Local access programming station Westborough TV is behind the scenes covering everything Westborough. But who is behind the scenes running Westborough TV? That would be the one and only Karen Henderson.

You’ve likely heard her name before as Karen Henderson has made her mark on Westborough as not only the general manager of Westborough TV, but as a board member for multiple organizations in town as well as an involved parent, although Henderson didn’t move to Westborough until 1995.

Growing up in Guilford, Connecticut, Henderson went on to attend the University of Vermont majoring in English with a psychology minor. With encouragement from her dad, she earned her teaching certification for grades 6-12, teaching 8th grade in St. Alban’s, VT during her senior year of college.

UVM provided more than just education to Henderson though: she met her now husband, Scott, there on the first day. After they graduated, they ventured to Cambridge, Massachusetts where Henderson worked daily alternating between substitute teaching and working at the marketing department of Concentric Data Systems, a family software company. After working in the marketing and sales department there for a few years, she continued on to work at human resources and consulting firm Watson Wyatt as a “webmaster” – essentially in charge of internal communication within the corporation. 

During her time with Watson Wyatt, Henderson began working from home a bit as she began to put down roots in Westborough and grow her family. By 2006 (three kids later) she was ready to jump back into the community by serving on the Westborough School Committee board. She held this position until 2012 when she was recommended to help out with negotiating a new contract for the Cable Advisory Committee in Westborough. It was after this opportunity that retiring Donna Kelly, former general manager of Westborough TV, asked Henderson if she would be interested in taking over as general manager. Though she wasn’t expecting the position, Henderson felt that she had the skills to learn as she went and decided to take on the challenge in February 2014. With all of the relationships she developed over her time on the boards beforehand — which are crucial for the General Manager position at Westborough TV — Henderson felt she was well-equipped for the position.

“When I came in it wasn’t like I was necessarily looking to shake things up and change things up but rather just continue to grow what [Kelly] had really laid the foundation for,” Henderson said. 

In the past nine years that Henderson managed Westborough TV, she says the most drastic change made is that now Westborough TV covers many more events live for viewers to watch along. This is in contrast to filming an event and uploading or broadcasting the footage later, which the station still does, just after going live. Aside from that aspect, Westborough TV’s mission has remained the same: to “inform, educate, and entertain citizens” along with providing a space for residents to feel heard. As a local access station, Westborough TV is the closest source people have for public information. To keep the information accurate and consistent, local access stations like Westborough TV follow PEG (public, education, and government) as a general overview of topics they cover. 

Under the public category are any town events, advertisements for events, or shows done in the studio by citizens. Public may also include when a group reaches out to Westborough TV for their event to be covered (for example, religious services). Plus, in between programs on the tv station, there are public service announcements and bulletins about upcoming events. 

Education includes covering events like sports games, fine arts, and school projects. It also extends to include high school students physically at Westborough TV. Students from Westborough High School in Journalism II or Advanced Journalism often use the studio with the guidance of Henderson and her staff. Additionally, Westborough TV collaborates with Assabet Valley Regional Tech School for students in the Design and Visual Communication shop to come down with their shop teacher and work in the studio. Assabet also has a program with Westborough TV where one or two students have the opportunity to do a co-op program: meaning that for their shop week, they work at Westborough TV full-time. Plus, Westborough TV offers camps over the summer for Mill Pond-age students to have the opportunity to work in the studio. 

Finally, the government portion of their business covers town board and committee meetings. 

Though these are the three general categories, Westborough TV tries to cover as much as possible. One way they try to do this is by making almost everything accessible both via TV and online. Another is scheduling programs consistently and based on viewer demographics. 

To be able to cover all of these events, Westborough TV requires professional equipment such as cameras, microphones, lenses, speakers, and double-monitor computers. Additionally, they have mini control rooms in other locations such as Westborough High School and the Forbes building to cover events. Most important is the area below Westborough TV’s studio that contains the encoders used to archive everything produced at Westborough TV. 

Westborough TV also has a full time staff – be it on the smaller side – that makes sure the station produces. As General Manager, Henderson “runs the show” by making sure everything is covered, works on scheduling, editing, administrative things, human resources, budgeting; really anything that needs to be done. Aidan Horrigan is the studio manager. His expertise is in specialty editing, everything pertaining to the studio, and is the equipment manager at the mini stations. The head tech editor and producer is Jeff Poole, who focuses on programming (what is put online and tv). He also does lots of editing of both broadcasts and podcasts. Some part-time employees are co-ops with Assabet, Journalism students who cover events, and Quest students from Westborough High.

Where does Westborough TV receive its funding? As a nonprofit local access station run by the board of directors, they receive their funding from the cable companies – Verizon and Charter. Essentially, when a house purchases cable, cable is required to carry a channel for the local access station. The cable companies have to pay to use the cable lines, and must pay up to 5% of their earnings to the local access station. Not only is this an extremely limited amount of funding, but with the rising popularity of smart TVs, households are ditching cable but keeping wifi: a tremendous revenue loss for Westborough TV and other local access stations. As of now, there is a push for a state streaming tax bill that would funnel more revenue to local access stations.

Despite this challenge, Westborough TV manages to do amazing work in the community. They’ve won multiple awards including the Economic Development Committee’s “Civic Pride” Award, a couple MassCreator Awards and even a National Alliance for Community Media Award. Personally, Henderson won the Good Scout Award and the Corridor 9/495 Chamber of Commerce Business Forward Females Leadership Award. 

Currently in addition to being general manager at Westborough TV, Henderson is involved with parent groups in town, organizes Project Graduation as the President of the Board of Trustees, and helps with the Charlotte Spinney Scholars Program. Henderson loves giving back to the town and has encouraged her family to do the same: “We participate,” Henderson said. In her free time, Henderson enjoys vacationing to Maine, Block Island, or Cape Cod as well as spending time with family and friends, visiting local businesses and sporting events, and walking the trails in town. 

Henderson would like to thank the Board of Directors of Westborough TV – including WHS’s own Mrs. Stoker – for keeping Westborough TV moving forward.