Get A New Viewpoint on Muscatine
Muscatine residents have been getting a different viewpoint on the issues that involve and engage them in a new community access show, Muscatine Viewpoint, which debuted Jan. 25 and runs at 6:30 p.m. Wednesdays on public access television, channel 9 and digital channel 709.
Viewpoint spotlights people of interest in the community from across a wide range of political, public and entertainment arenas. During its brief existence it’s delved into everything from the mayoral impeachment to perspectives on local sports to the Great River Days event to the constitutionality of traffic cameras.
“We try to keep a variety of topics going and keep it open to different things,” said host and producer Chad Bishop. “It’s always changing depending on what and who is in the news. We’re also always looking for what works best in the format of the show, so we’re open to changing that too. We’ve tried having different, opposite perspectives on things, and having people call in or come on the show, but on some future shows we might have just one person or cover just one topic, or have something that isn’t necessarily a controversial topic. It all depends on what, and who, is in the news at that time.”
Bishop started the show as a long-form program to cover different views on topics that are of concerns to Muscatine residents, and thus far, he’s been happy with the results.
“It’s going well, I think, it’s evolved into a good-natured talk show,” Bishop said. “We’ve got to do something different to get people to tune in. They’ve got all these other options out there on TV, all of these slick, professional shows and news programs, but there’s really nothing like it that offers something that’s so distinctly local in its focus.”
That came across in the episode on the mayoral issue, he said, in which they had a number of people on to discuss the hot button topic.
“It’s good to look at things from different perspectives and to learn new things about an issue,” he said. “And I’m the same way, I learn new things from talking to different people. I like the idea of that. The challenge for me, always, is finding a topic that the community finds interesting enough to tune in. But I’ve got a positive feeling featuring the number of topics we have and talking to people about them.
“You see so many different things on social media and hear things that people are talking about, but not all of them are based on truth or reality, they’re just opinion,” Bishop added, “it’s nice to have a show where people can actually go beyond the rumors and hear about something directly from the people involved and they can make their own minds up.”
But not everything is an earth-shattering scandal, either. A lot of the topics covered are fun, lighthearted or altruistic. Future topics for the show include Child Abuse Awareness Month, highlights of Muskie Basketball and analysis of the team’s season, a show on filmmaking in Muscatine and an interview with the new director of the Convention and Visitors Bureau about all things CVB. The program shifts between event-based topics and topic-based shows.
“And we’re always open to suggestions and guest-hosts, whether it’s someone from the Muscatine Journal coming on to host a show, hint hint,” Bishop said, with a chuckle, “or a member of the public. We want this to be a great resource for local residents to have their voices heard.”
So far, they have been, and will continue to be, Wednesdays at 6:30.
