Amplifying Local Voices…Increasing Civic Participation and Reducing Isolation!
Written by Tim Buckley, April 2026
The world has grown noisier as internet media has exploded. Frequently, you hear people say that more media access has only exaggerated their loneliness.
Capital Community Media (CCM) was founded almost 40 years ago to help local residents and nonprofit organizations find their voice and amplify their message. As producer and host of CCM’s InSight and InSight OnSite programs, Wendy Brokaw demonstrates how old-fashioned TV programming still delivers where the digital age does not.
“I was a broadcast journalist before moving to Salem,” Wendy said. "CCM, known as Capital Community TV (CCTV) when it began in 1989, hired me because of my background in network news, And, at the time, I already had had a couple years as a CCTV volunteer features producer.”
Hired in 2008 as CCM’s Outreach & Promotions Specialist, Wendy spent the first few years networking with local nonprofit organizations, developing short “video brochures” that would air in regular CCM programming and CCM’s YouTube channel. Such videos continue to be a mainstay of CCM nonprofit services to this day.
The City of Salem, in 1987, granted telecom giant Viacom an exclusive agreement to bring cable content into our homes and offices. Comcast inherited that agreement in 2002. In exchange for the right to a local monopoly, Comcast (now Xfinity) agreed to provide about 5 percent of its local gross revenue to fund Public, Educational, and Governmental access channels. Salem area channels 21, 22, and 23 provide programming unavailable anywhere else: local government and public services, local education and entertainment, and local nonprofit and faith community programs.
Another major feature of CCM’s service is teaching various aspects of video production, from story development to recording, editing and distribution. For $35 a class, students become proficient enough to then gain access to professional recording and editing equipment. Instead of waiting for someone else to tell the story, volunteer producers use CCM’s facilities for little or no extra cost. 4. “We encourage non-profits to take advantage of these services.” Wendy says, “It’s fun! And a great way to gain media experience.”
“We started the InSight weekly program in 2011. It helped us get to the heartbeat of the community,” Wendy continued, “to provide news and information, to celebrate overcoming challenges, and to partner with groups to demonstrate where social problems meet solutions.” Each half hour program is recorded in CCM’s downtown studios (575 Trade St SE) and then aired multiple times on its three channels.
During the COVID years, InSight continued to air programs, although guests appeared via Zoom instead of in person. “It was a way to reduce a bit of the isolation we experienced,” Wendy said. “After COVID, we began InSight OnSite, where we go on location to tell non-profit stories, using the video from these shoots in multiple ways to further extend their outreach.”
CBEL has been featured several times in CCM’s programming in the past few years. In 2024, CBEL’s neighborhood family council director, Eduardo Angulo, and neighborhood connector Maribel Mora-Martinez talked about the transformative effect of neighborhood family councils on community wellbeing . In the latest program, Olivia Alvarez and her son Brian talked about the importance of strong advocacy for quality education in Salem and Keizer’s most financially challenged neighborhoods.
CBEL’s efforts to increase civic engagement and volunteer support is aided greatly by having CCM as a community partner. The videos they produce provide new opportunities to speak to larger audiences, whether through CCM’s designated channels or by linking those programs to our website and social media outlets.
Thank you CCM, and particularly Wendy Brokaw, for the strong efforts to raise awareness of important issues by featuring the voices of those affected by those issues.