Cable Crisis?

Sinclair is a famed counterculture activist who, among other things, has been a poet, marijuana legalization activist, manager of the band MC5, underground newspaper publisher and founder of the White Panther Party, which sought to help the Black Panther Party.

Oh, and one time a guy named John Lennon recorded a song called, “John Sinclair.”

Andrews got into cable access production as “a therapy thing.” He ended up producing around 50 shows for local cable access, from coverage of a neo-Nazi rally in downtown Lansing, to a show about the Dark Knight called “Batman the Graphic Novel in Film and TV.”

“The opportunity that public access TV presents is creative, technical and is a learning and social experience that is important,” Andrews says. “People can gain skill and make decisions as to what they want to do, especially young people. For older people, it gives them the opportunity to say things before they’re gone.”

But, Andrews’ life as a local cable access producer has been all but put on hold over the last few years. In 2007, Comcast removed a cable access studio it ran on Miller Road. Right now, if you managed to produce a show to air on Lansing’s public access channel 16, you would have to send it to Comcast’s office in Southfield and pray for the cable company to put it on TV. Since the closure, city officials have promised that the facility would be replaced and that cable access would return.

During a few checks in recent weeks, channel 16 has been nothing but a scroll of listings for events at Michigan State University.

Though public access in Lansing has been stymied since the closure of Comcast’s facilities, the administration of Virg Bernero with the introduction of this year’s budget is rolling out a new program that it touts will get channel 16 up and running. The new initiative will use money paid to the city by cable providers — and the city has saved up a lot of that money.

Even if you don’t care for local cable access, if you subscribe to cable, you’re paying for it. Every cable subscriber in Lansing who gets Comcast, AT&T’s U-Verse, or the few who get cable through Arialink, is paying cable bills that include a charge for local cable access. (Arialink is not a cable provider, though it does have a program in place at the Arbaugh Building and the MotorWheel lofts providing cable through the Dish Network.) Each of these companies gives the city of Lansing 5 percent of gross revenues in what are called franchise fees for use of the public right of way. They also pay 2 percent in restricted PEG fees — an acronym that stands for public, education and government, the three genres of cable access. Franchise fees can be used for virtually any city operation from paying police, to buying copy paper. But PEG fees are restricted to costs related to cable access infrastructure.

Randy Hannan, Bernero’s spokesman, said that the city has close to $2 million PEG fees for cable access, which has accumulated over the years. Aside from that, the city expects to rake in $1.4 million in franchise fees in this fiscal year.

The reason the city has saved up the PEG fees, Hannan said, is the money is restricted to capital expenditures only — you can’t pay a salary using PEG fees. Over the last several years, only around $100,000 in PEG fees have been used to upgrade the city’s government access studios at City Hall.

Since franchise fees are deposited into the city’s general fund, it is hard to track where the money is spent. If City TV were funded entirely out of franchise fees (it has a budget of just over $200,000) there would still be $1.2 million left, according to this year’s budget.

Other regions in Michigan use a combination of PEG and franchise fees to fund cable access facilities where residents can go, check out a camera, produce a show and watch it air on local cable television. The reason Lansing does not do this, Hannan said, is the franchise fees have historically gone into the general fund and never been marked specifically to support public access television.

If you live in Lansing, you’re probably familiar with channel 12, City TV, which is the “g” in PEG. City TV brings you live City Council meetings every Monday, and other programs produced by the city. Farther up the dial, the Lansing School District, Lansing Community College and Michigan State University rule channels 15, 18, 20 and 21 — those are the E. The P in PEG is channel 16. AT&T customers, however, do not get any of these channels: the U-Verse cable system provides PEG through an Internet protocol address located on one channel. A user has to scroll through a menu of PEG channels, which looks like YouTube. Lansing, as well as many other municipalities, are asking the FCC to force AT&T to provide PEG like Comcast does — though the city still collects PEG and franchise fees from the company.

Aside from Lansing’s public access channel being moribund, there is no regional network connecting PEG channels in the Lansing region. Lansing Comcast subscribers can’t see East Lansing PEG, and Comcast subscribers in Holt can’t see Lansing PEG, and around and around the region.

In other communities, the channel lineup is different, but PEG is still there. Meridian Township has its HOM (Haslett, Okemos, Meridian) TV, a nationally recognized government channel. East Lansing — appropriately — has seven educational access channels (two of which are a combination of government and education) and one channel for G, and one for P.

Coaxial cable

Two Tuesdays ago in a small meeting room on the top floor of the Foster Community Center on Lansing’s east side, Hannan unveiled a plan for public access to the Cable Advisory Board.

Present were Matt Penniman, the board’s acting chairman, members Jim Fordyce and Dave Keeney and City TV director Dominic Cochran. To call it a meeting is technically incorrect because there was no quorum, a problem that has plagued the board for months. Penniman said that the board has not met in full since at least October.

