Calls for Public TV Studio Renewed

By Brian Nearing, Times Union, Albany, N.Y.

Dec. 6–ALBANY — It’s been three years, but the song remains the same: Some in Albany want the administration of Mayor Jerry Jennings to revive a public access television studio for city residents.

“The city must give its people a voice, connect communities and encourage civic participation,” said Anton Konev, who was among a half-dozen people at a news conference Monday on the steps of City Hall.

Konev and the others want the city to include funding for a studio as part of a new contract with cable giant Time Warner, which provides service to about 29,200 customers citywide.

Time Warner’s 10-year contract expired in October 2004, and the city has allowed the company to remain on a month-to-month basis as negotiations continue. In return for the exclusive cable rights in Albany, Time Warner pays an annual franchise fee of 5 percent of gross revenues, which is included in customers’ bills. The city receives about $1 million a year.

It’s been about two decades since city residents had their own television studio, which used to be in the main branch of the Albany Public Library. It was shut down in the late 1980s because of budget cuts.

Now, Albany residents can bring videotapes to Time Warner offices in Rotterdam or Guilderland for later broadcast, but have no access to studios to create programming.

In 2003, after the Council of Albany Neighborhood Associations pushed for a public access studio, Jennings set up a committee to study the issue as part of contract negotiations.

However, the committee, headed by former city Common Council member David Torncello III, met only a handful of times in 2004 and issued no recommendations. A call to Jennings’ office for comment Monday was not returned.

“We are still talking with Time Warner,” said city Corporation Counsel John Reilly. He said Torncello’s committee “passed along information they had gathered … they were trying to assess what the public interest and need were.”

The committee included former Corporation Counsel Gary Stiglmeier and Comptroller Tom Nitido; Common Council members Sandra Fox and James Scalzo; former council member Sarah Curry-Cobb; Ann DiSarro, then-executive director of Senior Services of Albany; and Bill Pettit, president of the Washington Park Neighborhood Association.

Konev said Jennings doesn’t want a public access studio because it could provide a forum for those “who don’t see eye to eye with the mayor.”

In 2000, Jennings was criticized for using $250,000 from Time Warner under the contract, which was earmarked for public access at the city’s discretion, to instead buy computers in public schools and create a media program at a private college.

In 1997, Jennings gave $100,000 from the public access fund to The College of Saint Rose to create a media education program that is also open to Albany High School students. Another $150,000 from Time Warner paid for school computers with Internet access.

—–

To see more of the Times Union, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.timesunion.com.

Copyright (c) 2006, Times Union, Albany, N.Y.

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News.

For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.

TWX,