STAY MOTIVATED WITH GOAL TRACKING APPS WHY DO TV BILLS KEEP GOING UP? CONSOLIDATED SCHOLARSHIP OPPORTUNITIES SUMMER 2025 SPRING 2025 REACH WINTER 6
2 WINTER 2026 The Consolidated Reach newsletter is a publication of Consolidated Telcom. — Robbin Schwindt, Editor — CONTACT US Office Hours Monday – Friday 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. (MST) Phone Numbers Local: 701.483.4000 US Toll Free: 888.225.5282 Main Fax: 701.483.0001 Internet Support 24 Hours a Day, 7 Days a Week 701.483.4638 or 701.483.INET Telephone & TV Support 701.483.4444 or 800.247.1858 Mailing Address Consolidated Telcom PO Box 1408 507 South Main Dickinson, ND 58602 www.consolidatednd.com Copyright © 2025 by Consolidated Telcom and Cornerstone Publishing Group, Inc. REACH WIN 26 May the new year bring you new opportunities. I want to begin by thanking you for your support of Consolidated in 2025. We’re honored to keep you connected to what matters most. As 2026 begins, I hope you and your families get to enjoy new experiences, new technology, and new growth. In this issue, you’ll find plenty of inspiration. On page 3, you’re encouraged to Stay Motivated with Goal Tracking Apps as you work to be successful with New Year’s resolutions. Then on pages 4 and 5, we answer the question many of you have asked us: Why Do TV Bills Keep Going Up? Consolidated and other TV distributors face huge challenges from broadcasters who use blackouts to force us to pay ever-increasing fees. I think you’ll find this behind-thescenes look fascinating, and I hope it prompts you to make your voice heard in protest. If you have high school or college students in your life, don’t miss Consolidated Scholarship Opportunities on page 6 and FRS Scholarship Program for College or Vocational School on page 7. Funds are available to help our local youth further their educations. Since community is at the heart of what we do at Consolidated, we’ve highlighted a couple of recent activities. On page 6, we say Thank You To Our Photo Contest Participants, and on page 8, we list the Winners of the 2025 Great Pumpkin Hunt. We can’t wait to see what 2026 will bring. Please let our team know how we can help you. Sincerely, Bryan W. Personne CEO/General Manager Consolidated
WINTER 2026 3 REACH JONNA PRAUS RECEIVES EAGLE AWARD Consolidated CEO/General Manager, Bryan Personne, presented the Eagle Award to Jonna Praus at the Employee Appreciation Social on December 5, 2025. “Picking one employee each year for the Eagle Award is always challenging, as we have so many exceptional employees that work for Consolidated,” Personne said. Jonna has been employed with Consolidated since 2021 as a Customer Service Representative. She approaches every challenge with a positive attitude and helps the rest of her team know they can get through difficult situations. Jonna is always willing to help with any task and truly wants her entire team to succeed. She consistently goes above and beyond to help customers and co-workers alike. On behalf of the Consolidated management team and board of directors, we thank Jonna for a job well done! STAY MOTIVATED WITH GOAL TRACKING APPS Do you make New Year’s resolutions? You’ll probably be more successful at reaching goals if you’re regularly reminded of them and can see your progress. That’s the thinking behind the goal tracking apps featured here. Check them out! Gola Aptly named, Gola is a goal tracker app where you can enter goals in a customizable template, see your progress in a chart, get reminders via notifications, and more. There’s also an AI feature that provides advice on completing your goals faster. Habitica One of the cutest gamifying habit-tracker apps is Habitica. Your throwback avatar, which you can design yourself, is affected by your progress toward completing your goals, making for a fun app experience. Habitshare This app helps you set and track goals, and lets you share your progress with friends and a social network. This way, you and your friends remain accountable to each other and stay connected. stickK Designed by behavioral economists, stickK allows you to set goals, create a “commitment contract,” and apply a monetary incentive. (Research shows you’re much more likely to achieve your goal if you put money on the line.) If you’re unsuccessful at your goal, you choose where that money goes. Strides If you’ve made New Year’s resolutions—maybe to drink more water, eat healthier, or take up a new hobby—but you’re not sure how to keep track of it all, Strides could be the right app for you. It lets you customize your habits and goals as you see fit. Todoist Create tasks, projects, and subtasks, and assign them due dates, priorities, and labels. You can also sync your tasks across devices, collaborate with others, and integrate with other apps and services. Way of Life If you want a visual goal tracker, you'll love this app. It helps reinforce good habits, or banish bad habits, by sending daily reminders and providing bar charts, pie graphs, and other measures of your progress.
