Save Access

from: Post Gazette

Public access TV, then and now

Sunday, August 05, 2007
By Adrian McCoy, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Public access TV dates back to the 1970s, when cable systems began to designate channels on which community members could create and air their own TV programs.

The FCC required that all cable systems in markets of a certain size provide a channel to the community, along with equipment, training, studio space and air time.

The movement has grown into a nationwide and international phenomenon -- there are public access channels in Canada, Europe, South America and Australia.

Pittsburgh has had a public access channel -- Channel 21 -- since 1981, when Warner Cable established the first community studios in the city. In 1984, TCI took over the cable franchise, and a move began for public access to be operated by an independent nonprofit, which led to the launch of PCTV in 1986.

It receives operations funding from Comcast: that 52-cent PEG access charge on your bill goes to Channel 21.

The community access ideal is that, since the airwaves belong to the public, people should have a right to use them for the promulgation of ideas.

Because the content is uncensored, though, some broadcasts have offended and alienated viewers. But, as PCTV executive director Thomas Poole says, "Our mission is to facilitate, not to dictate."

Poole says it's not fair to judge public access TV by commercial TV standards. Public access is to commercial TV what community theater is to Broadway, he says: Audiences go into each with a different set of expectations.

"It's not about the production values. It's about what people are talking about," he says.

PCTV producers are not professionals. They come to PCTV's North Side studio after their day jobs to put together a show without being paid, just because they want to or because they have something to say.

Community access "stars" who have gone on to fame and fortune are a tiny minority -- Tom Green and RuPaul both got their starts on public-access TV, for instance. But the medium has given countless others a voice.

At the PCTV studio, budding community producers can take free workshops in video production.

On a given day, a viewer might see a rally for public housing, a talk show where everyone is dressed in pajamas, a hip-hop showcase or footage shot at a picnic.

There are programs on community issues, sports talk, music and entertainment, fitness, fishing, rock videos and career advice.

The diversity of PCTV's producers mirrors the community they live in.

A few years back, Brian T was channel-surfing and came across a talk show on Channel 21 where someone was making homophobic comments. He found it offensive and called the cable company to complain. That's when he learned that because it was on a public-access channel, he couldn't get it taken off the air or have its host be suspended or reprimanded.

So he started his own public-access show aimed at a gay audience -- "The Dream Factory" -- along with the annual Gay Talent TV Challenge. "It's been a great creative outlet where I've had a lot of freedom to experiment without having to answer to a programming manager," he says.

Now, he produces the weekly hourlong "Brian T World" (Mondays at 11 p.m.), a kind of variety show featuring offbeat comedy, music, independent films and highlights of events in the local gay community.

"The mission of my show is to first and foremost entertain, but also promote the idea of cultural diversity in Pittsburgh."

Kay Bey, better known in the local music community as DaButtonPusha, is a local hip-hop producer known for her monthly Hip Hop Buffet series at The Shadow Lounge.

The Homewood resident is going into her third year as a community TV producer. She produces three shows -- an underground hip-hop showcase called "The Ripple Effect," Tuesdays at 11 p.m., and two occasional programs, "The Culture 'N Me," where she interviews local performers, and "Rock It Live," a half-hour live performance show.

She strives to promote a more positive image of hip-hop than people see or hear in the mainstream media. Although there are no rules at the station barring offensive language, the host enforces her own: There's no obscene or violent language allowed during the performance, which she views as one way to stop the cycle of violence in urban communities. "When you put words out there, you put energy out there."

City nonprofit organizations use public access TV to get the word out about what they are doing through "501(C)(3) Live" -- a one-hour call-in show that is repeated throughout the month. PCTV handles the production for that series. Religion and spirituality also are well represented, with many gospel and inspirational shows.

Some programming isn't locally produced, like the nationally syndicated, daily progressive news program "Democracy Now."

Put it all together, and there's variety on public access TV that you're not likely to find anywhere else up and down the dial.

Adrian McCoy can be reached at amccoy@post-gazette.com