As the annual Christmas parade rolls down Oxnard's streets today, film will roll as well, after the parade took an unplanned one-year hiatus from the small screen.

Last year, after cable television company Adelphia was bought by Time Warner, parade organizers were told the cable provider would not continue to film and televise the event as Adelphia had done for years.

Jill Dolan, who was taking over as parade coordinator last year, said she was stunned. "It was a nightmare," she said of the parade's absence from local cable TV. "The city was getting calls. Everybody was getting calls saying, Where is it?'"

Local cable company employees were sympathetic but said the show could not go on, Dolan said. "It was a big disappointment."

The news came too late to make other arrangements. But this year, Dolan started early, organizing an army of community members to film the parade themselves for cable television.

Patricia Fregoso-Cox, vice president of community affairs for Time Warner, said Adelphia had a regional channel based in Los Angeles capable of airing long-format programming like the parade. Time Warner does not offer such a channel but did offer to help parade organizers coordinate coverage on another community channel if the city could pay to bring in a production company, Fregoso-Cox said.

But the parade has no budget. Dolan, who said she was not aware of Time Warner's offer, was looking for a bargain. Kitty Merrill of the Oxnard College television and film department said her students could help but lacked the necessary equipment.

Then the Oxnard School District's Programming for Instructional Excellence (OPIE) department, which normally provides educational shows on cable Channel 20, offered its cameras and other equipment needed to bring the parade from the streets into people's homes.

An all-volunteer staff of eight Oxnard College students will man the cameras today along the parade route. Dolan and local radio personality Pablo Ortiz will have their announcements recorded from a booth on Fifth Street between A and B streets.

A truck parked along the route will serve as a control room on wheels, where school district employees will help ready the footage for broadcast on Oxnard's Citywatch Channel 10.

After a first run Sunday at 7 p.m., the parade will air throughout December. Scheduled air times are 7 a.m. and 7 p.m. Dec. 7, 8, 9, 14, 15 and 16, and 10 a.m. and 10 p.m. Dec. 21, 22, 23, 24 and 25.

Jamie Cawelti, 21, a senior television and film major at Oxnard College, said students typically complete internships during their studies, and this will be one more way to apply their knowledge. "We're taking skills we've learned here and taking them out into the field," she said.

The parade begins at 10 a.m. today at Ninth and A streets, travels north on A Street, then west on Fifth Street and around Plaza Park. It will then turn north on C Street, east on Third Street, south on B Street and end at Fourth and B streets.

The Fillmore Lions Club also will hold its annual Christmas parade today, beginning at 1 p.m. The procession starts on Central Avenue at Second Street, then heads south to Santa Clara Street.