station has moved to a new studio, won numerous awards, formed a host of community partnerships, mentored dozens of students through internships and shot an impressive list of documentaries.

"She has taken NCTV to a whole new level," says Mary Lou Wehrli, who was serving as the station's executive director when she hired Spencer as operations manager in early 2002. "We are a leader in the nation about what is good about public access television and her role in that has been significant."

Naperville City Council member Jim Boyajian says NCTV has taken on new relevance under Spencer's leadership by covering issues of broad significance to residents.

"They've really elevated their professionalism and ability to deliver a quality product," he says. "It's become a valued asset to the community."

Councilman Doug Krause agrees. Council meetings are covered along with community events, he says.

"It has content, not just fluff," Krause says. "I hear more comments from people who watch the council meetings."

Melea Smith, director of communications for Naperville Unit District 203, says the station is a real partner with the district - offering TV production classes at the studio as well as covering school board meetings and school events. Her own son, a recent college graduate, began serving as the station's webmaster while in school.

"I think it's a great gift to the city," she says. "We depend on it."

Seeing the potential

Spencer had no great vision when she arrived at NCTV17. In fact, she didn't plan to stay more than a year.

"It was just really dumb luck," she says. "I had been working in the Internet-video industry and I got pink-slipped and needed a job."

A native of Hinsdale who was living in Elmhurst at the time, Spencer soon found she had stumbled into a town that could make good use of her 20 years experience in the broadcast and cable TV industry.

"I think I saw the potential," she says. "Naperville is unlike any community I've ever been in. You just can't help but get inspired by the community spirit, the history. Things started to click."

When Wehrli stepped down as executive director in 2006, Spencer was persuaded to take her place.

She came with credentials that included an Emmy from the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences for a live awards show broadcast and an Action for Children's Television award she won in competition with "Sesame Street."

Drawing on her background in shooting documentaries, the station has done more than 10 feature-length films under her leadership and soon will air two new ones. "A Hallmark of Heritage," focusing on the Naperville Heritage Society's 40th anniversary, will debut in August, and a documentary celebrating the 150-year history of the Naperville Municipal Band will premier in September.

"Naperville has a huge number of stories, - stories that have regional and national impact," Spencer says.

An example is the "Two Brothers, One Beer and the American Dream" documentary telling the story of Stenger Brewery in Naperville. One of brewery's employees, a young Adolph Coors, went on to Colorado where he formed his own famous beer company.

"It's a story of entrepreneurial spirit. It's a story of German heritage," Spencer says.

The documentary won a Superior Award from the Illinois State Historical Society in 2008, the same award NCTV's "Community Building on the Great Frontier: The Story of Joseph Naper & the Founding of Naperville" won in 2007.

This year's awards have included the Rosemary Martin Democracy in Action Award from the League of Women Voters for NCTV's expanded live coverage of the April elections. Nancy Wiersum, the station's community development director, says the coverage netted widespread attention from viewers who saw it over the Internet.

"In a week, I took calls from Maryland, Minnesota and Georgia wanting to know how we did it," she says.

The station also has won two 2009 National Communicator Awards of Distinction for the weekly news show "Naperville Connection" and for "Naperville Sports Weekly."

"Naperville Connection," recently renamed "Naperville News 17," highlights community festivals, city events, school district updates, artistic ventures, and health, safety and environmental issues in one- to two-minute segments. "Naperville Sports Weekly" features the athletic teams of all five area high schools and is hosted by sports producer Jim Mahoney.

Spencer says both programs grew out of listening to what community residents said they wanted.

"People need a touchstone, somewhere to go that reflects what's happening in their lives," she says.

Creative business

But of all the awards Spencer and the station have won, she's particularly proud of receiving the Naperville Area Chamber of Commerce's Not for Profit Organization of the Year in 2008.

The award is proof she runs the station as a tight ship, she says.

"In the creative field, you rarely get the business side," she said. "You usually hire someone with that."

The station receives 50 percent of its $900,000 budget from 1.27 percent of the franchise fees Naperville's three cable stations pay to the city. The rest comes from fundraising and sponsors.

The budget pays for seven full-time and 10 part-time employees. Six to 10 high school and college interns per term and 20 to 30 active volunteers round out the staff. The number of volunteers can go up for special events like a parade or election coverage.

Spencer says the station's ideal crew to shoot a story includes paid staff, college or high school interns, and community staff. Community crew members attend a six-week training class to become producers. Ages may range from 17 to 80.

"It's a great learning experience for everybody," she says.

Spencer, an adjunct faculty member at North Central College, earned a master's degree in communication management from Northwestern University in Evanston after she was asked to teach TV broadcasting classes at the Naperville college. Her students give her a good opportunity to choose promising young interns.

Holly Roadruck, a transfer student and broadcast major at North Central, says Spencer immediately asked her to interview for an internship after she learned that Roadruck already had interned and freelanced at CNN.

"My friends intern at other places and they tell me stories how they are stuck filing papers all day," Roadruck wrote in an e-mail. "I tell them I am out in the field with other reporters learning about the camera, what a stand up is, how to edit a package, and how to interview people."

Spencer assigned Roadruck and fellow intern Michelle Corless to shoot a documentary this summer on how the city of Naperville works, which includes interviews with the mayor and other prominent officials.

"I'm amazed at the amount of trust she has with us," Roadruck says.

Corless said when things do go wrong, Spencer helps the interns figure out what to do.

"She stays very calm," says Corless, who started helping at the station as a freshman and is entering her senior year at North Central. "One of the great things about Liz is she is always there for you."

Corless says what she has learned at NCTV helped her in a television internship in London last year. Ironically, she came to North Central reluctantly after not getting into her top-choice schools.

"One of the main reasons I'm still at North Central is because of Liz," she says. "I do a lot of hands-on learning instead of just observing someone else doing it."

Spencer says she sees mentoring young people as more than teaching them how to produce a television program.

"They come in because they're interested in the camera or TV," she says. "That just gives me a great excuse to teach them about life."

Some interns take paid positions at the station, where most staff members are between the ages of 21 and 25.

"I kind of look at myself as a coach," says Spencer, 45, who turns day-to-day operations over to staff once a new program is in place. "It's not just me. I am the happy leader of this group."

Looking ahead

When Spencer graduated from college in 1986, cable television was just starting to take off.

"For students graduating now, the next five years or so, the Internet is their cable television," she says. "It's a whole new arena out there that's going to open a lot of jobs."

Keeping up with emerging technology, NCTV live streams its programs on its Web site so they may be viewed simultaneously with the television broadcast. NCTV also posts programs on YouTube and Facebook.

"It's a real good barometer of what people like," Spencer says.

Asked about her goals for the future, Spencer says NCTV plans to do live coverage of three North Central football games this fall - the first home game, the homecoming game and the last home game - as well as any playoff games the Cardinals may be in.

She's also toying with the idea of doing fictional programs.

"We haven't figured out how to do it yet, but we think that could be a lot of fun," she says.

One thing is certain: Spencer, who moved to Naperville about two years ago, has no immediate plans to leave.

"I think I have one of the best jobs ever," she says. "I just enjoy every aspect of it."

For details on NCTV17 and its programming, visit NCTV17.com.

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<div class="infoBox"> <h1>More Coverage</h1> <div class="infoBoxContent"> <div class="infoArea"> <h2>Stories</h2> <ul class="links"> <li><a href="/story/?id=311195">NCTV17 to debut 'A Hallmark of Heritage' <span class="date">[08/05/09]</span></a></li> </ul> </div> </div> </div>