Statements

Mission

Nashville Education, Community, and Arts Television (NECAT) is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization with a mission that is two-fold: 1. expose middle TN viewers to arts and education programming created both locally and around the world, and 2. teach individuals and organizations who wish to make TV shows how to do so, let them use our equipment and resources, then broadcast those shows for them. We run three public television channels that have served the community since the 1970s. These channels are Music City Arts (our arts channel), iQtv (our education channel), and Access Nashville (our community access channel). All three channels are 24 hours a day and are broadcast on television via Comcast channels 9, 10, and 19 in Davidson County, via AT&T U-Verse channel 99 in 19 middle TN counties, and live-streamed on the internet 24 hours/day via www.necatnetwork.org. A local portal for individuals and organizations to express their ideas and perspectives via television, NECAT is also, from the viewers' perspective, a window into the music, theater, dance, environmental science, conservation, multi-cultural and organic cooking, politics, humor, alternative energies, healthcare services, and business strategies---from our community as well as in other regions, ideologies, countries, and languages.

Background

The PEG station entity, presently known as NECAT, was formed in 2010 after Nashville Metropolitan Government and the Metro Council combined Metropolitan Educational Access Corporation (MEAC) and Community Access Corporation (CAC). Two PEG station entities were created in the 1970s when Comcast first came to Nashville. A consolidated Board of Directors was appointed to provide guidance and oversight for the network. PEG stations (Public, Education, Government stations) are different from PBS stations, though many people understandably confuse the two types. PEG stations were created when a large commercial entity, like Comcast in our case, first moves into a community and wants to sell its goods and services to residents.
The entity must pay that community's government a franchise fee and provide airwaves (at no cost) to create public arts, public education, and public access programming. The law does not require any franchise fee funds to be utilized in content creation for these free airwaves. However, the airwaves are filled if the community can gather the funds for a PEG station and nonprofit staff. Since the 1970s, when the first community PEG stations were founded, Nashville Metropolitan Government has seen the value of the channels' content. The TV production skills training for the public and opportunities for the communities voices to be heard have generously contributed to Comcast franchise funds to these very affordable stations. They were covering virtually every expense the channels had. The significant turning point for the organization occurred in 2013 when federal law changed. These changes restricted the PEG stations' use of corporate funds (from Comcast in our case and recently also AT&T U-verse) to be spent only on capital expenditures. This traditional source of funds could cover no more salary or day-to-day operational costs for the organization. Since July 2013, NECAT's staff and the board have worked hard to engage multiple corporate, foundation, and university entities from our community in the content and funding of NECAT.

Impact

We are very proud of the following statistics and growth plans: Roughly 400,000 Tennesseans have television access to our channels. Since July 1, 2015, more than 260 community members have taken our TV Production classes and begun making shows. Since July 1, 2013, a pivotal year for us due to a change in federal law restricting our traditional funding source, more than 777 people have taken our Television Production Level One class and begun making TV shows. This number is increasing steadily, and we will foster its growth. During Fall Break 2015 and Spring Break 2016 for local schools, NECAT hosted sold-out TV Production Camps for teenagers learning to make TV and work in a team. These camps are now annual events, and in summer 2017, we added a summer TV production camp. Former Mayor Barry and Metro Council granted NECAT's request to lead a team of teenage producers and crew to create 20 thirty-minute episodes about local arts and local community education topics to run on TV, stream online, and be shared in all ways by all organizations possible. We are eager to train and engage as many teenagers as possible in this ongoing endeavor and continue to mentor and guide those teen producers who are already in the pipeline for the last 18 months. We presently have 220 current producers and 70 current technicians. These are members of the community making local television shows.
Access Nashville currently has 79 different regional television series. Music City Arts and iQtv currently have 45 various local television shows. Since July 1, 2013, more than 3,032 new locally produced shows were submitted by the community for broadcast. We have given more than 143 television production classes since July 1, 2013 (Levels 1, 2, and 3, Lighting, Audio, Editing, Green Screen, Pre-Production, Advanced Production, How to Take Your Show to the Next Level, How to Tell Your Nonprofit Story for Television, and more.). By September 2019, we will have trained over 200 MNPS high school students from broadcast academy career paths on our equipment in our studio since the high school collaboration began in 2014 with Pearl Cohn and Hillwood High Schools.
In 2015, we brought new students from those two schools and added more schools with the same model. The goal is to continue to bring new incoming broadcast students from the existing schools and to catch up McGavock and Cane Ridge by serving 50 students from each rather than just 25 since those are the newest groups in our training. Beyond the MNPS broadcast academy collaboration, we have further exposed more than 3,600 other teenagers to careers in TV since July 2013 through camps, demos, fairs, and presentations. Our members range from middle school students to people in their 80s representing multiple races, languages, religions, physical abilities, and economic demographics. New classes have been added and are on schedule to run every Saturday until the end of the year 2021.
We see these types of community partners as our future success and financial stability. With a history of local programming reaching back 38 years, NECAT is committed to being the portal between the doers and viewers in our community for the arts, educational programming, and community voices. Our by-laws establish a self-governing board of directors committed to producing, obtaining, and sponsoring television programming that fulfills viewers' educational, artistic, and community needs. The Mayor of Nashville appoints NECAT's board of directors, but NECAT is not part of the Nashville government. It is a stand-alone 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization operating, programming, and producing programming for Music City Arts, iQtv, and Access Nashville.

