By Lily Munnik
Walking into his office, Cedar Falls TV Supervisor Denny Bowman is greeted by a stack of Blu Rays waiting to be transferred into the archival library on the new CFTV app. For Bowman, the discs represent more than outdated technology — they are decades of community history being preserved for future generations.
As traditional cable television fades, CFTV is embracing streaming while staying true to the mission that has guided the station for decades: telling the stories of Cedar Falls.
A career built in local broadcasting
Bowman’s path to CFTV began at the University of Northern Iowa, where he studied broadcast journalism and graduated in 1989. After college, he spent a few months working as a radio DJ before joining KWWL, first as an intern and later in a full-time role.
In 2006, Bowman took a job with the City of Cedar Falls at what was then called Channel 15 Cedar Falls Community Television. Today, he is the station’s supervisor, leading a small team responsible for documenting everything from city government meetings to school concerts and community events.
“People ask me what a normal day is like, and a normal day is pretty much anything but normal,” said Bowman.
CFTV’s staff is small, requiring everyone to wear multiple hats. The team includes part-time employee Shelby Camarata, who has worked with the station for 16 years, full-time video production supervisor Jeremy Ott, who has been with the department for almost 12 years and Mike Mennen, who has spent 10 years working full-time with CFTV.
“A big part of everything we do is being connected to the community,” said Bowman. “We have a team approach to our staff and develop leadership within them so that any one of us can be in that driver’s seat. We’re such a small staff that we need to be able to do just about everything.”
Built around the community
The department traces its roots to the early 1980s, when local programming aired on various cable channels with inconsistent reception. That changed in 1994, when Cedar Falls residents overwhelmingly approved the creation of their own municipal communications utility, launching CFU Cable TV and giving Channel 15 a permanent home.
Former department director Kirk Eastman helped shape what is now known as CFTV before retiring in 2013. His vision was to create a channel focused on the people of Cedar Falls.
The idea recognized that viewers wanted to see their neighbors, friends and family members on television, not just national programming. This mission continues to guide the station to this day.
Whether the cameras are covering a city council meeting, a junior high music concert or a Friday night sporting event, Bowman says every production receives the same level of attention.
“The community of Cedar Falls is blessed to have a station here that can preserve some of the events and historical things that happen throughout the community,” said Bowman. “I always tell everybody that I work with that the most important thing that we’re doing today is whatever we’re doing right now. Whether that’s a meeting, sporting event or planning and zoning, it matters to someone.”
From Channel 15 to CFTV
Like television stations across the country, CFTV has had to adapt to changing viewing habits.
CFU had more than 8,800 cable television subscribers in 2018, but that number fell by more than 4,000 over the next seven years as viewers increasingly turned to streaming services. The trend accelerated after CFU announced it would discontinue cable television service on Oct. 11, 2026.
Bowman said the shift toward streaming was impossible to ignore.
“Our numbers started to decline after 2018, and you could just see streaming was the future,” he said. “Even before 2018, Netflix and Hulu and that stuff came out, and then everybody came out with an app.”
The change gave more people reasons to look at other places than cable, offering viewers the convenience to watch on the go.
The department began planning for that future in 2018. A new video playback server purchased in 2023 made it possible to store programming in the cloud, stream multiple live channels and develop a dedicated streaming platform.
The result led to the new CFTV app — available on Roku, Fire TV, Apple TV, Android, iPhone and web browsers.
The app provides access to live programming, Cedar Falls weather coverage and an expanding video-on-demand library containing more than 1,100 archived programs. As older recordings are digitized — including the Blu Rays stacked in Bowman’s office — the collection will continue to grow, ensuring decades of local history remain accessible long after cable disappears.
“It’s really fun to do this for the community,” said Bowman, explaining why he has stayed for two decades. “It’s kind of a gift in a way, you feel like you’re plugging into the community, and I know it means a lot to the community.”