Chicago Access Network Television (CAN TV)

Who's Making It Here
And What They're Making
by Elizabeth Tammy
Chicago Reader Sept. 22, 2006

Really local TV You can’t talk about TV without a nod to the incubator of local programming. Like most cities, our cable access—in this case stations 19, 21, 27, 36, and 42, under the umbrella of CAN TV—is a mix of weird, boring, cool, foreign, religious (and how), and civicminded. Some more describable highlights among the five stations include 3 Guys Pickin’; soul food Cookin Wit’ Tittle, hosted by local DJ La Donna Tittle; Taped With Rabbi Doug; and longtime cable access mainstays JBTV, a music video show cohosted with visiting bands, and Chic-a-Go-Go, the ultimate all-ages dance party. Cable access and UHF stations feature a wide variety of ethnic programming: on CAN there’s the nightly news from Italy, as well as programs for the Haitian, Irish, and Serbian communities.

Schtick Figure

Just like a “real” late-night talk show, Steve Levy’s - cable access talk show has a good-looking, well-dressed host. It opens with a monologue filled with corny Michael Jackson and Martha Stewart jokes and has a studio audience.

Unlike a “real” late-night talk show, The Steve Levy Show is hosted by a full-time software director with no previous experience in stand-up, stage, or televi-sion--a guy who spends five full minutes per episode wiping the sweat off his brow After the taping, the 50 or so spectators are invited out to get a beer with the host and crew. read more

Six days a week, through rain and sleet and dark of night, U.S. Postal worker Lyle Thadison walks the streets of Chicago delivering mail. But while his body moves from door to door, his mind is preparing for a Sabbath filled with space travel, monsters, and urban adventures.

“I'm only able to dedicate one day out of the week to my TV show,” explains Thadison, “but the entire week I'm formulating and elaborating on ideas while I'm on my route.”

Thadison, 46, a native Chicagoan who grew up in the Henry Horner housing com-plex on the Near West Side, has dreamed of being a filmmaker since childhood. Thanks to CAN-TV, Chicago's public access television network, his dream is no longer deferred. read more

Fresh off a deal with Comcast to secure the bulk of its outside funding, CAN TV finally settled its dispute with RCN, which will secure its financing for at least the next three years.

"We're breathing easier," CAN TV executive director Barbara Popovic said this week.

When RCN emerged in 2001, the cable conglomerate promised to compete with Comcast in all five of the city's cable franchising areas. And CAN TV, anticipating the new revenue stream, expanded its offerings to include more event coverage-from the City Club of Chicago to the League of Women Voters-while adding more neighborhood programming as well. Those offerings included the Street Level Media project in Pilsen, which hired local teens to document their community.

But as RCN foundered, limiting its activity to the slice of lake-front neighborhoods in Cable Area 1 along with a thousand or so subscribers in Presidential Towers, the cable conglomerate failed to pay up on agreed-upon fees to CAN TV In the agreement reached last week, RCN, while dropping out of Cable Areas 3 and 4, has pre-paid its $215,000 yearly obligation obligation in cable area 2 through 2015. The deal, along with a recent agreement with Comcast, will stabilize CAN TV's budget at around $2.7 million.

And with the station's financial picture coming into focus, Popovic is ready to turn her attention to finding a permanent new home for CAN TV's studios. The outfit currently rents space in the West Loop at 322 S. Green, but is hoping to buy an outlying location with more parking, Popovic said.

"We need to find an affordable and appropriate location for CAN TV," Popovic said.

Chicago Journal
Published December 30, 2004
By Haydn Bush and Laura Putre

By the end of an eventful 2004, CAN TV's funding problems were finally resovled, at least in the short-term. This positive outcome grew out of the "it takes a village" approach to problem solving. Comcast came forward with a solution by providing funding in the short-term. A settlement was reached with RCN. And the City Council directed CAN TV and the cable companies to work with the city to secure CAN TV's future funding. more . . .

CAN TV is the fleet of public access cable television channels servicing the Chicago community. As Third Coast Press reported throughout the past year, CAN TV spent 2004 in a series of funding struggles. In 2003, due to a temporary freeze on RCN's operation in two cable areas, CAN TV's cable funding dropped by $630,000. In 2004, RCN defaulted on additional area, putting at risk another $315,000. RCN officially petitioned the city to get out of its payment obligations to CAN TV in three out of four cable areas. more . . .

City, aldermen agree to compromise ordinance that will cover most of CAN TV’s budget shortfall.

