This fall, Dartmouth Community Television (DCTV) will be branching out, filling all three of its stations with programming and offering video course for the community. After taking the classes, residents can produce their own public access show.

Starting in October, the station will be rearranging channels. Channel nine, which is currently used as a message board, will soon air shows relating to Dartmouth’s schools. Channel 18 will become government access. Channel 95 will continue to air public access shows, but will include original content from the public produced with DCTV equipment.

New shows will appear on their respective channels as early as Oct. 1, but the channel split will officially launch on Oct. 13.

“All education and government [coverage] has been on channel 18, and it’s starting to get really crowded, so we’re splitting between 18 and nine,” said Michael Fernandes, who will oversee the education channel. “Channel 18 is going to be solely government and channel nine is going to be all education.”

By shifting school coverage – like games, concerts, and happenings at UMass Dartmouth – to channel nine, the station will free up more time for replays of municipal meetings on channel 18.

“We also have a large video archive dating back to ’96 or ’97,” said Fernandes, referring to educational programming. “One or two nights a week, we’re going to be airing old sports, old concerts, old Mr. Dartmouth’s, and we’ll promote it on Facebook and on our message board.”

“We’re excited because it should be a lot more organized in the future,” said Director of Media Cynthia Marland. “People will be able to go to a particular channel if they want a certain kind of programming.”

Another big shift will be channel 95, which has been around for about two years. The channel currently airs public access shows, but now the station is opening up the studio for production training.

“I’ll be running training courses where, if you’re a Dartmouth resident, you can sign up and come for an orientation. You’ll learn the use of the studio, the field camera and editing,” said Derek Frates, cable access coordinator.

The first round of classes, which have already been filled, will be held on Oct. 15 and will run until Nov. 5. Frates said the station does not currently have future dates set for the next round of classes.

Right now channel 95 airs shows themed around topics such as cooking, religion, senior life and college life.

“I’d like to see more people do something outdoors,” said Frates. “The possibilities are limitless.”

DCTV will also be expanding its partnership with Dartmouth High Schools’ video program.

“We have [Joshua Moulding’s] class come in and produce their own show called ‘The Dartmouth Life,’” said Fernandes. I’m looking to working with the video club, which is an after school volunteer group. They’re probably going to come in in a month or so and work on their own show here.”

Some changes will be coming to the DCTV website as well. The website’s address has been changed from DCTV18.com to DartmouthTV.com. Peter Chasse, the station’s technical director, said he’s hoping the user interface for the station’s on-demand programming will look different in the near future.

“We’re waiting for our vendor to release new software, which will bring it up to a better-looking standard – more of the Netflix-type user interface rather than what you have now,” said Chasse.

Marland expressed excitement over the changes at DCTV. She said part of the draw of DCTV is its commitment to hyper-local coverage.

“They want to see their children on television, whether it’s at a football game or a concert. It’s all about community, which Dartmouth embraces. We’re all very proud of what we do as a town, and this is one way to really show it,” she said.

A guide for each of the three channels can be found here: http://www.town.dartmouth.ma.us/Pages/DartmouthMA_TV/channelsplit