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Lawndale Tribune AND LAWNDALE NEWS The Weekly Newspaper of Lawndale Herald Publications - Inglewood, Hawthorne, Lawndale, El Segundo, Torrance & Manhattan Beach Community Newspapers Since 1911 - Circulation 30,000 - Readership 60,000 (310) 322-1830 - May 28, 2015 Inside This Issue Certified & Licensed Professionals ......................4 Classifieds ...........................2 Film Review .........................2 Finance .................................2 Food ......................................8 Hawthorne Happenings ...3 Legals .............................. 4, 6 Looking Up ..........................6 Pets .......................................7 Police Reports ....................3 Sports ...................................5 Tech Talk ..............................2 Weekend Forecast Friday Partly Cloudy 82°/63° Saturday Partly Cloudy 82°/63° Sunday Partly Cloudy 81°/63° El Camino College Honors Women  Ten successful women were recently honored at the 2015 El Camino College Women of Distinction Ceremony for their dedicated service and contributions to the community. Award winners were selected by the ECC Women’s History Month Committee, based on service in the areas of professional accomplishments; leadership and/or mentorship; and social, educational, or health services. The accomplishments of these award winners will be featured on the El Camino College Women’s Wall of Fame (in the Schauerman Library) throughout the year and their names will be engraved on a plaque that is a permanent part of the display. Pictured: First row: DeDe Hicks, Maureen Ann Reilly, Debbie Turano, and Sandra Horwitz Back row: Chris Jeffries, Darlene Daniels, Amy LaCoe, Teri Kuwahara, Susan Stolovy, and Jean McMillan. Photo courtesy of El Camino College. Lawndale CityTV and the Sportin’ Life By Nancy Peters The age of digital television became part of the technology world more than 15 years ago. Local programming for communities far and wide is just taken for granted with the plethora of channels from any provider. Citizens look forward to watching City Council meetings, Planning Commission meetings, and getting information on the local Bulletin Board for calendared events. Lawndale residents can watch local programming on Channels 3 and/or 22. Programming is not all necessarily “local” 24 hours a day, seven days a week. As explained by Tom Strickfaden, a 27- year Lawndale staff member and the Cable Television Department Supervisor, “We have fiber optic cabling and a six-strand bandwidth for broadcasting. We broadcast the Council meetings every two weeks and tape it at the same time so that these are available for replay until the next meeting. We don’t yet have livestreaming, but that is up to the City Council to decide. The City Council has included some dollars for cable television upgrades in the budget that was work shopped a few weeks ago. So, in the future we may see some improvements. Most of our cameras are 20 or more years old and although they are serviceable, they are analog. It would be a welcome upgrade to be totally digital with HD quality across the board. “Any and all programming that we originate is converted from analog to digital and DVDs are produced for anyone who wants a copy of something specific (Note: any DVD is $1 each) and we can produce 50 DVDs at a time, so we do have some great equipment,” Tom said as he showed off the duplicator. In fact, all games – Little League, basketball, both league and high school, baseball games, football games, and any event recorded by Lawndale Cable TV has been converted from VHS to DVD going back to 1987. Anyone can get a copy as long as the opponents and a date (even approximate) is part of the request. Many of the past players in Lawndale or even on teams that opposed a Lawndale team, can use footage to make a recruiting montage for college or for scholarship applications. “My favorite thing is to help out these kids and know that something we filmed helped them get into college with a sports scholarship,” Strickfaden said. With a staff of 17 and six announcers for various sports, Strickfaden handles the day-today operations. With the help of two primary editors, interviewers, and announcers, all while answering to the appointed Cable Television Commission and the elected City Council quality programming is available. Together, the Council and Commission approve the type of programming not Lawndale-centric. Sports programming is very popular and comprises at least 49% of the programming. Other programming is acquired through government agencies, universities, and some from other cities, such as Santa Monica and Torrance. “We look for programs that are informative, such as health-related shows, topics that cover air quality, the ports Los Angeles County, and the West Basin Water District, for example,” continued the television veteran. “I guess you could say we are the PBS of local cable,” he laughed. “The most important factor for me as the one responsible for the programming is that it is compelling television.” Many of the announcers who work(ed) for Lawndale Cable have gone on to ESPN, local sports in the Los Angeles affiliates of the big three networks (CBS, NBC, ABC) and to Fox Sports West. They groomed for their futures in Lawndale and for local play-by-play announcing all the time. Rufus Washington, Beto Duran, Rashawn Haylock, Jose Bravo are all familiar to Lawndale audiences. Some of them are Emmy-nominated and Emmy-winning television sports announcers, trained up by Strickfaden in Lawndale. Tom Strickfaden hails from Torrance and is a graduate of Cal State at Dominguez Hills where he earned his degree in Television Programming and Producing. He interviewed his idol, Ozzy Ozborne and was (and still is) on a first-name-hug-when-you-see-her basis with Paula Abdul. Many of his past jobs involved producing, camera work, floor directing or stage managing for television, so his background beneficial to Lawndale Cable. He is very quick to take no credit and said Lawndale programming on the local channels is effective due to the dedication, highly-trained, and talented staff members he works with each day. “We have stellar camera work and superlative announcing for our games, and the direction is so well-executed, like a band when all the sounds created perfectly form a beautiful melody. “I do want to acknowledge the ongoing support we receive from the City Council and management. It’s the primary reason for any success Lawndale CityTV achieves. Some cities have done away with their media departments, but Lawndale sees the value in communicating with residents. Lawndale CityTV’s 29-year history, recent development on social media outlets (YouTube and Twitter), in my opinion,” stated Strickfaden, “validate the Council’s desire for openness and transparency. Even more importantly, it’s a reflection of the Lawndale community... in 29.97 frames per second. I’m so grateful to be part of and serve the Lawndale community. I’m really looking forward to the great opportunities around the corner in the next episode (in High Definition) of Lawndale CityTV.” On June 11 more “STAR” Awards may grace the Lawndale Cable TV offices, adding to those won in 2009, 2010, and 2013 from SCAN (States of CA and Nevada) Chapter of NATOA (National Association of Telecommunications BOE"EWJTPST 4UBZUVOFEr Lawndale CityTV won STAR Awards in 2009, 2010, and 2013 for their sports programming. This year they are nominated again in several categories. Winners will be announced on June 11, 2015. Photo by Nancy Peters “My favorite thing is to help out these kids and know that something we filmed helped them get into college with a sports scholarship,”


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