Community access TV studio needs new home

The big break for C.J. Ramirez came when the regular anchor of Casa Grande High’s morning news program didn’t show up for work.

Ramirez, 16, who had been helping out around the public television station on the Petaluma campus, jumped in front of the camera. His gift for gab made him a natural and he moved into the spot on a permanent basis.

But his budding broadcast career — as well as the aspirations of other students who use the Petaluma Community Access studio — may soon be cut short.

Petaluma school district administrators announced recently that the station will have to move off campus by fall to make way for an anticipated surge of new students.

“It’s a little disappointing,” said Ramirez, a junior, after taping the morning show Tuesday. “I just started getting into this.”

His frustration is shared by the station’s small staff and volunteers, who have put their hearts into keeping it going and just completed a digital conversion that cost about $34,000.

Julie Akins, the executive director and a former San Francisco newscaster, said she will begin looking for new space but won’t be able to afford anything nearly as large or well-appointed as their Casa Grande home, which was free.

Akins said the station — which airs government and educational programs on channels 26, 27 and 28 on Petaluma’s cable TV system — will likely become a mobile studio with a small warehouse office for computer servers.

“It’s probably the only thing we can do,” said Akins, who was hired last year and oversees a $200,000 a year budget. “I don’t see how we can afford a 2,000 square-foot facility. We’re talking mega-bucks that we don’t have.”

The matter will go before the station’s board Thursday. Akins said she hopes to sign a lease in the next few weeks.

While other schools are suffering declining enrollment, Casa Grande is bracing for its largest student body ever, Deputy Superintendent Steve Bolman said.

A larger freshman class and fewer dropouts will push the student population from 1,835 this year to almost 1,900 by fall, Bolman said.

You can reach Staff Writer Paul Payne at 762-7297 or paul.payne@pressdemocrat.com.