For much of the last year, the operators of CAN TV have fretted while beleaguered cable provider RCN, in the midst of bankruptcy proceedings, has ducked out of agreed-upon payments to the cable access station, cutting into its roughly $2.4 million annual budget. Barbara Popovic, CAN TV's executive director, has mulled massive staff cuts with her board of directors while considering losing up to 40 percent of her annual funding. more . . .

Chicago Access Network TV was formed in the early 1980s as part of the city's deal with cable TV franchises, which funded the public access endeavor. In the 1990s, the market opened and the providers agreed to a funding system based on competition, in which each cable company would pay a specific dollar amount in each of the city's five cable TV regions. But Comcast dominates most of the market, and RCN, its primary competitor, filed for bankruptcy in August. RCN has repeatedly defaulted on its payments and currently owes CAN $1.25 million. Last year its $3 million budget came up $240,000 short, and this year executive director Barbara Popovic predicts a $350,000 shortfall. Nearly 40 percent of its funding comes from RCN. more . . .

A new proposal to fund Chicago Access Network Television taps the cable franchise fees collected by the city. The plan unveiled Wednesday by Mayor Richard Daley and Ald. Bernard Stone (50th) also reduces a tax deduction cable firms now get.

"We've come up with something that doesn't touch corporate funds and will solve the situation. We've found the absolute perfect solution," Stone said, drawing applause from CAN TV supporters in the city council chambers Chicago's- public access cable television provider is pushing for a change in the funding rules that keep its free studios and airtime open to the public. more . . .

Daily Southtown
Published September 30, 2004
By James G. Muhammad, Correspondent

On Another Note
Today is a day of reckoning in the City Council for the fate of CAN TV. Its five non-commercial channels are the only place where the city's non-profits and community groups can count on having their diverse voices heard on everything from AIDS prevention to the plight of the impoverished. Now in a terrible funding crunch, this no-frills TV outlet is in danger of losing out unless Mayor Daley and the City Council financially support it. Here's hoping they do.

Chicago Sun-Times
Published September 29, 2004
By Carol Marin, Sun-Times Columnist

Plan would give CAN TV new funding formula
Mayor Richard Daley and Ald. Bernard Stone (50th) are expected to propose a new funding formula for Chicago Access Network Television at a City Council meeting Wednesday.

But officials of CAN TV, which operates five non-profit public-affairs cable-TV stations, say they are concerned that the proposed funding mechanism would not guarantee the long-term financial health of the Greektown-based network. more . . .

Chicago Tribune
Published September 29, 2004
By Leon Lazaroff, Tribune national correspondent

Paying for Access
On September 29 the City Council's scheduled to vote on diverting $2 million in cable franchise fees to Chicago Access Network Television to keep public-access TV alive and healthy in Chicago. CAN TV has its aldermanic champions. But there isn't much loose change at City Hall this year, and Mayor Daley has made it clear he doesn't like the idea. more . . .

Thousands of Chicago nonprofit organizations have used the city's public access cable television provider to get the word out about the services and job opportunities they offer the public. Some produce local news, interview shows and even occasional entertainment programming.

For a nominal cost, organizations can get access to production facilities and equipment, air time and training to teach them how to use the gear. Chicago Access Network Television operates five noncommercial cable channels in the city. The channels offer a range of programming, from a basic text message service that runs announcements and want ads, to religious programming, to informational talk shows and even an occasional dance show for teens. more . . .

Chicago's public access cable television provider is pushing for a change in the funding rules that keep its free studios and airtime open to the public.

Supporters are hoping to force a vote in the city council Wednesday on a new structure that would have the city directly pay for the studios for the first time. Aldermen face a $220 million budget shortfall this year. Chicago Access Network Television, or CAN TV, has five channels of bulletin boards, public announcements and locally produced shows. It is funded almost entirely by the three cable companies that operate in Chicago, under rules contained in their city licenses.

But executive director Barbara Popovic said the funding formula set up in the late 1990s is broken. It asks for fixed annual funding from each of the three companies. One of them, RCN, has stopped operating and stopped paying. more . . .

The news that the local RCN cable subsidiary has joined its New Jersey parent company in a bankruptcy reorganization is yet another reason that the City Council should throw out the current funding formula for CAN TV and fund the cable access station itself. Under the current setup, CAN TV depends on fees from cable franchising arrangements to survive, and needs payments from at least two companies in each cable area to make a reasonable go of it. more . . .

For CAN TV executive director Barbara Popovic, the news this week that Chicago's RCN cable provider is following its parent company into bankruptcy is just the latest in a string of moves the cable giant has orchestrated to shortchange the cable public access station headquartered in the West Loop. more . . .

RCN Cable TV of Chicago Inc. filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization, a little more than two months after its New Jersey-based parent, RCN Corp., filed for bankruptcy, because the telephone and cable company couldn't come to an agreement with the city of Chicago over broken promises to expand cable television service.

