Former Wisconsin Association of PEG Channels (WAPC) President, Joel Desprez, passed away on April 14 after, in his words, “a short sissy fight” with pancreatic cancer. For those of us who worked with him, served with him on the WAPC (now WCM) board, or just knew him as a fellow access television advocate, it is a sad day.
As the executive director of Chippewa Valley Community Television, Joel was one of the founding members of WAPC in 1998. In 2001, he began a nearly ten-year tenure on the board of directors. In 2002, he was elected secretary, then reelected another three times. And for good reason. Joel had a cheeky way with words, and the board minutes were always fun to read. In one he wrote, “There will be no July meeting as it inconveniences the President. Next meeting will be on August 21st at the regular 3:00 pm time. I believe that’s 6 bells for the nautically inclined. Urben bade us all be on our way with a motion to adjourn at 3:50 pm. Walsh seconded. There was no disagreement.”
In 2006, when we were in the middle of a fight to stop the proposed state franchise legislation, the board demonstrated its confidence in him by electing him president. Wisconsin may have been the first state to see AT&T and the cable industry team up to pass this law. Everyone thought it would race through the legislature, but due to WAPC’s efforts and our many allies, we slowed it down and succeeded in removing some of the most draconian provisions for access in the final version that did unfortunately pass in November 2007.
But when Joel wrote his President’s Letter to the membership in May 2007, no one knew how this fight would turn out. Joel, conscious of the importance of his message, managed to describe how we were all feeling in his inimitable way, likening our work to a garden:
“Imagine you are a gardener, toiling away, tending, weeding, pruning. Growing. Every so often somebody stops next to the fence. They may just smile, or they might say, ‘How lovely,’ or ‘You certainly know how to spruce up the neighborhood.’ Once in a while they might say, ‘But petunias are so plain,’ or ‘Why ever did you plant radishes, I hate radishes.’ Imagine one day a guy in a suit comes by to tell you there’s an asteroid out there with your name on it.
“Despite ominous warnings over the years from our political astrologers, Gallucci and Grogan, the abrupt, indifferent fury with which franchise legislation tore through out seed beds was at once dismaying and maddening.
“As I write this two weeks before our conference, the outcome is not yet clear. I predict that most of our moods today will be somewhere between jubilation and despair. Taking advantage of the uncertainty, rather than trying to cheer us up or settle us down, I can simply acknowledge all of our efforts – with heartfelt appreciation – unburdened by the conclusion.”
During this period, WAPC’s membership jumped 40%, fueled by our common mission to stop the state franchise bill. Those were intense days. I still remember well Joel presenting testimony in a crowded overfilled room before the Assembly Energy and Utilities Committee, a meeting that had gone on for more than seven hours, knowing full-well how tough it was to stand up like David to Goliath. Joel gave it his all.
The next year in his 2008 President’s letter, Joel wished our members a happy 10th anniversary and said, “The devotion that this organization showed to the mission of access stations across the state and the resonance of our message in the hearts of other access aficionados, if not in the alleged hearts of the majority of state legislators, made this organization stronger, even as our world has shifted beneath us.”
Joel, with much thanks for all you have done for access television and WCM, we bade you adieu.
- Mary Cardona
