Cable Advisory Meeting August 5, 2008

Submitted by mauro on August 6, 2008 - 7:05am.
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Last night, Aug.5,2008, WCCA joined others attending the Cable Advisory Meeting.
T&G's Nick Kotsopoulus also was and wrote about it.
link to T&G

The meeting was one of the better ones. There was much good debate, as any healthy public meeting would include.

The committee came to decisions regarding what they will recommend to the city Manager among such items covered was the distribution of PEG funding
including a capital grant and franchise fees. The current formula 60-20-20 was recommended for both capital and franchise funding allocations. This was the same as in the past contract. The question is the government channel and the educational channel combined may have a surplus of over a million dollars balance remaining from the last contract. WCCA argued that under the current formula the 40 percent split between the city and educational channel is much more than needed. WCCA has been the only entity to demonstrate quantitative need for increased funding and certainly facilitates a much large aspect of the community. Unless the city manager see his way to increasing WCCA's share of the franchise revenue and capital, given the short term of the contract, it is highly possible the current level of services WCCA provides to the citizens of Worcester will be negatively impacted. The best thing to come out of the meeting, we felt, was the committee's recommended definition for "local programming": as any video production involving a person who is a citizen, student or employed in the city of Worcester. More to come.
Thanks for your suppport everyone. Stay tuned...

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WCCA is Grateful. Can the City Manger can still do better?

Submitted by mauro on August 8, 2008 - 9:53pm.

We continue to believe there is more than good reason to increase franchise-funding provisions for WCCA TV. Let’s hope the city manager will consider past-demonstrated community needs assessment and gives that the due diligence it truly deserves.

The process deliberating over the public access component was long and dragged out, at times seemed redundant, and seemingly not as productive as it could have been. The members of the Cable advisory team did work hard and gave as much of their time as they could. Looking at many other models and our own, we have come to understand that a citizens advisory panel can not and perhaps should not be expected to discern and deliberate upon the many intricacies of running a robust Public Access operation, let alone a flagship, cutting edge Television station such as WCCA. This is not unique predicament for many committees. However, they did the best they could and we appreciate and applaud the effort and tremendous amount of work they put into it. Yes, it did get testy, on both sides of the issue. Debate is good. That there was two sides was an issue in itself. WCCA serves the citizens of Worcester as does the City.

Many believe the ascertainment process was intended to be a process where community needs, expressed plain and simple , rather than be interpreted by a remote body, would provide the leverage the City Manager needed to negotiate with Charter and later deliberate on PEG needs. Many feel that perhaps it would have been more sensible if the city manager directed his committee, from the beginning, to simply ascertain and document community needs relative to cable consumer, and the PEG channels so he could take that to the table seeking tangible return from the cable franchise. Ideally, at the least for public access, it would have been far more productive and reasonable if he asked his committee to start with a position intended to build on the city’s twenty two year investment in WCCA.

Without argument WCCA has experienced substantial growth in all phases of a Public Access operation including its mission. Documented reports indicate the community clearly needs WCCA public access and has called for the city manager to ensure increase funding, capital and channel capacity for WCCA. WCCA is a cutting edge community media/public access facility, in addition to being a pioneer of new media applications to empower all who live, work and study in Worcester. WCCA TV is what public access is supposed to be as a result of it's fine staff, volunteers, community partners and the years of investment the city has made in it. WCCA TV will continue to be the best no matter what.

The committee has been made aware that, given the limitations of the new franchise license, the current and recommended funding formula may not be enough, as it is, to sustain the current level of growing community media needs that WCCA has been successfully responding to for the past twelve years. WCCA is an asset to the city , an important media resource available to all on a non-discriminatory basis.

Would it be a good management practice for a city, or any business for that matter, to not nurture an investment that has shown much success? Whether that investment is a race horse, a talented artist, a star pitcher or world series team, a top drawing movie star, a stock portfolio, an important highway, one would normally nurture and protect their investment. A city the size of Worcester has the best with WCCA and deserves the best assurances to maintain its continued growth.

WCCA TV did the best it could to advocate for our members, interns, hundreds of non-profit organizations, project partners, thousands of guest, and viewers. It is in the hands of the City Manager.

It is not over, as we all move forward, now more than ever, the people, community producers, and all who have benefited from WCCA must step up, once again, to ask the City Manager to make it a priority to see to it that WCCA TV has the capacity to meet the ever growing community media needs of Worcester.

Thanks for your support.

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