RCN has been in hot water with the city for defaulting on payments it owes to the city's public access television station, and for not fulfilling promises it made to expand service beyond the lakefront and Skokie when it came to town four years ago. RCN has blamed the financial decline in the telecommunications industry since 2000 for making it impossible to raise money for expansion. more . . .

Fiftieth Ward Alderman Bernard Stone's plan for alternative funding for CAN TV is a good one. Under the proposal, funding for the public access station would come directly from city coffers, amounting to one-fifth the total collected each year in cable franchise taxes.

Last week, City Council's Finance Committee approved the idea, with, somewhat surprisingly, hundreds of CAN TV supporters on hand in the Council Chambers to cheer the news. Judging from the turnout, citizens really do care about continued public access to the airwaves.
more . . .

Confessing no little apprehension over the idea of funding public access television out of city coffers, members of the City Council's Finance Committee nevertheless voted last Friday afternoon to approve an ordinance that would contribute roughly $2.5 million in tax dollars annually to CAN TV, the citywide public access station based in the West Loop. Authored by 50th Ward Alderman Bernard Stone, the measure is meant to put an end to a flawed funding scheme that's given CAN TV administrators a two-year financial headache. Hundred of clamorous well-wishers filled the floor and spilled into the balcony inside the Council Chambers to voice their support.
more . . .

A City Council committee on Friday passed a measure that would provide financial assistance to Chicago Access Network Television, but aldermen agreed to delay consideration of the lifeline by the full council to allow time to explore other possible sources of funding.

CAN TV, a not-for-profit public access network, has been under severe financial pressure because of problems with RCN Corp., which provides cable service to about 30 percent of the lakefront area.
more . . .

Chicago Tribune
Published June 19, 2004
By Gary Washburn, Tribune Staff Reporter

If you want to hear what Chicago says, tune in to Channel 19 or Channel 21 of Chicago Access Network Television (CAN TV).

And if you want to continue seeing access television, the equivalent of free-wheeling town hall meetings and communications, join us in supporting a City Council ordinance that will ensure continued broadcasting by the people's TV. That includes channels 19 and 21 and three noncommercial cable channels - 27, 36 and 42.
more . . .

Passing a gaggle of teenagers entering a television studio, Barbara Popovic smiles as if to say she never knows everything that happens at Chicago's public access broadcaster. "This really is a public place with hundreds of people using these studios," said Popovic, the director of Chicago Access Network Television, as she walked through CAN TV's comfortable work offices in a renovated Greektown building. Each week, CAN TV produces about 140 hours of original programming for Chicagoans that airs across five channels. . . . But after more than 20 years in operation, CAN TV's funding is in jeopardy, a victim of a financing formula created in the late 1990s when the economy was on full throttle and cable TV competition appeared robust. more . . .

Chicago Tribune
Published May 27, 2004
By Leon Lazaroff, Tribune National Correspondent

Supporters of Chicago's public access cable channel say the station could lose up to 40-percent of its funding, meaning fewer opportunities for city residents to produce their own TV programs. Chicago Public Radio's Tony Sarabia has more.

This story originally aired on Chicago Public Radio's June 7, 2004, news broadcasts. click here for audio

RCN Corp., the city's second-largest cable franchise, has filed for bankruptcy reorganization, but says the filing won't affect service in Chicago.

After RCN missed a payment to investors in January, the money-losing cable, telephone and Internet company said it would file for reorganization once it came to a restructuring agreement with its lenders and investors. more . . .

Several Chicago aldermen hope to save the city's cable access television station by using city funds
to support it.

An ordinance that would provide Chicago Access Network Television -- better known as CAN TV -- with $2 million is pending before the City Council's finance committee. The money would come from the fees that Chicago cable franchisees are required to pay the city. more . . .

Pubic access TV's running out of money, and Mayor Daley's against the proposal that would save it. But public access backers have turned to a surprising source for help: 50th Ward alderman Bernard Stone, who's not exactly known for his independence. Stone's faithfully followed every mayor-except for Harold Washington-since he came to the council back in 1973. So why the current rebellion? Could it be that the alderman is finally listening to his reform-minded son Jay Stone, who co-hosts a public access talk show? more . . .

Thanks to mismanagement at RCN cable company, Chicago's public access station is scrambling to pay its bills. You see, RCN has hasn't made more than $600,000 in payments to the non-profit CAN TV over the course of two years, payments that back in 2000 they promised to pony up in exchange for the privilege of doing business in four of the city's five cable franchise areas. If at least a chunk of that money doesn't turn up soon, CAN TV will have to slash its budget, lay off workers, and cut programming. more . . .

