Maybe some would want to be involved at the beginning of the effort described below. We know Tom had UHF channel development ideas in past years.
Whether or not you can make the first meeting mentioned, let us know if you want to be kept informed.
Maybe volunteer a quotable sentence or two with your reaction to the idea.
-Bob
——
Re: New noncommercial community broadcast television channels for metropolitan Chicago.
Friends,
If you might be interested in being part of a small group exploring the best ways to launch new TV channels, please –
– 1 – Plan to come to the small initial caucus meeting planned for —
Tuesday April 27th at 7pm,
at Columbia College’s Library, 624 S. Michigan Ave.
– 2 – Important: RSVP TO bgf@aaahawk.com, so we can be in touch in case of a meeting change.
Say whether you plan to be at the initial meeting. And if you want to be kept informed. Also, what is your reaction to the idea of launching these channels?
We will talk about channel opportunities and known resources. And we will caucus about focused strategies for spurring aggressive well-organized support going forward. See the p.s.
Chicago’s big commercial broadcast companies have never significantly served the noncommercial community interests of the metropolitan area. The companies are more often a problem than a wonderful resource. Young people, old
people, minority groups, community organizations, labor, activist groups, educational organizations, and artists, …, are slighted. The people and organizations without big media budgets, and outside of the prized advertising demographics, are usually ignored at best.
Broadcast television channels, even though arguably diminishing in importance every day, will for a long time continue to reach audiences many times greater than bulletin boards, flyers, newsletters, public access cable channels, internet broadcasting techniques, or other independent media efforts.
The very same companies already using free exclusive U.S. channel licenses (entrusted to them to serve the public interest, convenience, and necessity) were also given completely free the $50 billion+ worth of new broadcast
television channels made possible when digital TV was made the law in 1996.
Local TV licensees are not using most of the new channels (Please see http://www.9898.us/broadcastthese), making the licensees vulnerable to doomsday license challenges. Holding on to many channels and keeping them out of use
(or flooding them with lesser infomercials, obscure syndicated series, and paid religion) will prove risky for the companies’ public relations and ultimately for their legal credibility.
If we can organize well, we can demand multiple channels, studios and remote facilities, good staffing, all technical support, and generous financial support for great honestly noncommercial community channels.
The groups with the interests and resources for supplying the best noncommercial content for such channels are many already, and growing in number. These groups advocating together and backing each other are a sizeable force to negotiate for and fill entire channels.
Limitless new programming concepts, and existing archives, and ample reshowings will make a large rich schedule possible from the outset. Startup growth may have been slow for the area’s original TV channels and public access and C-Span and the like (weather measurements, test patterns, and blank screens). But startup growth will not be slow for our groups now,
given today’s radically transformed media creation environment.
Research. Try asking organization leaders and your other friends: “How would your organizations begin to use your own ten minutes a week of TV time?” “How would you plan a new channel of noncommercial broadcast television?”
Tom and all,
Maybe some would want to be involved at the beginning of the effort described below. We know Tom had UHF channel development ideas in past years.
Whether or not you can make the first meeting mentioned, let us know if you want to be kept informed.
Maybe volunteer a quotable sentence or two with your reaction to the idea.
-Bob
——
Re: New noncommercial community broadcast television channels for metropolitan Chicago.
Friends,
If you might be interested in being part of a small group exploring the best ways to launch new TV channels, please –
– 1 – Plan to come to the small initial caucus meeting planned for —
Tuesday April 27th at 7pm,
at Columbia College’s Library, 624 S. Michigan Ave.
– 2 – Important: RSVP TO bgf@aaahawk.com, so we can be in touch in case of a meeting change.
Say whether you plan to be at the initial meeting. And if you want to be kept informed. Also, what is your reaction to the idea of launching these channels?
We will talk about channel opportunities and known resources. And we will caucus about focused strategies for spurring aggressive well-organized support going forward. See the p.s.
– Bob Gallie bgf@aaahawk.com
P.s. Some background brainstorming / rhetoric:
Chicago’s big commercial broadcast companies have never significantly served the noncommercial community interests of the metropolitan area. The companies are more often a problem than a wonderful resource. Young people, old
people, minority groups, community organizations, labor, activist groups, educational organizations, and artists, …, are slighted. The people and organizations without big media budgets, and outside of the prized advertising demographics, are usually ignored at best.
Broadcast television channels, even though arguably diminishing in importance every day, will for a long time continue to reach audiences many times greater than bulletin boards, flyers, newsletters, public access cable channels, internet broadcasting techniques, or other independent media efforts.
The very same companies already using free exclusive U.S. channel licenses (entrusted to them to serve the public interest, convenience, and necessity) were also given completely free the $50 billion+ worth of new broadcast
television channels made possible when digital TV was made the law in 1996.
Local TV licensees are not using most of the new channels (Please see http://www.9898.us/broadcastthese), making the licensees vulnerable to doomsday license challenges. Holding on to many channels and keeping them out of use
(or flooding them with lesser infomercials, obscure syndicated series, and paid religion) will prove risky for the companies’ public relations and ultimately for their legal credibility.
If we can organize well, we can demand multiple channels, studios and remote facilities, good staffing, all technical support, and generous financial support for great honestly noncommercial community channels.
The groups with the interests and resources for supplying the best noncommercial content for such channels are many already, and growing in number. These groups advocating together and backing each other are a sizeable force to negotiate for and fill entire channels.
Limitless new programming concepts, and existing archives, and ample reshowings will make a large rich schedule possible from the outset. Startup growth may have been slow for the area’s original TV channels and public access and C-Span and the like (weather measurements, test patterns, and blank screens). But startup growth will not be slow for our groups now,
given today’s radically transformed media creation environment.
Research. Try asking organization leaders and your other friends: “How would your organizations begin to use your own ten minutes a week of TV time?” “How would you plan a new channel of noncommercial broadcast television?”