USA Today is paying attention to WYOU, our own community television station, but is Madison? It’s ours to lose, or save. And our government access channel is also losing funding and will see changes.
EMAIL TO HELP SAVE WYOU COMMUNITY TELEVISION
In yesterday’s Usa Today, WYOU Community Television is the lead-in to an article titled, “‘Life feels about over’ for local access TV.” We’ve gotten the attention of the nation and the time is right now to ask our great city to help us keep the local voice and individual representation alive. Please take one minute to send an email to the City Alders – the email address to reach them all at once is allalders@cityofmadison.com. Ask them to sponsor an amendment to the 2011 operating budget that allocates $25,000 for WYOU. It’s less than half the amount they took away from us this year. It will help us keep the station open as we continue to generate more revenue from our media services and find other funding sources. WYOU is Madison’s community television station. It’s here for you. Please help.
AND CITY CHANNEL GOVERNMENT TELEVISION
Oh, any guess what, the Mayor’s budget cuts the budget for city channel from $602,301 of which the city taxpayer paid $223,798 to well . . . $463,833 and we’re paying all of it. That’s right, we’re paying more and getting less. And these are the only layoffs in the city.
BACKGROUND
AT&T, Charter and others were successful their lobbying to dismantle the PEG funding for Public, Education and Government TV. It used to be that the city received fees that you paid in each of your cable bills to support WYOU and City Channel, that ends in 2011, next year. WYOU received about $140,000 per year, until last year, when they only got $70,000. The other $70,000 in fees still went to the city, they just chose to save the money instead of giving it to WYOU.
WYOU (channel 95 or 991) struggled and worked hard to save money and raise funds and change its business model a bit to stay in business and at the end of the year, we are still here! I say we, because I’m on the Board of Directors and a volunteer producer there because I think it is so important to the community, especially with the decimation of the local media. Anyways, we’re close, we’re really close to surviving, but need some more time and that time has run out.
What I’ve also learned about WYOU is that its incredible the type of programming they do and the different people they bring in from the community. I’m particularly surprised by the number of kids that I see there, boy scouts, summer camp from low-income neighborhoods and other projects. I’m happy to see so many non-profits using the low cost services for their needs. I’m pleased that you can watch the RTA meetings there. I laugh at some of the more artsy things and I appreciate the effort. I’m even respectful of the faith community programming that goes on there. I enjoy leaning about local businesses and community events. I like the beer and food shows. There is so much going on there, and so much worth saving. See more about the programming here.
WHAT YOU CAN DO
I think, and I hope you agree, that both community television and government television are vital to our community. I don’t want to see less programming on either station, I want more! I don’t want the city to shift costs to the county so we can still watch the county board meetings, cuz its still coming out of our pockets. I think both stations should get more funding. The only lay offs in the city are for city channel. I think those staff being laid off are vital for city channel. I think they might need to reorganize to some extent, but they need those positions and those resources. And I think a small portion of money, the $25K would go a long, long way for WYOU, and could even be the key to saving the station.
Please, email your alders, let them know the mayor made a mistake and should fund City Channel at a level to keep current services and that giving WYOU just $25K of the $70K they saved last year could help save our community television station. We did our part and cut expenses and raised more money and are still here, but we need your help to stay in business. And we need our government access channel, we need more meetings covered, not less. Alders have until Tuesday at noon to submit amendments, ask your alder to consider these amendments. So far, not one alder has said yes.
And, if you are so inclined, you could donate to WYOU now!
The unfortunate part about this situation is how the city backed itself into a corner. The original intent of the FCC was that a 5% (originally about 3%) franchise fee would pay government for administrative cost related to cable, and also provide Public Access, Education, and Government (PEG) channels. Madison, like many other communities, put all of the franchise into the general fund. Yet somewhere along the way cities negotiated with CATV providers to add another 1% or 2% to cover PEG channels – thus the PEG fee. The cost was simply added on the cable bills, so CATV subscribers actually pay for these fees.
Now the city finds itself between a rock and a hard place. Franchise fees have been used to provide tax relief (in the general fund) instead of directly paying for administrative costs related to CATV and supporting PEG. Taking money out of the general fund will now look like a tax increase. The 5% franchise fee is still in effect, so it’s still coming in. It’s the additional 1 or 2% that went away. So the only blame I can find out of all this is the cities and municipalities that diverted all those franchise fees into the general fund.
It’s also a bit ironic that Madison thinks the city channel is so important that it survive. Quality community based local programing is actually a very hot topic around the country with local cable providers trying to differentiate and be competitive – council meetings are low on the popularity list of those producing local content.