 Snyder met with the representatives on March 22 about establishing a
public access channel for the city of Lincoln.
The college is interested in taking on the project as part of a
course study for their students and believes they have an
appropriate space for a studio.
Generally referred to as a PEG channel, meaning public,
educational and governmental access, Snyder said it was decided that
for the time being if the channel is put in place, it should be
limited to educational and governmental access only.
If this comes about, the telecasting of city meetings on both
Monday and Tuesday night sessions would move to the new channel.
Snyder said Comcast is going to visit the college's proposed
studio facility and make determinations on installing fiber optic
and what equipment would be needed.
In the meantime, WLCN radio in Atlanta has come into the picture,
offering to do the broadcasting of the Tuesday night meetings free
of charge, using Comcast's equipment that is already in the council
chambers.
Snyder said WLCN wants to connect the live feed to their radio
website and would establish an archive of the meetings there, and it
would air live on CITV 5.
Currently Comcast pays for a camera operator to attend the Monday
night meetings, so the free offering from WLCN is good for them.
Snyder said Comcast has had no discussions with Celeste Rogers of
CITV 5 regarding this, but he has.
Rogers has several concerns about the situation. First, they have
regularly scheduled programs on Tuesday evening they would not be
able to air. She is also concerned about two media outlets covering
the meetings.
Snyder feels Comcast needs to get this worked out between them,
CITV 5 and WLCN and leave the city out of it.
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Alderwoman Melody Anderson said she had received a call from
Rogers, who voiced some legitimate concerns about the situation.
"CITV 5 is the one who built up Channel 5," Anderson said.
"Comcast had nothing to do with it; they didn't put any effort into
it, no money into it. They (CITV 5) are a local business. I
understand the argument that WLCN is a local business, but they are
in Atlanta, and where are they paying their taxes?
"We go to a lot of lengths to beautify our downtown, to encourage
people to shop downtown; we give incentives to people to come build
businesses on the west side so we get those tax dollars. Comcast,
who has been nothing but a pain, is arranging this, and I have real
issues with them not working with CITV 5 to get this done," she
concluded.
She also noted that she didn't think the contract with Comcast
gave the city any real control over this situation, but she is still
displeased with what is going on.
Snyder then asked: "Are we comfortable with going back to Comcast
and saying, work this out with everybody involved?"
Anderson said yes. She added she doesn't have a problem with WLCN;
it is just she feels like Comcast is running right over an
established business in Lincoln to get their way.
In regards to Comcast, the college and the city Snyder said
“we’re going to give ourselves two weeks to gather information,
which we will then share, and, at that point, determine next steps”.
He added there may in all likelihood be a need for an additional
meeting at that time.
[By NILA SMITH]
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