But, in the local world of local cable access, Hannan’s announcement was a bombshell; it was the first real plan put forth by the city to get local public access up and running again since Comcast removed its studio.

First, Hannan said, the city would roll City TV into what’s being called the Office of Community Media — a pseudo-department under the guise of the mayor’s office that would put public and government access under one roof.

“For the sake of efficiency and synergy,” Hannan said.

Second, Hannan told the board members that the city would make available from PEG funds $250,000 in grants each year to fund local producers in creating local programming. He told the board that they would be in charge of creating the criteria for the grant program. They would be in charge of recommending grant recipients, which would be passed on to the mayor’s office for review, and finally would go to the City Council for final approval. The trick with the grants, as with PEG funding, is that the money cannot be spent on personnel.

Third, Hannan said, the city is exploring the possibility of creating a physical location for the Office of Community Media at I-tec (Information Technology Empowerment Center), a nonprofit based at the old Holmes Street School that teaches technology to K-12 students. The idea, Hannan said, would be to create a facility for production of cable access. Hannan said some legal issues still needed to be worked out with I-tec before anything could happen.

But Hannan said that the $2 million in PEG fees sitting in city coffers would be more than enough to get a studio up and running.

Kirk Riley, I-tec’s director, said that the legal issues would revolve around a lease for space at I-tec, whether it would be a lease between the city and Spartan Internet, which owns the building, or if it will be managed by I-tec through a lease with Spartan Internet.

Hannan described a phased approach to community media. Phase 1 would be to create a grant program to determine how much local interest there is in production. He said there could be arts programs coming out of Old Town and community programming out of the South Side Community Center.

“Our vision of community media — in phase 1 — is very decentralized,” Hannan said. “We want it to exist in many different places.”

Behind the decentralization idea, Hannan said that it’s a “possibility” that the city could fund video production repositories around the city.

Phase II, Hannan said, would be to start engaging surrounding governments in a regional partnership in community media so that everyone is connected in PEG. But Hannan said a caveat would be that every one would have toparticipate, and that the administration is “not willing to put all ofLansing’s resources on the table” unless other governments do, too.

“Phase II is to engage in the broader community media conversation,” Hannan said. “But it’s a two-way street.”

Butthe proposal comes with caveats and questions. First, since the plan ispart of the mayor’s budget, it is subject to City Council approval(though the mayor is set to issue an executive order regarding thefolding of City TV into the Office of Community Media and putting itunder the control of the mayor’s office. Right now, City TV is underthe control of the City Council). There are also a number of questionsabout the proposal: How soon could the public submit programming to theOffice of Community Media instead of shipping it to Southfield? Willthere be new staff added for the additional duties of managing publicaccess television? What are the steps to get a production studiorunning at I-tec? If a citizen gets a grant to buy equipment, will thecity own it?

Pennimansaid that the slow movement of getting cable access up and running inLansing has frustrated him. He’s encouraged by the newest proposal.Still, the larger issue of regionalizing cable access remains in thebalance.

“Themayor’s program has a potential to do a lot of good,” Penniman said. “Iwould like Lansing to move more quickly than they’re planning on with aregional effort. I understand that these things do take time.”

Community, Thursdays at 8 p.m.

Inthe bottom floor of an art deco office building in downtown BattleCreek, Dale Geminder is the happy boss of five full-time staff membersplus a part-timer, a brandnew, fully functioning public access studio,and two public access channels: a P and a G. Geminder is executivedirector of Access Vision, which serves five communities in the BattleCreek area — Emmet Township, Penfield Township, Newton Township and thecities of Springfield and Battle Creek. Just in January, it moved outof its old facilities across the street and into a new space.

Thepublic channel hosts programs that range from an edgy hip-hop showcalled “The Cypher” to “The Pet Show,” which features animals availablefor adoption from the local shelter. The studio is a veritable libraryof video production equipment; there’s a repository of mini digitalvideo cameras, portable editing stations, tripods, microphones andtapes; a series of editing rooms with Final Cut Pro and iMovie; a hugebroadcast studio that looks as good as anything you would see on yourlocal news; and there’s even a conference room, kitchen and lobby areafor guests on shows that use the studio.

Franchisefees fund 80 percent of the operation. Geminder said his budget for theupcoming year is $428,000 (for local context, that’s about $200,000less than it costs Lansing to operate its City Council). Each of thefive municipalities involved in Access Vision give 3 percent of the 5percent in franchise fees they collect. For extra funds, Access Visiondoes video production for local nonprofits, gets sponsorships for thehigh school sporting events it covers and charges fees for dubbing andclasses on video production.

AccessVision got its start in 1987 when a board was created to determine thebest way to create a regional community access center. The boardtraveled around to different access centers across the state searchingfor a model that would fit the Battle Creek region.

