The 52nd Annual Smithville Fiddlers’ Jamboree and Crafts Festival is almost upon us and this year will see a few changes, especially on how the competitions are televised. Failed negotiations over funding led to longtime broadcast partner WCTE to pull out of the event, leading to DTC-TV to take over the televised broadcast.
DTC Communications announced last week plans to air live continuous video coverage of the 52nd annual Smithville Fiddlers’ Jamboree and Crafts Festival exclusively on DTC3, Facebook and YouTube. The Jamboree will begin Friday morning, June 30, and conclude late Saturday night, July 1.
But WCTE is unhappy about how the news was reported in the Smithville Review, citing what it called in a letter, “several inaccuracies in its article, and unnecessarily portrayed a negative tone toward WCTE PBS that we felt should be clarified.”
The letter states, “For more than 12 years, WCTE PBS has received municipality funds from DeKalb County in the amount of $5,000, partially to help fund the two-day live broadcast of the Smithville Fiddlers’ Jamboree. WCTE has always appreciated the county's support for the broadcast, but for many years has looked for additional funding to help cover the ever-growing costs of the event. This is not a new conversation. As recently as Fall 2022, WCTE team members met with the Jamboree committee to discuss the need for additional funding, with the target funding goal of $15,000, to help defray the total cost of the two-day live event coverage and the production of the national show distributed to PBS. At that time, WCTE was asked by the Jamboree committee to submit a written proposal, which the station submitted a short time later.”
The letter goes on to say, “The article in the Smithville Review reported that "Luton said the non-profit Jamboree eventually negotiated the price down to $12,000, but only one month before the date of the event. 'It was just too close to the date.' There was no known negotiation for $12,000 with WCTE. WCTE offered to broadcast live as in years past for no additional funding other than the $5,000 that had always been provided by the county.”
But the letter later states that the Review reported, “‘Through State Representative Michael Hale, $7,000 was secured for the broadcast, ...’ WCTE cannot speak to what involvement Representative Hale had in this; however, the State of Tennessee Department of Tourism did award $7,000 on May 22 to the Smithville Chamber of Commerce to fund the one-hour, edited national production of the Jamboree, not the cost of the broadcast.”
The Smithville Review points out that $7,000 from the state, plus $5,000 from the County equals $12,000, the point that Ms. Luton was making in the article.
The letter also states, “The Smithville Review also wrote, ‘With the announcement that WCTE would not be providing coverage of the Jamboree, some county commissioners questioned why the county was donating $5,000 to a station that was not covering local events.’”
WCTE claims that on June 5, a day prior to the decision to eliminate the funding, Ms. Kim Luton signed and returned a broadcast agreement confirming WCTE's intent to broadcast the 2023 Jamboree at no additional cost to the Jamboree, with this agreement contingent upon WCTE receiving its usual $5,000 in funding from DeKalb County. “On June 7, 2023, WCTE received an email from Ms. Luton saying the municipality funds were not awarded to WCTE.”
WCTE’s letter went on to say, “The Smithville Review wrote, ‘For years television coverage of the Jamboree had been provided by Cookeville PBS station, WCTE, but demands for funding for the coverage fell through this year, ending with the County Commission voting to not make its annual $5,000 donation to the station.’ This statement requires some correction and ordering of events.”
“First, there was no demand for funding,” WCTE said. “As noted above, there was a conversation between WCTE and Jamboree committee in late fall of 2022, which included WCTE providing airtime between sets to highlight Jamboree's sponsors, providing additional value to their sponsor's investment. Additionally, WCTE agreed to help the Jamboree's sponsors with new 20-second spots that would air throughout the two days. This proposal represented a new level of cooperation between the Jamboree board and WCTE. Jamboree Board President Luton was aware of this and wrote in an email the WCTE CEO dated October 13, 2022, stating: ‘Thank you Avery! Yes, we had a very good meeting. I wanted to get started early for 2023 and so glad we did. Funny how we are all on the same page. When Brent and Craig began discussing the possibility of selling sponsorship packages, I was very excited. It was so ironic that the Advertising Committee had been discussing the same idea.’"