Needs

1. NECAT is seeking yearlong daily channel sponsors for three channels. To sponsor one channel for one day a week, all year long, the cost is $10,000. It is $15,000 to sponsor two channels on one day of the week, all year long, and it is $20,000 to sponsor all three channels on one day of the week, all year long. NECAT offers significant benefits: a) acknowledging sponsors on TV, on our online broadcast, on our website, and via our Facebook/Twitter pages throughout their day each week, b) inviting employees of channel sponsors (and their children age 11 and up) to take our TV production classes at no cost throughout the sponsorship period, c) by filming multiple 90-second acknowledgments for the sponsor to be broadcast via NECAT and also to be used by the sponsor in any other way the sponsor may wish (company e-newsletter, company website, and social media.). NECAT professionally films these acknowledgments at no additional cost to the sponsor. 3. Increased registration in our Online Automated Monthly Giving Program. NECAT supporters can enroll in our Automated Monthly Giving Program that sends your pre-defined gift amount each month from your account to NECAT's. No gift amount is too small to matter. Cumulative giving of all such monthly donors is essential to our success.

CEO Statement

NECAT currently does not have a CEO. I'm Sheyla Paz, the board chair, and I'm happy to serve the community that helped launch my career in film and television.
The studio is very dear and near to my heart because it was there where I took my first production class and learned how to use a professional studio. I produced a weekly TV show that aired on the Community Access channel for a year a half. Then went on to Telemundo Nashville, where my program aired for four consecutive years.
In 2019, Mayor David Briley appointed me to the board, and I was thrilled to go back where my career started. Trish Christ was the CEO at the time. She had done an incredible job at keeping NECAT alive for our community to have a home to learn TV production and have their programs aired on any of the three channels.
2020 presented to be very challenging for NECAT and its members since there was no access to the PEG studio to produce programming. Cameron McCasland, director of content and members manager, continued to support our membership virtually during these incredible times by continuing to schedule their content airing on the channels.
NECAT is in urgent need of funding and is looking for financial support to keep its doors open for all members of our community.

Board Chair Statement

NECAT's core mission of education, creation, and curation content provides a service to the young and old community. Also, it has allowed me to guide several in new career paths. Since becoming Chair in 2021, I have been even more inspired to help the organization continue to grow and look for new avenues where services can be augmented and bring more awareness to what NECAT has to offer. Since operating costs outweigh production and membership fees, it falls to the board to help get additional grant sponsorship and personal donations. We have been lucky to have found such great partners like The Community Foundation. Our goal is to continue to provide these services for the Nashville Arts Community and any of Nashville's residents who have a dream or vision they would like to see brought to life. We thank you for your support and hope our relationship can continue in the years to come. Sheyla Paz, Owner of Paz Communications and NECAT Board Chair.

Service Categories
Primary Category:	Arts, Culture & Humanities  - Television
Secondary Category:	Education  - Educational Services
Tertiary Category:	Community Improvement, Capacity Building  - Community & Neighborhood Development

Areas Served

We reach more than 400,000 middle Tennesseans via Comcast (Davidson County) and AT&T U-Verse subscribers (19 middle Tennessee counties), plus our internet audience. Our 225+ active member producers and technicians are all locals using our studio to create their own shows. Membership increases each month. The number of middle TN nonprofits who use NECAT increases weekly. They submit existing content for broadcast, make new programs, and contribute Community Event Bulletins for broadcast.

TN - Davidson

TN - Bedford

TN - Coffee

TN - Cheatham

TN - Dickson

TN - Franklin

TN - Giles

TN - Hickman

TN - Lawrence

TN - Marshall

TN - Maury

TN - Montgomery

TN - Moore

TN - Robertson

TN - Rutherford

TN - Smith

TN - Sumner

TN - Williamson

TN - Wilson