A Light on Access
Thank you so much for the time and thoughtfulness you spent on your Channel 95 story. It's rare to find a story on public access these days that takes the time to treat its subjects with respect, and to get even the rough details of the landscape correct.
I don't know firsthand the Channel 95 details, but, having been in the access television field more than 30 years, I can tell you that your story is one of the best ones on the struggles of community television I've ever seen.
I don't have Richmond's Channel 95 on my Virginia map or listed in my database at Community Media Database yet, because it's managed by the cable operator, and that's a management-type class on which I'm presently missing data. (But now I'll be adding it.)
A preferred solution for Channel 95's troubles might be for the city to require in its next cable franchise renewal that Comcast give management of the channel to a nonprofit corporation, such as exists in Charlottesville, Arlington and Fairfax County. And yes, then some of the cable fees Richmond collects from Comcast could go to the access channel — at least for facilities and equipment.
Rob McCausland
Community Media Database
Station Break 6
Channel 95: Once a force in the court of public opinion, the most accessible television station in Richmond is struggling. But does anyone care?
by Melissa Scott Sinclair | Apr 3, 2012