But in an email from WCTE’s Avery Hutchins on June 5, Hutchins said, “I have now heard that the county may not fund the WCTE municipality grant. If we do not get that funding we cannot do the show.” This statement that without the municipality grant WCTE would not do the show certainly sounds like a demand, however an understandable one.
WCTE also said that they received an email dated October 26, 2022, from Ms. Luton introducing Alex Woodward, Jamboree Marketing Director, and asked WCTE to give him a call about the proposal. “WCTE staff and Mr. Woodward had a call on November 2, where the total proposed cost ($15,000) and the Jamboree sponsor benefits were discussed. It seemed that things were moving, along and that both parties were comfortable sharing honest feedback regarding some of the growing pains both parties were experiencing.”
The letter goes on to say, “Second, after several conversations between WCTE and Jamboree committee to clarify the details of the proposal, WCTE received an email on May 2, 2023, saying that the Jamboree committee had elected to not pursue the WCTE broadcast proposal.”
“Third, WCTE had additional conversation with the Jamboree Committee where WCTE agreed in an email dated May 11, 2023, to produce and air the two-day live event for no additional cost beyond the $5,000 municipality funding, noting that it was a transition year, and that the earlier proposal would be revisited in the fall. Essentially, WCTE waived all cost to the Jamboree and agreed to broadcast the show as long as municipality funds could be secured.”
“Finally, as noted earlier, WCTE was notified by email on June 7, 2023, by Ms. Luton that municipality funds were not awarded to WCTE. This was after the agreement WCTE made to broadcast live in 2023 for the previous rate of $5,000.”
WCTE said that it never refused to broadcast the 2023 Jamboree when requests for additional funding were denied by the Jamboree committee. The broadcast was only ever contingent upon county funding, and when that funding was not awarded, WCTE had no choice but to make the difficult decision to step away. But that is not what the budget committee was told. The budget committee was told that WCTE was not broadcasting the Smithville Jamboree this year, leading to a vote to cut the municipal funding to the station.
WCTE said that the cost incurred to produce the live show (one night of which is broadcast statewide across Tennessee on all PBS stations), to carry the live stream, and to produce a one-hour edited show for distribution to PBS stations nationwide, would be approximately $24,000. The original request for $15,000 would have been to strengthen the on-air broadcast and give the Jamboree leverage with event sponsors by giving them more promotion.
WCTE is proud to have viewers and supporters in the city of Smithville and throughout DeKalb County, and WCTE values what they bring to our local programming. WCTE PBS is proud to support the community with local programming with shows such as "Wish You Were Here," "It's Your Business" and "Where Stories Live," each of which has prominently featured multiple DeKalb County attractions and businesses in just the past year. WCTE PBS values the 40+ year partnership with the Smithville Jamboree and DTC, and we wish the whole Smithville Jamboree team the best of luck with the 2023 event.
WCTE ended its letter saying, “It's unfortunate that the Smithville Review did not reach out to anyone at WCTE to verify its information prior to the publication of this article as much of this could have been avoided. WCTE Central Tennessee PBS prides itself in being part of the most trusted news source in the country and felt responsible for making sure you had correct information.”
The Smithville Review reached out to Luton and the Jamboree Board, but they said that they are focusing on this year’s event and have no further comment at this time.
The Smithville Review also points out that neither the Review, WJLE Radio, nor DTC receive any funds from the Smithville Jamboree or County Commission to cover the festival, while public television requires at least a $5,000 donation, plus state funds, to broadcast the free and non-profit event.
For more information on DTC Communications and this year’s broadcast of the Jamboree, visit online at www.DTCcom.net. For more information on the Smithville Fiddlers’ Jamboree and Crafts Festival and a complete schedule of events, visit www.smithvillejamboree.com.
