A center for cable media is far goal

BY LEE COLEMAN Gazette Reporter

The goal is to have a cable television studio somewhere in Saratoga Springs, complete with a small professional staff, that would produce and air quality local programs.
But reaching the goal is a complex, lengthy undertaking.

"It’s a lot of work," said Jackie Pardon, co-chair of the Saratoga County League of Women Voters’ media center committee.

"But we are enthused about the city being on board with this," Pardon said. "We have been working with the City Council for three years."

Federal cable legislation that has been on the books for 20 years allows a municipality to negotiate with a cable provider for the creation of a local cable television access center, said Steve Pierce, executive director of the Media Alliance, a statewide cable center advocacy organization.

Pierce said cable companies — like Time Warner Cable, which serves Saratoga Springs and much of the Capital Region — make "a lot of money."

The long-standing federal cable regulations suggest that some of these profits should be directed back into the community in the form of quality local cable access centers.
Peter Taubkin, a Time Warner spokesman for the Capital Region, said the Saratoga community currently has three local access channels.

In Saratoga Springs, for example, City Council meetings are taped and then broadcast later in the week on the public access channel. Some local high school sports are also aired on the local cable access channel.

Pardon says the City Council tapes are well intended but the quality, both visual and audio, is not good. She said in Pittsfield, Mass., where they have a wellstaffed cable access media center, the council meetings are aired live by a well-equipped professional staff.
The league’s Media Center Committee is coordinating a visit to the Pittsfield Community Television operation on Tuesday, Pardon said. She said this Pittsfield operation has a sevenperson staff and an annual budget of approximately $400,000.

"How much do the customers want to pay for it?," Taubkin said about having a local media center. "Communities have to ask themselves that question."

For example, the city of Schenectady has had a small cable access center and local production facility for some years.

Time Warner charges Schenectady cable subscribers about 35 cents per month to fund the public access station, Channel 16.

The money is used by the Schenectady Access Cable Council to run Channel 16, which broadcasts from a downtown studio. The programming includes live City Council meetings, locally produced talk shows, and musical performances.

The Schenectady center has a roughly $130,000 annual budget, one full-time staff member, several part-time staffers, and volunteers.

Schenectady, which is currently facing the negotiation of a new 10-year franchise contract, is exploring the possibility of a countywide cable franchise with Time Warner, according to Pierce of the Media Alliance.

Pardon said the media centers can be financed by using a portion of the cable franchise fee the city receives from Time Warner each year. For example, in 2003 this franchise fee was $269,000 for Saratoga Springs.

Pardon said cable television companies raise their rates every year.
"The questions to be asked by the consumer and the franchise holder [the city] are: Rates are going up every year beyond our control. What are we getting, or not getting, for our money? " Pardon said.

"Is the city getting its due with regards to rent from the franchisee [the cable company] or are there additional benefits allowed by federal law? " Pardon asks. She and other local cable center proponents think there are.

For the local media center plan to move forward, the Saratoga Springs City Council needs to follow a complex set of guidelines and negotiate with the cable company to make the center a reality. The process includes a community needs assessment, among other things.
Mayor Michael Lenz said the City Council put $30,000 in the city’s 2005 budget to hire a cable television field organizer as well as other associated costs.

"He or she will do community outreach," Lenz said. He said this would lead to the creation of a cable television committee that would help the city select a consultant-negotiator.
The consultant will work on negotiating the city’s new 10-year franchise agreement with Time Warner.

Pardon said she hopes the new franchise agreement will include money for the local media access center.

Lenz said the hope would be that the new franchise agreement would bring more franchise fee money into the city and these dollars would be used for the media center.
"This is complicated stuff," Lenz said. "We are going to take it one step at a time."
He said the $30,000 will provide the city with cable-related money for 2005. The consultantnegotiator may not be hired until 2006.

"We are going to keep moving forward," Lenz said. "Ultimately we will get there."
Pardon has been devoted to the local access center for several years. She and other members of the league’s media center committee meet regularly with the mayor and City Council members.

"I’m really pleased they are continuing the process," Pardon said.
However, the league’s media access committee, which is cochaired by city resident and businessman John Van der Veer, had wanted the city to set aside $100,000 in each of the next three years from cable franchise fees to support the cable center initiative. Pardon said she is not disappointed that only $30,000 was set aside this year because the City Council continues to move forward on the idea.

Pardon and her husband, Tod, operate Pardon Design Inc., an art and design firm, out of their Saratoga Springs home. They have a 7-year-old son, Dex.

Pardon coordinated the "Video on Video" series at Saratoga Springs Public Library for 13 years. The series, which is no longer offered, provided video presentations about movies.
The media center idea is gaining support in the Saratoga Springs community.

An "open letter" encouraging the City Council to continue to pursue the center has been signed by nearly 300 people and continues to circulate, picking up additional signatures.
The initiative to create the city-based cable television access center gained the support of the city school district Board of Education in the fall of 2004.

The board voted unanimously to support "the concept" of the community media access and technology center at a meeting in the Dorothy Nolan Elementary School in Wilton.
The three local access channels that a media center would use include an education channel that could include programming from the city schools as well as colleges in the city.
Last fall school board members took turns saying they liked the concept of the cable access center and were only supporting this concept.

"It isn’t our ball game," said board member Will Martin. He said the city, not the school district, would be the lead agency in the creation of such a center.

"Nothing but good can come from it," said school board member Stephen T. Rodriguez last fall. "I totally support it."

District Superintendent John E. MacFadden encouraged the board to support the cable television media center proposal.

MacFadden said such a center could be a valuable public information resource for the school district in getting its annual budget information, for example, out to the Saratoga Springs community.

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