The Falls Church Insider All About the City of Falls Church, Virginia, For & By The Folks Who Live & Work There

We had our monthly FCC-TV board meeting tonight.  A lot of the discussion was about typical stuff — budget approval to buy lights, recruiting volunteers, and planning for the memorial day parade.  The fun part of the meeting was when Matt Smith presented a new logo and branding concept for the station.  It’s great having a real ad guy on the board.  Matt had fancy full-color print-outs, including mockups of what the logo would look like on t-shirts, coffee mugs, and the station van.

I had seen a sneak peek of the logo at Matt’s shop last week, but it was still exciting to see the board react and approve the plan to move ahead with the re-branding effort.  Next steps will be working on the web site, which has 2 major initiatives:

1. Include Video - what kind of web site for a TV station wouldn’t have video?  We’re hoping to put up both a live stream of what’s on right now, as well as an archive of past shows.  What we can do depends on costs and complexity.
2. Make it Social - we’d like to launch with some kind of social features.  It doesn’t need Facebook integration right away — a simple chat interface might be fine.  Maybe we’ll have stories and comments to give discussions a life beyond the video slot.  There are lots of ways to make this work, but the goal will be to get the audience involved and communicating.

Included in all this will be a new design, new content, and new functionality.  We’re going to start small and keep it simple, so don’t expect too much starting out.  If it’s successful, we’ll add to it over time.  We’re also going to take our time, so don’t expect to see Matt’s new logo next week.  There are lots of things that need attention at the station and limited volunteer time to get it done.  For now, we’re planning our new unveiling in a few months.  Check back here for updates!