Save Access

from: The Republican

Public access stations thrive in communities

Friday, March 16, 2007
By BEA O'QUINN DEWBERRY
bdewberry@repub.com

Tracey B. Durant's allegiance to filming hours of weekly town meetings extends beyond her love of government.

Durant, station manager at Longmeadow Community Television, seeks foremost to improve the public's access to elected officials.

"People are seeing the governmental process at work, not just the results," Durant said, of the broadcasts of the Longmeadow Select Board, School Committee and special Town Meetings that she and a team of volunteers produce on the town's government access channels.

"People see the (officials) making the decisions that affect them daily. For some people, this is the only access (to government) they have," Durant said.

Public access TV, also called community access, community television, cable access and PEG (Public, Education and Government) channels, are operated primarily by volunteers working tirelessly to bring meetings of public boards and commissions to residents in their cities and towns.

Paul D. Berg, a member of the board of directors of MassACCESS, a grassroots affiliate of the Alliance for Community Media, said public access channels give the average citizen a modern-day soapbox - serving in the same capacity as the quintessential crate box posted on street corners where folks discussed community issues.

Public access channels, which air programming produced solely by the public and local community, foster the public's right to exercise their freedom of speech and expression and affirm the principles of open government, Berg said.

Berg cites the 2002 case of Demarest vs. Athol-Orange Community Television as evidence that average citizens can play a role in government oversight. In that case, U.S. District Court Judge Michael A. Ponsor ruled that the Athol-Orange Community Television had violated the First Amendment rights of Patricia Demarest, an Athol woman who had produced a public access cable show that criticized the behavior of public officials.

The access channel board, which was appointed by the town, had suspended Demarest's show after several controversial broadcasts.

"Judge Ponsor made a lengthy description of what public access is. He said (Demarest) was much like a bona fide news gatherer," granting her and other access channel producers the same privileges extended to the press, said Berg, who also serves as executive director of Newton Communications Access Center. "The federal government has established access channels as the public forum for people to stand on."

According to the Alliance for Community Media, an international organization that promotes and protects public access throughout the world, more than 20,000 hours of new local programming each week is produced on public access channels, surpassing the combined programming hours of NBC, CBS, ABC, FOX and PBS.

Thousands of community groups and over 1 million volunteer producers, directors, presenters and technical staff participate in public access production annually, according to the Alliance for Community Media's official Web site.

In Western Massachusetts, many municipalities have active public access channels, with some operated by nonprofit, private organizations and others functioning under the auspices of the city or town. In some communities, such as Springfield, the cable provider runs the access channel.

Public access channels are made possible through the support of cable systems that provide channel capacity, facilities and in some cases, equipment for public use.

Daniel M. Glanville, director of government and community relations for Comcast in Western Massachusetts and Connecticut, said cable providers sign contracts with cities and towns agreeing to pay a franchise fee ranging from 1 percent to 5 percent of cable subscriber revenues.

"The public is the driving force. If the public is engaged, then it continues in a very active sense," Glanville said.

Gilbert M. Lefkovich, who worked for 36 years in commercial television prior to assuming the executive director position of Longmeadow Community Television in 1996, said he sees access television as real local programming. Lefkovich retired from Longmeadow Community Television this month.

Under Lefkovich, the Longmeadow Community Television station began broadcasting selectmen's and School Committee meetings, along with monthly reports by U.S. Rep. Richard E. Neal, D-Springfield, state Rep. Mary S. Rogeness, R-Longmeadow, and former state Sen. Brian P. Lees, R-East Longmeadow.

"We felt we were making strides in terms of what could be done in a community. We were striving for localism," said Lefkovich, who worked from 1956 to 1990 as a manager, producer and finally vice president of WGGB, Channel 40.

Caroline E. Cunningham, executive director of the Wilbraham Access Channel, said active public support by way of volunteers is key to providing well-rounded programming and coverage of meetings.

Cunningham, the only paid staffer tied to the operation of Wilbraham's three access channels, said 10 to 15 "very active" volunteers assist with operations, while 75 people remain listed on the channel's roster of volunteer staff.

"Some of these people do a little bit of everything from camera work, to covering a meeting, to working in the studio, to training others," Cunningham said. "Public access is about people running their own community TV station."

But community television is not solely the domain of public access channels.

Many Public Broadcasting Service stations, including WGBY-TV, Channel 57, produce local programs, with a particular focus on political, government and public policy issues. As a result, public television is increasingly becoming an important source for local broadcast news and information.

Russell J. Peotter, general manager of WGBY, said public television has always sought to provide the information, context and opportunity for discussion beyond that of commercial networks.

WGBY broadcasts two popular local shows that focus on politics, public policy and governmental issues: "The State We're In," which airs on Fridays, and "Water Cooler," which broadcasts on Wednesdays.

"Our job is not to necessarily bring the largest audience to a subject or issue, but we have the time for an issue," Peotter said. "We can give a number of legislators and decision-makers not just five seconds or a minute, but they can talk for 15 to 20 minutes on an important issue."

"People want to make informed decisions about government and how the government is serving them," Peotter said.