“Wekept coming back to the best way to do it is to create a nonprofit, andhave all the franchise fees go to it rather than it be portioned outfor government, education and public access,” Geminder said. “In myopinion, that’s why we’ve been so successful.”

In1988, an executive director was hired, in 1989 the teaching of videoproduction classes began, and in September of that year, Access Visionwent on the air.

Ona recent Friday morning, the Access Vision studios were quiet, but thebuzz of cable access activity was still there. Craig Buchanan and RyanPayne were in a production room hunched over a computer editing asermon from their church, New Harvest Christian. Inside the equipmentroom, a young man came in and checked out a portable editing station —Geminder noted that only advanced users of Access Vision are allowed totake out the higher-tech equipment — and production manager Greg Masonhad arrived at work dressed down in preparation for a high school sporting event he was scheduled to shoot later in the day.

Geminder,seated in his office just on the other side of a wall covered inawards, seemed to relish all things public access. Access Visionreaches an audience of about 22,000, and he puts its value at around$3.5 million

“You can’t put a value on informative programming that isfor the community, and produced by the community,” he said.

Justdown the road from Access Vision is the Public Media Network. LikeAccess Vision, Public Media Network is a community media center fundedby franchise fees from Oshtemo, Kalamazoo and Comstock townships andthe cities of Kalamazoo and Parchment. A deal to include the city ofPortage is in its final stages.

HapHaasch is the center’s director. He’s a veteran of Michigan cableaccess, starting off his career in the 1980s at Lansing’s City TV. Hewent on to lead Ann Arbor’s Community Television Network, which isoperated by the city government, unlike Access Vision and the PublicMedia Network.

Thenetwork operates one government channel, one education channel, twopublic access channels, and a third channel that’s a hybrid ofgovernment and public access. PublicMedia Network also operates a local radio station, all out of a5,600-square-foot facility in a building in downtown Kalamazoo thatalso houses local arts groups. The municipalities served by the networkeach give 40 percent of their franchise fees for its operation. With astaff of six full-timers and two part-timers, the network operates on abudget of $630,000. About $460,000 of that is from franchise fees, the rest from grants and other charges.

Overhis years in community access, Haasch has realized that the leastdesirable model for a public access center is one run by a cableprovider. It’s a view backed up by the Alliance for Community Media, anational cable access advocacy group.

“There’salmost a disincentive for a cable operator to make it successful,”Haasch said — something that Lansing has learned the hard way.

The most desirable model, Haasch said, is a center managed by an entire community.

“Whetherit’s a municipal consortium, a community college, or schools, therehave got to be community institutions that can be leveraged,” he said.

Asfor Lansing’s plan to revamp community access, Haasch said that thereare successful grant-based community access programs, but they have tobe managed properly.

“Conceptually, it can work,” he said. “But there have to be administrative controls.”

Haasch said it is also very important to havea physical location for community access — a studio. Though it is notcheap, a consortium of governments working together can nurture apublic access facility. Public Media Network began in 1983 operating ina fieldhouse owned by the city of Kalamazoo with a $1 per year lease.

“That’show this facility was able to survive for the first 20 years,” Haaschsaid. “You’ve got to have some kind of infrastructure resourcesavailable.

“Itmakes sense, in my mind, if (the Lansing region) can get amulti-jurisdictional agreement, you could replicate what Battle Creekand Kalamazoo have from an intergovernmental perspective. The caveat tothat is that trying to get local governments to cooperate is difficult.It has taken over 20 years to get Portage to join (the Public MediaNetwork). It isn’t an easy road, but it can be done.”

Off the air

Asfar as local cable access gurus, Ben Stark is probably the closest theLansing area has to a Haasch or Geminder (except Deborah Guthrie, whomanages HOM- TV). He used to run the Lansing School District’s localaccess programming, and was a contractor with the city of Lansing in2007 and 2008 studying our local cable access needs. He was involved indiscussions about creating a local regional nonprofit community cableaccess center. And last year, the Cable Advisory Board unanimouslyrecommended Stark be hired as director of the Office of Community Media.

Starkapplied for the job in November 2008, and had an interview with Hannanand representatives from the city’s Human Resources Department. ButNeal McNamara/City Pulse after a Cable Advisory Board meeting inJanuary 2009 — where it recommended him for the position — Stark neverheard another word. He still has messages on his phone from a cityHuman Resources representative after he had called to follow up on thejob. (In a message, the rep tells Stark that she has no informationabout the job and to contact Hannan. A City Pulse story from 2008 aboutthe city intending to create the position points out that there wasmoney was allotted in the 2008-’09 budget for the position.)

ButStark never heard anything from the city. Frustrated, he withdrew hisapplication for the position several months ago. Hannan said that thecity had intended to charge “end users” of PEG channels — LCC, MSU, theschool district — an administrative fee that could be put toward asalary, but tight budgets put a stop to it.

