I recently received this article in which an associate editor of MediaShift discusses the current and future relevance of public access television.  You're invited to read it here and provide your responses to questions:

Is public-access TV still important or is it a relic of a bygone era?

How would it have to change in the future to stay relevant?

And, if you're a fan, what shows do you watch on public access?

 

 

One of my favorite Web sites is Ted.com (Technology • Entertainment • Design = TED) where some of the world's greatest thinkers and doers present their stories and ideas.  TED is embarking on a new experiment and hopes that someone like you, dear reader, may help them. 

Here's how: First become acquainted with TED.  New programs are available on a regular basis on this Web site.  I first became acquainted with TED through a link at ExposeKenosha.com which directed me to a marvelous talk by symphony conductor Benjamin Zander .  I later read his book, The Art of Possibility, which he co-authored with his wife, Rosamund, and am currently immersed in Mahler's 9th Symphony, conducted by Zander.  Zander is one of many creative thinkers who populate TED to share their wisdom and humor with you. 

Next, consider holding a salon or book club around TED content.  You could hold this activity in your home, at dinner parties, brown bag luncheons, or at the Kenosha Media Center, where you could screen TED videos on the Center's giant screen.  You could invite your friends and fellow Kenoshans to join you.  Your friends at Kenosha Community Media could help you put this type of activity together.    Anyone interested?

I read with dismay that Kenosha's online news source, The Daily Kenoshan, is for sale and could close down by the end of the month if no buyer comes forward.   I've enjoyed reading the Daily Kenoshan and hope I can continue to read it.   I think the future of journalism is online and that the Daily Kenoshan regularly has outdone that other news source/daily paper here in town.   Thank you to John Nordquist, owner/publisher of the Daily Kenoshan, Lisa Loring, editor, and all of the other contributors to it. 

How about it, Kenosha, will a viable new owner of this news source please come forward?  Click on the Daily Kenoshan logo for information.  You will be directed to DK's Web site.

 

                                           KCM launched a co-op program earlier this year entitled Visions of Kenosha.   It airs weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 7:00 a.m. and features quiet images of Kenosha's natural and man-made surroundings.   This program belongs to everyone: that is, anyone who's able to contribute video to it may be considered to join its pool of producers.  

Its purpose is to help ease TV viewers into their day in a quiet, serene way.  Contributors are asked to videotape Kenosha's parks and attractions sans on-air talent or voice-overs.  If human beings are in the video, they should be in the background and not the focus of the shot.  If music is used, it should also be of a serene nature.   Think tinkling piano keys, soft flute music, or perhaps a solo oboe.   Use of ambient sounds--birds chirping, frogs croaking, crickets chirping--is highly encouraged.

Cameras used for this program should be either mounted on a tripod or otherwise stationery.   Pans, tilts, and zooms should be kept to an absolute minimum.   Think of these actions as salt-and-pepper.   A little bit seasons the meal.  Too much destroys it.   

Each shot can be thirty seconds or more in length.   We're not making MTV videos here.  

Ray Forgianni of Harbor Market of Kenosha recently called this programming, "visual perfume".   I like his description.

With autumn wearing its finest colors these days, now is a great time to become a visionary for Kenosha TV by becoming a producer for the co-op program, Visions of Kenosha.   

 Two years ago, local historian (and former Kenosha TV Committee member) John J. Hosmanek published a collection of Kenosha postcards through Arcadia Publishing.  This book proves that postcards are not only a form of communication, they're a window to our past, a reflection of our community, and pieces of art. 

While you can buy a postcard from your neighborhood malt shop, the truest treasures are homemade.  Artlink Contemporary Art Gallery in Fort Wayne, IN also appreciates handmade pieces as it invites artists from around the world, including Kenosha, WI, to submit postcards, created in any medium, for display in their gallery from December 12th to January 14th.  There's no jury for the art and no fees.  There is also no designated theme, so draw that giant halibut, if you wish, or paint a postcard-sized picture of a streetcar.

Postcards will not be returned.  Artlink will sell these cards with proceeds benefitting Artlink's exhibitions.

All participating artists' names will be posted on Artlink's website.  To download a postcard mail art prospectus from Artlink, click here.

                           While driving around the bottom edge of Lake Michigan a few years ago, headed for Michigan, my radio drifted from station signal to station signal until it settled on the voice a preacher (of unknown denomination) who had a simple message to his sermon: "To make friends, you need to be friendly."    His edict was simple, but too often unheeded.  How often do we wait for someone else to share a good word or perform a good deed, before we're compelled to react and do the same?  

Kenosha Community Media has its hand extended to the Kenosha area, welcoming everyone to become a part of the community conversation.  KCM exists to provide a public service.   This service includes the training and tools that allow citizens to express themselves through the magic and medium of community television.   Our staff and many citizen/producers have also worked to create video programming for local organizations, including programming to raise awareness of our area animal shelters and children's programs at the Kenosha Public Library.  Several local talk shows--Kenosha Today with Scott Barter; Shakin' Up Kenosha with Dennis Shook; and Just Talkin' with Jason Rimkus--welcome local guests from our business, organizational, and political communities.  KCM has worked to become good friends with the community it serves and will continue to develop new ways to broaden and enrich community conversation on issues that are important to Kenosha and to showcase our community's talent, activities, and events.

