Cable Channel Gains Local Support

RCN’s financial woes leave future of CAN TV cable station in question

From the Chicago Columbia Chronicle

Published February 16, 2004

By Mark Anderson, Associate Editor

Hundreds of community leaders, neighborhood activists, television producers and cable TV viewers turned out in force to support access to community television at a Feb. 10 meeting of the Chicago Cable Commission.

At issue was the continued operation of CAN TV, Chicago's only public-access television broadcaster, which is facing a significant cut in its operating budget due to a missed payment by RCN Cable of Chicago, one of the city's cable operators.

The commission met to discuss the payment and other violations by RCN, which is looking to reduce service within the city's boundaries.

CAN TV, which operates five channels of public affairs, entertainment and religious programming, reaching upward of a million viewers, is funded by city-mandated payments from each of Chicago's three current cable operators.

Many of those in attendance at the monthly scheduled meeting, held at the Harold Washington Library, 400 S. State St., said they came to make sure the commission understood the importance of community access television station. At one point, the line of people waiting to get to the microphone during the public comment portion of the meeting was nearly 30 long.

“This is one of the only outlets people have in Chicago to experience independent media,” said Frank Avila, 2004 Illinois Senate candidate and host of “Election 2004,” an occasional series on CAN TV. “Access to community television is critical to the people of Chicago.”

The $215,000 payment due to CAN TV comes in the wake of a disagreement with the city in which the cable operator has been found in violation of its agreement to expand its operations in two of the four areas it serves.

RCN also defaulted on a similar $645,000 payment to the public access broadcaster in January 2002, before resolving the issue eight months later. RCN, which cites bad economic conditions for its recent default, could not be reached for comment by press time.

To some at the meeting, RCN's financial woes were of little concern. As a public-access broadcaster, CAN TV offers a broad array of public interest programming at little or no cost to independent producers, many of whom feel they have few other outlets through which to spread their message.

Tracy Smith, executive director of the League of Women Voters of Chicago, said CAN TV is one of the primary ways the league communicates with voters in the city.

“We use CAN TV in a variety of ways,” she said, citing message boards, broadcasts of panel discussions and coverage of local events as some of the ways CAN TV covers local political issues. “They offer a lot of different ways to get information out.”

Mary Charles, grant director at the Loyola School of Education, supports such a view.

“CAN TV is one of the most underutilized lanes of the information superhighway,” she said in urging the commission to secure the economic viability of public access television. “I'm glad the city is taking this issue seriously.”

During the meeting, the cable commission passed a resolution, giving RCN until Feb. 20 to resolve its issues with the city or face fines.

A resolution was also introduced at the city council meeting by Alderman Ray Suarez (31st Ward), directing Caroline Schoenberger, commissioner of Consumer Services, to “take all necessary steps, including fines and penalties, to enforce compliance with RCN's obligations.” Schoenberger is one of four commissioners who attended last week's meeting.

“We support CAN TV in its effort to get the money owed to it,” said Connie Buscemi, department of consumer services spokeswoman. “CAN TV serves an important function, and these resolutions [passed by the cable commission] show our support.”

During the meeting, Schoenberger told the audience that, as part of the original franchise agreement the city struck with RCN, the cable operator was required to post a $3 million performance bond that the city could draw upon should the company continue to miss payments or default on its obligations. Those obligations include missed payments unrelated to CAN TV, and the failure to lay a predetermined amount of physical cable in the areas RCN serves.

Barbara Popovic, CAN TV's executive director, sees an issue bigger than missed payments or contractual obligations at stake.

“You have three cable operators in Chicago, one who is not meeting its obligations, and the other two who are watching events very closely,” she said. “I think we have a dangerous potential of a precedent being set that could cause great harm to the public.”

“We're asking the commission to stand up for the voice of freedom in Chicago,” said Jeff King, president of the Chicago chapter of A Brotherhood Aimed Toward Education of Illinois, a motorcyclist advocacy group.

Bill Wildt, producer of “Motorsports Unlimited,” which has run on CAN TV for 14 years, put a finer point on the matter.

“If cable operators had their way, there would be no public access television,” he said.

Gloria Nichols, founder of ADAPT Productions, which creates programming for Chicagoans with disabilities, said her group would be hit particularly hard by the loss of access to cable television in Chicago. “CAN TV is too good of a resource for many people, including those with disabilities, to lose,” she said.

Savannah Hawkins, a Chicago Public Schools substitute teacher and CAN TV viewer, agreed.

“CAN TV has uncensored information, not only about our community, but the wider world,” she said. “The loss of CAN TV in any form would not only mean that I would be less informed, but that events of vital importance that allow Chicago to be a viable community would be censored.”

“It's not often that we have a chance to do something for our children and our children's children,” Wildt said. “I'm hoping history will record that this commission was up to the challenge.”

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