Mendocino TV wishes MCTV Good Luck!
Not a good fit
June 13, 2013
PEG (Public, Educational & Government) channels are an important part of every community’s media choices. Fort Bragg has had a PEG channel since MCCET started in the Fort Bragg High School Library by then librarian, Charlene Aumack.
MCCET or Channel 3, keeps an eye on local politics by transmitting government meetings reliably for over 30 years to CATV subscribers. These CATV subscribers fund this independent media channel through a franchise fee which is a part of every CATV bill. Without this subscriber support public access stations across the nation would not have the equipment and facilities to transmit to their subscribers. The biggest difference today between CATV and Satellite programming is the existence of your local public access channel on local CATV. With local election debates, Occupy Wall Street demonstrations and GMO crop bans part of the dialog, Public Access Television stands as a vital community forum. Independent Community Producers have this resource to show their work to a local audience. All they need to do is be a cable subscriber and submit their show to their PEG Channel. This was before the internet.
Today we enjoy almost infinite capacities for storage in cloud based computing. DSL, Cable internet and 4G mobile data services provide megabit download speeds. Fast enough to watch High Definition movies from Netflix while students do their homework on the internet, read their Kindle, update FaceBook from their i-Pad and Skype to their family in Great Britain, simultaneously. Many start their morning with a custom tailored newsfeed from The Huffington Post and The Fort Bragg Advocate News.
Mendocino Coast Television’s current fiscal crisis with The Fort Bragg Footlighters created an opportunity to review creating a strategic alliance of community collaboration. Mendocino TV proposed a relationship at MCTV’s May board meeting with an offer to co-locate their offices to our studio in The Union Company Store.
Because of their status as a 501c3 organization MCTV must stay focused on their primary purpose as caretakers of channels 3, 64 and 65 for their CATV subscribers. MCTV still must support an expensive antiquated system whose life is nearing the end producing content to an ever shrinking pool of subscribers. Branching out into other avenues of media production and distribution would be a fraudulent use of government franchise fees and taxable as if they were a private business.
Mendocino TV is founded on the idea that private businesses and private sector advertisers would pay for cost efficient, quality videos for their Facebook and / or web pages. Our network is robust, cost effective and flexible using internet technology.
Given the divergent missions and needs of both organizations, co-location is not a viable option. Mendocino TV wishes MCTV success as it works to resolve their issues.
If the community wishes to rally support for MCTV subscribe to Comcast CATV, underwrite a program or send them your donations.
Terrence Vaughn CEO of Mendocino TV.
