6/22/04 "Public-access TV in rough shape", Post-Star.

Public-access TV in rough shape:
Spa City urged to take tough stance in cable talks

By ERIN DOWER
edower@poststar.com

Published on 6/22/2004
Local News
THE POST-STAR

SARATOGA SPRINGS -- Public-access television in the city is worse now than it was 30 years ago, when cable companies were first emerging, the city's community media consultant says.

Steve Pierce, a part-time professor at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, led a program Monday night called "Public Information on Public Access: We Can Make Our Own Community Television."

Former Mayor Kenneth Klotz hired Pierce in 2002 to serve as a community media field organizer, charged with educating the city about renegotiating its cable franchise and obtaining funds to use for public access channels and possibly a community media center.

The city has not signed a new contract with Time Warner Cable since the previous contract expired about four years ago, Pierce said. The city currently receives about $300,000 a year from the cable company but could ask for other benefits like a media center, he said.

But cable companies have high-paid experts and lawyers who often overpower the dialogue with part-time officials who know little about cable negotiations, Pierce said.

"You have kind of an unbalanced negotiating situation," he said. "Typically, to get a good deal, the community needs to do some homework."

About a dozen people attended Monday night's meeting to learn exactly what their homework is.

Lori Dawson said she is "antsy" about getting better public access because every other city she has lived in has had a great community media outlet.

Mayor Michael Lenz, who defeated Klotz in November, said he is anxious to enter a new Time Warner Cable contract so the city can get funds to provide better public access.

City Council meetings currently are audiotaped and transmitted to Time Warner for broadcast on public access Channel 17.

"I think our council meetings should be on TV live," Lenz said.

"There's no reason they should be taped and sent in."

But Lenz said he does not favor building a media center.

"I'm not necessarily inclined to create a brand new facility when we already have resources in the city," Lenz said.

The Masie Center for technological research, the public library, Saratoga Springs High School and Skidmore College all have video equipment the city could use for noncommercial programming, he said.

"It's really a question of getting those facilities coordinated," Lenz said.

Pierce said building a community media center is often the best way for public access programs to succeed.

He said he will deliver a report to the City Council before August outlining the city's cable history and explaining options like hiring a negotiator or conducting a needs assessment to demonstrate that current public access offerings from the cable provider are
inadequate.

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