Public Access Television
By John Owens
Got $35, get on television. If you go to Media One, it's free, and by all means, scout out your neighborhood cable company. Cable television has what are called public access channels. A relic of openness from the 1970s, federal law once required cable companies to offer public access broadcasting on all cable systems. That's one of the regulations Reagan killed along. In the meantime, communities had grown to love the whacky, unpredictable, sometimes informative, and often oddly relaxing shows, the latter in my case (mostly when the more depressed astrologers offered their wares).
So, whenever the cable companies wanted to drop public access, all over the country the producers and viewers rose up and the regulators sold out the cable companies. Nothing irks a businessman more than when a bought politician doesn't deliver. It helped in L.A. that some of the regulators were promoting their own public access programs. Public access consistently gets 1% or more of the audience and often it's the best thing on daytime television. So, in the L.A. area and mostly around the country, there are huge opportunities for public access, government access and educational access television.
How much debate did you hear about the complete absence of public access in the new Telecommunications Theft Act? I made my first show, Peacemakers Television, in the 1986 and some hundreds more over the years. Maybe you used to watch it before I got completely lazy in 1995. Before I quit, I was starting to get good. I'd mix live musicians with talk, with roll in video or stills. Video is an enjoyable craft. Guess I'll make some more shows so I can appear in my own listing.
What follows is an incomplete list of shows now out there by some of our local media heroes. The stations will train you for free (training is required and you have to pass a test), enabling an ordinary person to make a good television show. You get one or more people to talk to about something important and you just talk.
p.s. - e-mail or call me if you hear of anything good (or particularly bad) that's going on be on next month. Don't forget, the average American adult watches seven hours of television per day.
jopax@juno.com
MAY PEACE PREVAIL ON EARTH
1. Over the Shoulder produced by Glenn Lynch
a. LAPD whistleblower Mike Ruppert
11/1 @ 2pm Media One Hollywood Ch 37
b. Keep the rich off welfare
11/7 @7 pm Media One Hollywood Ch37
c. More Skullduggery
11/8 Century Channel 3 @4pm
d. Robert Kennedy assassination
11/14 Media One Hollywood 11 pm
2. Free Speech TV, nationally distributed bloc of progressive programming
West Hollywood ch 36 Friday night 5:50 pm to 9:30 pm and 10:00 pm to 2:00 am; Claremont Monday-Thursday 10:00 pm to midnight. November schedule includes America's Defense Monitor, Channel Zero out of Toronto covering topics like the GE-NBC marriage; Sharing Cultural perspectives exploring the diversity of aboriginal life through the eyes of First nations artists; Queer TV; National Black Programming, and more.
3. Econews by Nancy Pearlman, our home-grown longest running, highest quality independent environmental programming Media One Ch 28 Downey/Southeast LA County area Monday 10:00 p.m.
LA Cityview Ch 35 Sunday 6:00 pm
Media One Westchester Ch 27 Tuesday 8:00 or 8:30 pm
Century Ch 3 Tuesday 9:00 pm
Media One Carson Ch 26 Monday 5:30 pm
Time Warner Garden Grove Ch 6, 40, 38B Saturday 5:30 pm
Media One Hollywood Ch 37 Tuesday 4:30 pm
MTSAC Cablevision West Covina Ch 36 Wednesday or Thursday 6:30 pm
City of Santa Monica Ch 16 Monday 3:00 pm, 11:30 pm
City of Beverly Hills Ch 10 Thursday 3:00 pm
VHTV, Verdugo Hills Ch 19 times vary
Claremont Ch 3 Monday, Wednesday, Friday, 3:00 pm
4. Todos Somos Marcos by Peter Rashkin, began as a look at the Zapatista movement but now covers a wide range of progressive issues mostly centered around racism and oppression
Media One Ch 26 Carson Monday 6:30 pm
Media One Ch 41 Wilmington. Shown frequently, look for it
Century Ch 3 most Tuesdays 11:30 pm
Media One Ch 38 Hollywood/Downtown most Tuesdays at 11:30 pm
Charter Cable Riverside, Ch 761 or 15, Monday 2:30 pm
5. Total Transformation, the Unconditioned Mind, by Dr. Moniem Fadali
In your reporter's opinion, to prevail in our struggles, it is not enough to work hard, but also we must be able to see clearly and to have an unconditioned mind. Dr. Fadali shows the way, and his life as an world-renowned surgeon, as well as an inspiring poet and philosopher, shows some of the results of having an unconditioned mind.
11/5 Century Ch 3 @ 9:30 pm
11/5 Media One Hollywood/Downtown @ 9:30 pm
11/16 Century Ch 3 9:30 pm
11/30 Century Ch 3 9:00 pm