Uponhearing about the city’s plans announced last Tuesday, Stark questionedwhether the two people who staff City TV would be able to take on theduties of overseeing public access, too.

“It doesn’t stand the test of the displacement theory,” he said.

But he said he’s not sour over a lost job opportunity. Hisenthusiasm that Lansing get a community media center is unbridled.While he was working for the city on contract, he led Lansingofficials, local producers, Cable Advisory Board members, and officialsfrom other municipalities on tours of successful media centers in Troy,Farmington, Mount Pleasant, Midland and Haasch’s center in Kalamazoo.He submitted reports to city administrators as a contractor, but sawlittle movement.

Hoping to see a community media center established in the Lansing region, Stark is disappointed by the city’s newest proposal.

“Idon’t see how the grant process cultivates good producers,” Stark said.“It’s a passive approach masquerading as an active approach.”

Starkis not the only one who is frustrated with the city’s efforts. KenOrlich, who chaired the Cable Advisory Board, quit a few months agobecause he did not feel like he was contributing. The board had troublefinding a quorum, and after months of waiting on Stark to be hired, theboard was apprised that there was no money for it. And above thoseissues, Lansing still does not have a local cable access facility.

“The time to open a new facility is when the one in Lansing closed,” Orlich said.

Talk of a community media center in the region, however, predates the Bernero administration.

MarcusCheatham, a spokesman for the Ingham County Health Department, saidthat talk of a community media center got underway around 2004 after acommunity health survey revealed the need. A business plan that calledfor pooling PEG and franchise fees was put together and shopped toLansing, East Lansing and Meridian Township.

“Thevision was for it to be right downtown (Lansing),” he said. "It wouldbe walkable to people, and we would do programs with schools — it wouldbe a vibrant and creative place.”

Theidea eventually bore the Capital Area Community Media Center, whichlaunched in 2005 with the goal of facilitating local cable access andtraining local residents in all forms of media. It has a nonprofitstatus and a Web site, but its goal of creating a community cableaccess facility has gone nowhere. Penniman still helps run the mediacenter. Before hearing Hannan’s plan two weeks ago, he said that one ofthe biggest questions hanging out there is whether Lansing will supporta regional project, or just go solo.

“Idon’t know if Lansing is still interested, or if it’s decided to do itsown project. I would support a regional initiative,” he said.

Atleast one local community is trying the regional approach, whetheranyone else is interested. Susan McGillicuddy, the supervisor ofMeridian Township, said that HOM- TV is set to launch a regionalgovernment access channel this summer. Two years ago, the townshipapplied for a $25,000 grant to create the channel. According todocuments produced by Stark, in 2007 the cities of Lansing and EastLansing sent letters sup porting a regional effort.

But, McGillicuddy has not heard from either Lansing or East Lansing. She said, though, that they had met in the past.

“It bothers me a lot that it seems like everything has just stopped,” she said. “I’d like to see this move forward.”

McGillicuddysaid that if the regional channel launches, and no other municipalitiessend materials to HOM-TV, their stuff simply won’t air. Hannan saidthat the city has “had some conversation” about participation in theregional channel and would “look forward to more conversations.”

“It just seems like in greater Lansing, we have more problems doing anything regional. And it’s ridiculous,” she said.

Digital transition

ThoughCity TV manager Dominic Cochran is unsure about the future since theOffice of Community Media plan has to be approved by Council, he saidhe would welcome the task of being in charge of the office.

“I already work 60 hours per week, I’m happy to work 70,” he said.

Hesees the office as having a kind of “teach a man to fish, he’ll eatforever” function. At this point, Comcast still has control overchannel 16. Though, he said, giving control to the city could be aseasy as flipping a switch and purchasing some new equipment. At a CityCouncil meeting in December, Hannan reported that local control ofchannel 16 could be given back to the city as early as July.

“That’s the first order of business: getting back that local control of playback,” he said.

Thesituation with I-tec, as it has been explained to him, would have aproduction facility in the gymnasium of the building. Video productionclasses could be taught there, but Cochran would like to have users outin the field, shooting.

Penniman says that the administration’s newestplan feels like a government-run model of community media, like AnnArbor’s public access. His preferred model would be a community runnonprofit.

“I’ve made that case many times, and it’s really gone nowhere,” he said.

Hashe ever been given a reason?

“Not really,” he said.

“There aredifferences of opinion on how to do it; there are different models,”Hannan said when asked why a community nonprofit model was not used.“We think that, to get this capacity up and running, it is best to doit first as a city and then to extend it to take a more regionalapproach.”

But, it’s better to get the public back on the air sooner than later.

SaidPenniman: “I do think it makes sense to do something to get publicaccess back on the air for Lansing, without waiting for regionaldiscussions to be completed. I hope those discussions will start in amore dedicated fashion soon.”