City of Superior and Dodgeville to give up their PEG access channels

The City of Superior and the City of Dodgeville have both decided to stop programming their PEG cable access channels. The City of Superior is talking with UW Superior about taking over one or both of the cable PEG access channels provided by Charter Spectrum.

Both cities have been dealing with long-standing reception issues that Charter Spectrum had not resolved. The City of Superior was having problems with the signal originating from its city hall, which meant meeting coverage was looking rough. The other origination point in the library looked good and this was the location from which all other programming originated. However, when the library requested that the media center vacate the two rooms it was using so that it could expand, the signal problem could no longer be dismissed. The City had asked Charter Spectrum for a price quote to move the origination line and improve reception, but after months and months of waiting, the company still had not gotten back to the city. In the interim, the city made an effort to find out whether or not there was an audience for the cable channels by putting a message on the channel's rotating message board. Viewers who called the city would get a modest gift certificate. No one called. At the end of 2022, the city did not renew the contract with Peter Luke, who had programmed the channel for many years.

Mary Cardona, Executive Director of Wisconsin Community Media, reached out to Mark Lundeen, who had expressed interest in programming a channel called Hayward Community Media. Hayward is located not far from Superior. The city agreed to delay giving back the channels in order to explore the possibility of empowering another local organization to take over management. Unfortunately, Lundeen was not ready to take on the channel, but he got in touch with UW-Superior. UW-Superior had managed one of the City of Superior channels in the past, but had returned it some years ago. The university is now considering if it can take on the cable TV channel and integrate it into its media production program. The city is holding off returning the channels until UW Superior comes to a decision.

The Dodgeville High School/City Channel had also been having reception problems for many years. Similarly, Charter Spectrum failed to improve the signal. Like with the City of Superior, Charter Spectrum indicated there would be a price associated with improving the signal, but had not submitted any firm proposal. Tired of waiting and concerned about the price tag, the city and school made the decision to give back the channels to Charter Spectrum. According to Dan Rhode, the computer science teacher at Dodgeville High School who had recently taken over responsibility for the channel, the channel had not been programmed with much content for some time, except for government meetings and some church services.

Both Superior and Dodgeville are longtime members of WCM, Superior joining in 2008 and Dodgeville 2004.

The City of Dodgeville and the City of Superior both have control over who manages their PEG channels — a legacy of being local franchising authorities prior to passage of state franchise legislation in 2007. That law revoked the right of local governments to enter into franchise contracts with cable companies, but let stand any requirement for PEG channels negotiated on the local level prior to enactment. The cities can give the PEG channels to any entity under the condition that they manage the channels as a public, educational, or government access channel. Once the channels are voluntarily given back to a video service provider such as Charter Spectrum, it is very unlikely the channels could ever be returned to the hands of the community. State law is very restrictive about the creation of “new” PEG channels. It limits the number of PEG channels to two or three depending upon whether the population served out of a single headend is under or over 50,000. Today, most cable TV headends — particularly those of large operators like Charter Communications — are serving vast territories with populations far in excess of 50,000 people. These areas already have many more PEG channels than two or three.

WCM is very concerned about the way Charter Spectrum ignores line maintenance requests like those from the City of Superior and the City of Dodgeville. This decision by Charter, together with locating PEG channels in the nosebleed section of the channel line-up (980’s and 990’s) and refusing to carry PEG channels in HD, is suppressing viewership and discouraging channelholders from using cable TV. This has been going on for years and years. Many cities have been left hanging with the promise of price quotes that never materialize, or promises to upgrade that never happen. State law needs to be strengthened so that PEG channel lines are repaired promptly and video service providers cannot diminish the quality of local PEG programming. Otherwise, it is inevitable that more PEG channels will fail.

— Mary Cardona

FACTv coverage of apartment fire used by local press

Talking Fitchburg provides timely coverage of an apartment fire.

In a January 30 news article about an apartment building fire that occurred the previous day, The Fitchburg Star relied on an interview given by Fitchburg Fire Department Chief Joe Pulvermacher to Fitchburg Access Community Television on Talking Fitchburg where the chief’s comments were aired over video footage shot by FACTv videographers at the scene. The Fitchburg Star article quoted the chief explaining how the department responded to the call and the status of the affected residents, and gave credit for the interview to FACTv.

Talking Fitchburg forms the backbone of FACTv’s program schedule. “Our goal is to get new information sprinkled into the schedule throughout the day and make it easy for viewers to catch features they may have missed,” said Crosby.  The schedule works like this.  Every weekday at 11 am, a new live 5-minute headline segment premieres.  This segment is repeated on the half-hour until 6 pm when the next new headline segment premieres.  After headline news, viewers watching at 6 pm see another new segment that runs 10 to 15 minutes long. This might be an interview, coverage of a recent or upcoming event, a health segment, or a city department update.  Seamlessly following this new segment is another segment that premiered earlier.  In this way the entire schedule is filled 24/7.

Crosby got the idea for Talking Fitchburg after attending a community media conference and getting inspired by how PEG access centers were filling the need for local news.  “Our staff decided to jump in,” said Crosby.  “We try to be anywhere where there’s a news story.”   

With traditional newspapers shrinking in size and number, this story is an example of how Fitchburg FACTv is working to fill the breach.  It’s no secret that government meeting coverage on PEG channels is heavily relied on by news media outlets everywhere.  It’s a sign of community media’s importance in the media landscape that traditional media is looking to it for help with breaking local news stories.

Congratulations FACTv!

FCC opens rulemaking to promote equal access to broadband

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) opened a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM) on December 22, 2022 to seek comment on how to “promote and facilitate equal access to broadband internet service for everyone, with the goal of creating a framework for combatting digital discrimination that has caused harm to historically excluded and marginalized communities.” 

According to a release by the Law Firm of Bradley Werner based in Woodbury, Minnesota, the NPRM “has the potential to impact local governments’ ability to ensure equitable broadband deployment throughout their communities as well as local rights-of-way management generally.”

The rulemaking will also look at revising the FCC’s consumer complaint process to accommodate complaints about digital discrimination, create a model of best practices for states and localities, and draft additional rules to prevent “digital discrimination of access,” a term which the NPRM will be defining.

The work is being undertaken to flesh out statutory language in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.  Comments are due 30 days after publication in the Federal Register, which is anticipated to be sometime this month.  Bradley Werner emphasized that local governments “have the opportunity to proactively propose rules and rule changes that support local authority.”

In the 153-page notice, the Commission talked about the positive role cable franchising has had in enforcing buildout and system upgrades, and specifically recommended that “agreements to use the rights-of-way should reflect that the privilege of using public assets comes with an obligation to provide a benefit to the public ... .”   Here in Wisconsin, as a result of 2007 Act 42, our State no longer requires cable operators to fully build out their systems in cities.  Nor does the State require system upgrades, which has allowed Charter Spectrum to carry PEG channels using unreliable and outdated technology that degrades the appearance of these channels.  Prior to passage of the State Law, cable franchising was in the hands of local governments, which could insist during negotiations that a city be completely wired and be upgraded to meet current state of the art standards.

Bradley Werner stated, “It is critical that local governments…push the Commission to establish rules that support local efforts to respond to the broadband needs of their communities.”