Local Programming May Be Coming to Valdez

Local Programming May Be Coming to Valdez

By Lee Revis
Editor, Valdez Star

VALDEZ - Shannon Moore, a man with local ties since 1993, made a brief appearance before the Valdez City Council last week, regarding his desire to air city council meeting on television via GCI cable. “My intention here is to find out how the city council feels about that,” he said at the meeting.

In a handwritten letter to the council prior to his appearance, Moore said he loves Alaska and hopes to be able to make a positive impact on Valdez. “I would also like to discuss the option of broadcasting city council meetings of our new local cable access channel, 98,” the letter states.

Council members questioned Moore on his motives, most specifically, if he was looking for city financial aid to fund the project. “I’m not looking to ask for any revenue assistance at this time,” he answered.

Currently, he says he hopes to have tapes ready for airing two days after council meetings are actually held. Mayor Bert Cottle correctly stated that council meetings are open to the public. “Anyone can come in and film us anyway,” he said.

Not so Fast
“I believe the community would benefit from this,” Moore told The Star, “I’ve put a lot of work in this.”
While the potential for local programming, like airing council meetings does exist in Valdez, it is not a cut and dried deal as of yet.

Tom Zulz, the system manager for the local GCI office, the provider for cable TV in Valdez, has a long list of prerequisites and issues to sort out before any kind of locally produced shows can be aired. First of all, GCI does not currently have any one channel that is not in use. Channel 98, which Moore referred to as the new access channel, is currently in use for many hours a week for distance learning programming from the University of Alaska. During the gaps when UA is not broadcasting, GCI plugs in the Nasa Channel, which they can preempt at any time with locally produced taped programming, which Zulz says the company is happy to do.

“Its not “public access” anymore,” Zulz explained. Regulations were changed in 1996, changing what was formerly known as Public Access Channels to PEG Channels, an acronym for Public, Education and Government. While GCI is willing to air local programming, it has to be delivered in the form of a tape and then physically plugged in at the time of broadcast. However, Zulz emphasized that he would need to be assured of consistent, reliable programming that falls within the set guidelines before they can commit to broadcasting local shows. He did reiterate several times that GCI is more than happy to air local shows, but the programming has to be locally produced or locally sponsored and must meet federal standards. According to GCI Programming Request Procedures, “Locally Sponsored means the material is being presented by a person or group connected to a Non-Religious, Non-Profit Organization with written authorization from the Organization to air the programming on its behalf. Locally Produced means the material is being presented by the individual who produced it.”

Zulz says GCI will be glad to air locally produced shows, but they currently do not have any kind of studio or equipment available to produce shows. That means that shows would have to be 100% taped, edited and produced by the producers themselves. “Its kind of like the chicken and the egg thing,” he said.

So Moore, who had no timeline for when he plans to begin his project, has his work cut out for him, as does another local man who has made inquiries into the possibility of producing a local current events show. “It deserves some attention,” said Moore.