NEW STATION MANAGER at Lake Region Television is Chris Richard, who succeeds John Likshis, who passed away this past June.

Following the death in early June of John Likshis, who had served as Lake Region Television (LRTV) station manager since August of 2005, part-time employee Chris Richard was elevated to full-time production director.

Over the past two months, Chris performed with excellence all of the functions, which Likshis had filled for the past 12 years.

The LRTV Board of Directors voted unanimously at its Aug. meeting to hire Richard as its full-time station manager, overseeing all of the day-to-day operations of the community access channel, which serves Bridgton, Casco, Denmark, Harrison, Naples and Sebago as well as five other communities farther southwest.

Richard was originally hired by Likshis in March 2015 as a part-time videographer. He soon took it upon himself to learn nonlinear video editing, scheduling of video programming using the station’s Cablecast system, creation of slides for the community message board, and many other aspects of program production.

During John’s illness this past winter, he assisted in coordinating the coverage of various meetings and community events and communication with the town managers and budget committees in securing funding for the 2017-2018 fiscal year.

Richard graduated in 2002 with a two-year associate degree in the recording arts/audio engineering from the well-known Full Sail University’s Real World Education program in Orlando/Winter Park, Fla.

Previous to his employment with LRTV, he worked for the Portland Radio Group as a show producer for two years and by Atlantic Coast Radio as a production director/show producer for four years.

Working alongside Likshis for two years and with the assistance over the past two months of Bill Severance, LRTV’s station manager from 1994 to 2005, Richard’s audio production experience has translated well to video production.

The LRTV Board has been impressed by Richard’s passion for excellence in production, organization, and rapid development of management skills.

His goals for Lake Region TV are to cover more community events and to facilitate the production of a diverse selection of local interest programs by area residents and visitors. While it is expected that coverage of municipal and school board meetings will continue to handled by the station’s part-time paid videographers, Richard will be making a special effort to recruit and train volunteers to record community events or produce their own TV shows.

Richard will also be contacting and visiting local businesses and nonprofit organizations to encourage them to support the financial needs of LRTV by becoming an underwriter of either the station’s community message board or specific programs.