Peabody TV won eight awards this year from the Alliance for Community Media – Northeast Region (ACM-NE). The awards recognize achievement in community media access centers and their affiliated local producers.
Peabody TV earned first place for the documentary category, with its program “Beyond Bingo: A Look Inside the Torigian Senior Center,” the event coverage – multiple cameras category, with its program “2024 Peabody International Festival Highlights,” and the science, health, and spirituality category, with its program “Walk, Bike, and Roll to School Event at Center School – May 2024.”
It also earned third-place awards for the diversity empowerment category, with its program “The Drag Queens, Kings, and Things of Salem,” the music and performance category, with its program “YES Fest 2024 Recap Video for Social Media,” the PSA/Short Program category, with its program “North Shore Alliance of GLBTQ Youth (NAGLY): Services,” and the Profile Talk Show category, with its program “YAS Talk Compilation with Miz Diamond Wigfall.”
Additionally, Peabody TV was a finalist for the overall excellence category with its program “2025 Peabody TV ACM Overall Excellence Entry – Peabody, MA.”
Peabody TV Production Manager and ACM-NE President Jim Palmer said he was particularly proud of the “Beyond Bingo” program, which he called “a special project.”
“We did a lot of work with Jacky Ankeles, who unfortunately passed away over the summer, so when the award was presented, and we saw a clip of her hosting the program, it was a special program to watch,” Palmer said.
Peabody TV Office Manager Natalie Maga echoed Palmer’s comments.
“We’re very, very proud of our senior center, and Miss Jacky just brought all that out when she did that beautiful documentary ‘Beyond Bingo.’ It was such an honor and a privilege to work with her through that,” Maga said.
Peabody TV Associate Director of Community Productions Stefan Jandrisevits — who was listed as a producer for “Walk, Bike, and Roll to School Event at Center School – May 2024,” “The Drag Queens, Kings, and Things of Salem,” and “North Shore Alliance of GLBTQ Youth (NAGLY): Services” — said it feels great that his work is getting recognition.
“I’m glad that we’re getting some of this kind of attention,” Jandrisevits said. “I always want to make sure that local access is being put out there. We are often covering what is going on in our local communities, and it’s sometimes nice to just be able to voice it.”
He said he was most proud of the Center School program, which he had taken the lead on. Jandrisevits said he also received help from some high school students.
“They were the ones that conducted the interviews, so I basically got to see them creating something and putting it together,” he said.
Palmer noted that there were 338 total competitive entries this year.
He added that there’s “certainly some exciting news coming up.”
“We just signed our new cable license with Comcast. That was signed by the City back in November (2025), and that’s going to, within the next couple of years, open up the ability to broadcast in high definition across all three of our Comcast channels, which is very exciting,” Palmer said. “It certainly secures the funding for us as well for another decade.”
