Today we’d like to introduce you to Liz Spencer.
Liz, can you briefly walk us through your story – how you started and how you got to where you are today.
I arrived at Naperville Community Television, Channel 17 (NCTV17) in 2002 as its Operations Manager and quickly discovered how a truly unique town Naperville is and how rich it is in in stories both large and small.
It was an opportunity to take my prior 15 years in broadcasting and really help NCTV17 grow into a vital community television station. Naperville Community Television is a non-profit television station and part of the PEG (Public, Education and Government) cable network. As NCTV17 began to prosper so did the City of Naperville and NCTV17 has been there to document the growth and keep this thriving city connected through daily and weekly news, high school and college sports and cultural events.
In 2006, I became the Executive Director and soon after that NCTV17 began streaming its programming live on its website (NCTV17.com) and created a YouTube channel that took full advantage of the new trend in video and the rise of social media. Today, we cover the residents of Naperville on television as well as seven social media platforms.
As both the Executive Director and a Naperville resident, I think NCTV17’s role is to keep the city and its residents connected. We are a non-profit that truly represents all the citizens as we cover their news, sports, and community across the nearly 40 square miles of Naperville.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Our biggest struggle is getting noticed in the vast sea of the media available to people today. It’s difficult for a local voice to be heard yet I feel today that voice is more important than ever. One way we cut through the noise is Naperville Now, a two-minute news video delivered daily to your email and available on all of our social media platforms. It gives everyone a quick but comprehensive snapshot of what’s happening in their town from news to culture to people and sports.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Naperville Community Television story. Tell us more about the business.
As a non-profit, NCTV17 one of the ways we support NCTV17 financially is by offering our expertise in video storytelling to businesses and other non-profits in the form of production services. We are different from the many other video companies because of our television programming background. Everything we do for our on-air programming is about storytelling and we carry that over to the Production Service side of the house.
We offer Naperville area businesses a local and affordable video production services and we provide a little extra care because we are live here and care about the community.
What do you like best about our city? What do you like least about our city?
I think of myself as a storyteller. My pen is a video camera and my canvas is a television or a computer screen, and even your mobile phone. I can’t think of better job than to tell the stories of my neighbors and help keep the City of Naperville connected through its own community television station, NCTV17.
Contact Info:
- Address: 127 Ambassador Drive, Ste. 103
Naperville, IL 60540 - Website: nctv17.com
- Phone: 630-355-2124
- Email: info@nctv17.com
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