As a part of this effort, in 2009, KCM will launch its KCM Friends campaign, inviting citizens to become Friends of KCM not only as producers of video/TV programming, but as PBS-style sponsors of local programming, and also as volunteers to help KCM provide better outreach to local organizations (and to the general population) and to assist KCM in its day-to-day operations.   More details on this effort will be available in November/December and at KCM's upcoming annual meeting on November 14th.   

Got something to say or share?  Want to learn a new skill or start a new hobby?  Do you wish to promote your nonprofit organization?  Kenosha Community Media and Carthage's Enrichment and Continuing Education program are offering an Applied Video Production course in October/November.    Course dates/times are Saturdays, October 25, November 1, and November 8 from 8:00 AM-3:00 PM.   

In this course, you'll receive classroom and hands-on instruction in TV studio production, field production (camcorders), and video editing.   This course takes place at the Kenosha Media Center, 1403 Washington Road, and at a Carthage computer lab.   Once you complete this course, you may use the Media Center's resources (TV studio, camcorders, video editing) to create your own noncommercial programming.   KCM provides airtime on Kenosha TV 14 (Time Warner Cable), which reaches about 26,000 subscribers in Kenosha and more in the Town and Village.  

Absolute beginners and experienced videographers are welcome.   Course is open to adults who reside in the City of Kenosha, Village of Pleasant Prairie, and Town of Somers.   Representatives of organizations in these areas are also welcome to register and attend.  They do not need to reside in these areas if they are representing their organization, which has a physical address in the City, Village, or Town.   Cost is $45 for City residents who are cable TV subscribers (Time Warner or AT&T).   Proof of cable subscription required.   Cost is $50 for Town and Village residents or persons who do not subscribe to cable TV.

To register, please call (262) 551-5924 for Lynn Dahl, Carthage's Enrichment & Continuing Education Coordinator.

In the heart of the media world, the City of Los Angeles, through California State legislation, appears to be shutting down public access television operations by the end of this year.  Read and hear more about this action at Full Disclosure.net

A little closer to home, the City of Madison's Mayor Dave Cieslewicz recently mentioned an idea to remove funding for WYOU, Madison's public access TV channel, and direct these funds instead to Madison City Channel, broadcaster of City meetings and civic activities.  As reported in the Madison paper, Isthmus, by Vikki Kratz, the Mayor's goal "is not to kill WYOU, but to find efficiences.  Kratz quotes the Mayor: "I understand WYOU provides a service.  I want to discuss with them if there's a way to do it differently."   WYOU has since launched a petition for the Madison area to save its station.

Entry revised 10/01/08.   Since this blog was posted, Madison's Mayor announced he would not cut funding to WYOU in 2009, but would seek to cut it by 50% in 2010, and to cut funding entirely in 2011.    Read and view more on this story at WYOU.

Entry revised 10/03/03.  Los Angeles isn't the only California city in which public access TV faces extinction.   In Ventura County, public access TV operations to the City of Ojai face the end of operations by year's end.  As reported on the Ojai Valley News Blog by Nao Braverman, "Public access cable services provided by Time Warner, which have dwindled over the years, will be terminated at the end of December, according to Time Warner’s spokesperson Patricia Fregoso."

 

. . . and its name is Denver Open Media.  Geoff Daily at App-rising.com wrote an excellent article recently about activities in Denver, CO to "develop a model for PEG access (public/educational/government) access centers that introduces new efficiencies through automation and open source software, and that redefines what it means to have a community channel".  It applies opportunities used by the public to upload their videos to YouTube and other online locations to the arena of PEG access television.   Denver's access TV programming schedule is determined by its viewers, who are invited to vote on the shows they enjoy.  This feedback determines the programming schedule on the TV channel.   This voting procedure has had its challenges in Denver, but its staff is working to make it fair and efficient.

Read any good books lately?   My knowledge of the Civil War has been pretty slim; still, I'm reading with a great deal of interest Michael Shaara's novel The Killer Angels, which tells through the voices of the men who fought at Gettysburg a fascinating tale not only of a battlefield in the War Between the States but also on brotherhood and, conversely, the warring instinct ingrained in us.  It's a tale not only of our history; it's also relevant to our current age.  The Civil War Museum has chosen The Killer Angels as its first book for discussion by its Media Club.

On the Kenosha TV 14 series Shakin' Up Kenosha, host/producer Dennis Shook visits with author/rail enthusiast John Doyle about his new book, Kenosha On The Go.  Doyle is past-president of the Kenosha Streetcar Society, Inc. and one of its founders.   His book offers a photo history with captions on Kenosha's trains, buses, trolley-buses, and streetcars.  Through the prism of local transportation, Doyle offers a unique glimpse of our city. 

Shakin' Up Kenosha was also recently featured in the Daily Kenoshan.   More comments on Shakin' Up Kenosha from a discussion forum at the Daily Kenoshan may be found here.  Thanks to this 24/7 online interactive news vehicle for recognizing Kenosha Community Media/Kenosha TV 14 and Mr. Shook's wonderful TV series.  

Both books, The Killer Angels and Kenosha On The Go, are available at your Kenosha Public Library.  You can also find The Killer Angels at the Civil War Museum gift shop, and Kenosha On The Go at Museum gift shops and at select Kenosha retailers.