Community media groups joined with a nationwide coalition of municipalities and regional organizations today in filing a Petition for Declaratory Ruling with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) charging that telecom giant AT&T discriminates against local public channels with its U-verse cable TV system.
"Relegating local, non-profit media channels to second-class status is a disservice to the public and violates both the spirit and letter of the law," said Helen Soule, Executive Director of the Alliance for Community Media (ACM), which represents local Public, Educational and Government (PEG) channels nationwide.
Annie Folger, Executive Director of the Midpeninsula Community Media Center alerts local viewers: "Before you switch from traditional cable TV to AT&T's U-Verse service, you should be aware that finding your Palo Alto, East Palo Alto or Menlo Park city council meeting on our community channels will be much more difficult than finding a regular, commercial channel."
Today's Petition asks the FCC to rule that AT&T's PEG product unlawfully discriminates against PEG programming in violation of the 1984 Cable Act and Commission rulings and policies.
Read the entire press release on the petition.
Read about the fight to save Public Access TV channels.
Friday, January 30, 2009
MEDIA CENTER LAUNCHES NEW SCHEDULE FOR CHAN. 27
One of the charms of Cable Access is that we can cable-cast anything we get from the public. We usually do this by retiring old shows and putting new shows in their place. A very simple concept! However, after years of doing this, our content looks likes a patchwork quilt of random and diverse programming -- which is fine. But what if you like arts and only arts, or you want to catch up on local issues or national events? You have to search our quilt very carefully to find your favorite patches throughout the week!
Starting SUNDAY, Feb 1, 2009, we are reorganizing the Channel 27 evening line-up to group together shows of similar topic or which might appeal to similar tastes:
Sunday Night - General Arts
Monday Night - National/Statewide Issues
Tuesday Night - Community-Produced Issues
Wednesday Night - Community-Produced Arts, Music and Letters
Thursday Night - Community-Produced Issues
Friday Night - Community-Produced Arts, Music and Letters
Saturday Night - Media Center Open Programming
The beauty of Saturday night's Open Programming is that we can schedule exciting new programming that arrives without "bumping" our regular producers. Schedules for Saturday night will be posted on the web, in the newspapers and wherever our schedules usually appear.
For more information, please contact me, becky@midpenmedia.org or at 650-494-8686, ext. 11
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Friday, January 23, 2009
Thursday, January 22, 2009
"Green Takes...Action!" Article in "Bay Area Green" Magazine
The new series Green Takes...Action, produced at The Media Center by Lorna Fear and Lauren Swezey, is featured in the latest issue of Bay Area Green magazine, an insert magazine which is widely distributed by the Bay Area News Group. Check out the article online at The Palo Alto Daily News website (pages 26-27), or click here for page 26 and page 27.
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
Media Center to Broadcast MP City Council Goal Setting Meetings On Friday
Our regular viewers know that we carry countless government meetings on our Channels 26 and 29. There is a schedule grid on our website that describes the approximate times of LIVE MEETING broadcasts as well as playback schedules for shows like the Palo Alto City Council, EPA City Council, San Mateo County Board of Supervisors, etc. We also play back a number of committee meetings as well.
What many of our viewers don't know is that we will carry all manner of government related meetings that are not part of the weekly or monthly schedule. I don't know any other TV station that would give its viewers as well as government producers the kind of flexibility for programming an additional four or five hours here and there.
THIS FRIDAY, January 17, at 6 pm, we are pleased to run Menlo Park City Council's Special Meeting held on December 6, 2008 : GOAL SETTING.
Tune in to see what Menlo Park's public servants have in store for 2009. See an excellent example of our democracy at work as non-council members share their hopes for the coming year.
The Media Center is proud to support local government through the broadcast of special meetings like this Menlo Park City Council Meeting.
Another such meeting was held in Menlo Park on January 5, 2009. We look forward to airing that as well in the coming weeks.
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