4 WINTER 2026 UNDERSTANDING THE CHALLENGES: WHY DO TV BILLS KEEP GOING UP? Over the past decade, broadcasters have abused outdated rules to boost their bottom lines. To this day, they continue to threaten viewers with blackouts. Retransmission consent fees (“retrans fees”) are the payments that TV distributors (cable, satellite, and other TV providers including Consolidated) make to broadcasters to carry their TV channels. Retrans fees are a relic of a time before the internet. Consider that: • Retrans fees were established by the 1992 Cable Act. • The rules were written at a time when most of us had only one choice for pay TV service. • Today, we have multiple TV options, but our video rules are still based on the old model of only one pay TV provider. Broadcasters Use Blackouts and Lobbying to Charge Higher Fees National broadcast networks are forcing local stations to charge higher retrans fees and demanding a cut of the profits. Retrans fees were intended to support local broadcast journalism, but station owners in faraway places are stripping resources from local communities to fatten their profits. If the demands for higher fees are not met, broadcasters yank their signals from consumers, leaving you without your favorite programming indefinitely. Broadcaster’s blackout their channels until their ransom demands are met. And when they are, it results in much higher prices to you, the consumer. Big broadcasters are paying an army of Washington lobbyists to keep the current retrans fee system in place because they want to continue to charge higher and higher fees for their programming. Despite tremendous changes in how consumers watch TV, the rules governing the video marketplace have stayed the same. The “Big 4” networks (ABC, CBS, NBC, and FOX) provide programming such as morning and nightly national news shows, some daytime dramas, and prime time and late night shows. That programming is then shown by their owned and operated (“O&O”) stations or their affiliate stations.
WINTER 2026 5 REACH VOICE YOUR CONCERNS TO DECISION-MAKERS Since 2009, retransmission consent fees charged to Consolidated by local networks have changed by over 3,426 percent! Consolidated feels that you have been paying TOO MUCH for these channels, which are available for free over the airwaves. What can you do? Contact North Dakota’s local Congresswoman Julie Fedorchak and the local network affiliates to let them know these price increases are unfair. Congresswoman Julie Fedorchak Washington Office: 1607 Longworth HOB Washington, DC 20515 202-225-2611 Bismarck Office: 220 East Rosser Ave Federal Bldg. Room #228 Bismarck, ND 58501 701-354-6700 KXMA (CBS, CW) Tammy Blumhagen 1811 N 15th Street Bismarck, ND 58501 701-223-9197 KQCD (NBC, FOX, MeTV) Barry Schumaier 200 N 4th Street Bismarck, ND 58501 701-255-5757 KBMY (ABC, Xtra, Justice) Joshua Rohrer 701-241-5338 Cable and satellite TV providers already pay more than a quarter billion dollars in royalty fees each year for the programming content carried by these broadcast stations. Retrans fees are charged in addition to these payments, meaning that Pay TV subscribers are essentially being charged twice to watch the same content. Broadcast networks hold all the cards and win every time. Retrans fees are soaring and are the fastest rising part of the monthly Pay TV bill. The fact there are so many choices for Pay TV (and the same old video rules) enables broadcasters to play Pay TV companies off of one another and jack up the rates. When broadcasters can unilaterally blackout their programming and harm consumers with impunity, they are guaranteed to win. Pay TV companies want to give their customers the programming they love, but in order to do so, they have to either pay the exorbitant amounts networks demand or put their customers at risk of a blackout. The Broken Retrans System Is a Lose-Lose Situation for Consumers Broadcasters abuse retrans rules and blackout programming for consumers until they get what they want. Pay TV subscribers are caught in the middle—they either experience the disappointment of missed programing during TV blackouts, or they see higher bills when TV distributors give in to broadcaster’s demands. Either way, broadcasters are giving consumers the shaft. On January 1, 2026, Consolidated must implement the following TV price changes due to retrans fee increases: • Essential Package: No increase • Elite Package: Increasing $3.00/mo. • Premier Package: Increasing $3.00/mo. • Premium channels (HBO, Showtime, Cinemax, and STARZ): No change • Local Network Retransmission: Increasing from $36.64 to $40.70/mo. Covers the cost of providing ABC, CBS, NBC, and FOX. Thanks for Choosing Consolidated, Your Local TV Provider With so many TV options these days, why choose Consolidated? It’s simple. We are your one-stop shop for communication services in your community. We offer a wider variety of services and extended discounted rates when you choose multiple services. We are your friends and your neighbors, and sometimes even your family! As a member of your community, we care about the quality of the service we bring to you, and we appreciate you and your business.