What began last Friday morning as one more installment in an ongoing harangue against RCN cable company-now two months in arrears on its $215,000 debt to the city public access television station-ended up an uneasy contemplation on the future of West Loop-based CAN TV. more . . .

As of this weekend, RCN officials have earned more than a simple tongue-lashing from City Hall. Less than six weeks after the cable company defaulted on a payment to the local public access television station-the second such lapse in as many years-city officials slapped the firm with a set of steep, and retroactive, fines. more . . .

The city of Chicago is levying $1 million a day in fines against cable and Internet company RCN Corp. from the nearly $10 million the company put up when it came to town four years ago, city officials said Monday. more . . .

From the Chicago Sun Times
Published February 24, 2004
By Tammy Chase, Business Reporter

The Chicago Cable Commission voted Saturday to impose penalties of more than $1 million a day against cable provider RCN for violating its contracts to expand service in the city and failing to fund public access station CAN-TV, a city official said. more . . .

The city levied an unprecedented $1 million-a-day fine Saturday on a cable provider that failed to build out its network or make payments to a public access station.

The Chicago Cable Commission voted to impose the fines, which took effect immediately, against New Jersey-based RCN Corp. The amount includes a $750 fine for each of the 14,000 customers the company has in Area 2, a section of the city that includes the West Side and parts of the Northwest and Southwest sides. more . . .

From the Chicago Sun Times
Published February 18, 2004
By Dave Newbart, Staff Reporter

RCN Corp., the money-losing cable, telephone and Internet company serving Chicago's lakefront, has defaulted on a payment it owes to Chicago's public-access television operation, CAN TV.

Princeton, N.J.-based RCN, which came to Chicago in 2000, was supposed to make a $215,000 annual payment as of Jan. 7 to meet its obligation to Chicago Access Network Television, said CAN TV executive director Barbara Popovic. more . . .

From the Chicago Sun Times
Published February 18, 2004
By Tammy Chase, Business Reporter

RCN Corp., the cable and phone company facing city fines for defaulting on payments and failing to expand service as promised, will probably file for bankruptcy reorganization, the company said over the weekend. more . . .

From the Chicago Tribune
Published February 18, 2004
By Robert Manor, staff reporter

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. more . . .

Chicago Columbia Chronicle
Published February 16, 2004
By Mark Anderson, Associate Editor

This time round it didn't take long for RCN executives to earn some pretty tough love from City Hall types. The tongue-lashing began just days after Jan. 7, when the cable company failed to pay the city's public access station an annual $215,000 fee-the second such lapse in two years. Fiftieth Ward Alderman Bernard Stone lobbed the first few sarcastic barbs. Then last Thursday, Consumer Services Commissioner Caroline Shoenberger convened a press conference outside Council Chambers to chide RCN for shirking its "responsibility to the people of the city of Chicago, its obligation to the little guy looking for a forum." Twenty-ninth Ward Alderman Isaac Carothers called RCN's delinquency a "tragedy." more . . .

Furious that RCN allegedly snubbed its nose at the "Soul Coast" and services the Gold Coast leaving all of the Austin community unserved, city officials late last week said they'll impose daily fines per violation until the firm does the right thing. more . . .

Chicago Defender
Published February 9, 2004
By Chinta Strausberg, Staff Reporter

RCN Corp., the financially troubled lakefront cable company, could face fines of $750 a day from the city for failing to deliver on promises to expand service westward and for missing payments to Chicago's public access network, CAN-TV. more . . .

From the Chicago Sun-Times
Published February 6, 2004
By Art Golab, staff reporter

On the cable television front, Consumer Services Commissioner Caroline Shoenberger said Thursday that RCN has failed to meet installation deadlines in Area 2, one of five cable zones in the city, covering parts of the West, Near West and Northwest Side. more . . .

From the Chicago Tribune
Published February 6, 2004
By Gary Washburn, staff reporter

For the second time in as many years, cable television provider RCN Corp. has failed to pay fees it owes to Chicago's local cable access network.

RCN was to have paid $215,000 to CAN TV on Jan. 7. In a similar situation two years ago, RCN failed to pay the network $645,000 on time, though it made good on what it owed after the city threatened to fine the company. more . . .

From the Chicago Tribune
Published January 14, 2004
By Robert Manor, staff reporter
staff reporter Gary Washburn contributed

RCN Corp., the money-losing cable, telephone and Internet company serving Chicago's lakefront, has defaulted on a payment it owes to Chicago's public-access television operation, CAN TV.

From the Chicago Sun Times
Published January 14, 2004
By Tammy Chase, Business Reporter