6 WINTER 2026 For over 36 years, Consolidated has invested in our youth through a scholarship program. Our goal is to help students from the communities we serve to further their education. Judging is based primarily on the essay. Only in the event of a tie are the other items included on the application considered. To apply, a student’s parents must be customers of Consolidated. The children of Consolidated employees and directors are not eligible. 2026 Consolidated Telcom Scholarship Ten (10) scholarships at $1,000 each Eligibility Requirements: High school student that will graduate in the year the scholarship is awarded and whose parents receive at least one service from Consolidated. Must submit the application and the essay by March 1, 2026. Essay Question: If you could design a new app to improve people’s lives, what would it be and why? 2026 Dual Credit Scholarship Eight (8) scholarships at $250 each – no limit on number awarded to each student Designed for high school students taking college courses online or in person where there is cost to them. Eligibility Requirements: Must submit the application, essay, a tuition bill (proof of payment) and a completion report with minimum of a C grade by January 15, 2026 or June 15, 2026. Essay Question: Options available at consolidatednd.com/ programs/#scholarship 2026 Tech Scholarship Two (2) Scholarships at $2,000 each Designed for college students who have completed their first year with a degree in a technology related field that would be relevant to Consolidated. Eligibility Requirements: Must submit the application, essay, and transcript showing degree program with minimum cumulative GPA of 3.0 by July 15, 2026. Essay Question: How do you see your field of study benefiting our region? Scholarship applications, essay topics, and additional information can be found here: consolidatednd.com/programs/#scholarship. THANK YOU TO OUR PHOTO CONTEST PARTICIPANTS We appreciate everyone who submitted photos for our annual Calendar Photo Contest. We loved seeing the creativity and community spirit captured in each image. The free 2026 calendars are now available at our main office at 507 South Main Ave in Dickinson. Congratulations to this year’s featured photographers listed below. Your photos truly showcase the beauty of our community! CONSOLIDATED SCHOLARSHIP OPPORTUNITIES Crystal Miller Stephanie Bren Richard Volesky Nancy Secrest Anneke Lindquist Ashley Coody Ron Crail Sidney Swanke Jack L Griffin Ali Pierce Albert Myran Emanuel Voigt Amanda Wright Karen Novotny Lucy Hurt Darlene Wyman
WINTER 2026 7 REACH Find recipes at: Consolidated.com/cookingcrave Mail recipes to: Consolidated/Rhonda Fitterer PO Box 1408 Dickinson, ND 58602 Wednesday Evenings and Thursday Afternoons on Consolidated Channel 18 The Foundation for Rural Service (FRS), in cooperation with NTCA-The Rural Broadband Association, seeks to sustain and enhance the quality of life in America by advancing an understanding of rural issues. Through its various programs and initiatives, FRS strongly supports the continuing education of rural youth. FRS SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAM FOR COLLEGE OR VOCATIONAL SCHOOL The annual FRS Scholarship is for students who will graduate from high school in the year the scholarship is awarded and whose parents receive telephone, TV, and/or internet service from Consolidated. The scholarship is awarded by the NTCA scholarship selection committee from a nationwide base of students. It’s designed to help rural students pay for their first year of 2-year or 4-year college, or for their first year of vocational school. New this year is an FRS scholarship for non-traditional students who have not recently graduated from high school and who may be: • Entering college or vocational school while working • Returning students who have taken a break from their studies Visit consolidatednd.com/programs/ #scholarship to complete and submit the online application. Applications must be submitted by the end of the day on February 14, 2026.
P.O. Box 1408 Dickinson, ND 58602 Cornerstone Group © 2025 WINNERS OF THE 2025 GREAT PUMPKIN HUNT Congratulations to Jayli Roller, Zoe Davila, Gabriel Bast, and Jadyn Roller of Dickinson! They found Friday’s pumpkin and won the reverse raffle that included all five pumpkin finders. Consolidated and 28 local businesses awarded them a grand prize package valued at over $2,800. A huge thank you goes out to all the area businesses that contributed to the grand prize!
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