Seattle’s only public access station, the Seattle Community Access Network (SCAN), will be starved into oblivion by the city’s 2011 budget, which cuts funding for SCAN from $650,000 to $100,000, and opens up the bidding process for a public access provider who can work under that tight budget. (SCAN staff maintain that $100,000 isn’t even enough to keep the lights on and pay someone to monitor the door at their studios.)

So today, SCAN staffers held a press conference at their studios in North College Park, begging residents to pressure city council members to save the station by re-allocating the funds they cut (or at least giving them a transition fund to work with).

The press conference was ineffectual and boring, attendance was dismal, and all bets are that SCAN’s ploy won’t work. Puget Sound Access (PSA), a public access provider in south King County, says it can provide many of the same services as SCAN for under $100,000.

SCAN Executive Director Dian Ferguson started the presser by saying she was “appalled” by the cuts. She then targeted the Seattle Channel, one of the city’s two government channels (and another recipient of franchise fees), for similar cuts, arguing, “I have heard over and over again that we are all old and antiquated and that no one watches tv anymore. If that’s the case, why don’t we cut the Seattle Channel and put them on YouTube as well?” This was a weak rhetorical move that sounded like the cries of a dying animal lashing out at everything around it. Ferguson also issued a veiled threat to council members who vote against SCAN’s funding by reminding the handful of audience members that council elections are a scant few months away.

Then the sad apostle-producers of SCAN came trotting out to plead their cases. Marlee Walker of the show Blues To Do said, “If the people do not have their own voice on television, free from corporate or government influence, which in Seattle is public access, then they truly have no free press.” Feel moved? Okay then. Gilbert Wardian, producer of To Your Health, and Ed Mays, producer of Pirate Television, also spoke. They were incomprehensible. If these dudes couldn’t even hold my attention in person, no wonder SCAN is fading into irrelevance. At least they served me pumpkin pie with whipped cream.

More thrilling public access news after the jump!

Ferguson closed the presser by reminding the audience to contact city council about restoring SCAN’s funding (theoretically, the council could have a change of heart and allocate funding before the final vote on November 22. But that’s just not going to happen). Then at least two audience members mentioned that they would like to pursue federal criminal charges against the council for what they believe to be a violation of the Cable Franchise Policy and Communications Act of 1984. Batshit crazy alarm triggered!

Here’s the thing: SCAN does do some valuable stuff. Somali, Ethiopian, and other refugee communities use broadcasting time to figure out how the hell to live here. There are advice and call-in shows in all sorts of languages that are easily accessible through the tv. This service is effective because while not every family can afford an internet connection—or even a computer—almost every family owns a boob tube. SCAN also provides training and workshops for people interested in doing television, including internships they offer to local media students. But nothing in this press conference today showed me why SCAN needs an additional $500,000 to do this job when someone else could do it for $100,000.

Thanks for the pie.

23 replies on “SCAN’s Dying Cry for Help”

  1. Maybe if they all got together and did a protest at Sea-Tac against the TSA uploading nude pix of them and patting down 13 yo body-image-conscious girls, they might get funding.

    Or they could keep doing conventional methods.

    I’m guessing the TSA thing would make more of a difference to SCAN getting funded.

    That said, if libraries had digital cams in their meeting rooms it would be easier to film this stuff.

  2. with youtube and numerous other sites to which you can upload videos for free, I fail to see why my tax dollars should go to supporting this service in times when essential things like healthcare and police services are being cut….I hope they lose the 100k too, there are better uses for that money. 20 years ago you could argue that the public needed access to the airwaves, free speech and all that but these days we have a magical thing called the internet (and the seattle channel should be on youtube as well, another waste)

  6. @3 — The good news is that if you go to her website, you can pay $15/month to get access to all of her nude photos and videos. I would loooooove to know how many of those memberships she has sold.

  7. Public Access needs to die before conservatives catch wind of it and hold it up as an example of wasteful spending. $100K is pennies to the billions and billions that are spent on wasteful defense spending, but it’s still useless, mainly serving the public as unintentional comedy.

  8. I’m confused, where is the money going? By federal law, the municipality cannot take the money and use it for other purposes. It has to go for PUG broadcasting.

  12. @8 — No, the city’s Department of Information Technology apparently discovered a wonderful little loophole wherein they can take money formerly earmarked for public access and put it towards expanding the city’s email capacity.

    @9 — That was exactly what SCAN said, yeah.

    @10 — Looks like Riya had it covered! But if you guys know of any press conferences coming up that you want us to cover, you can always send in a tip. Chances are we already know, but it never hurts to try.

  14. Unlike SCAN, Seattle Channel has actual programming that people occasionally watch. I agree with high_and_bi that in the Youtube age something like SCAN makes no sense whatsoever. Groups that make good use of SCAN can easily adapt whatever benefits SCAN offers them into online versions, since anyone can use Youtube for free at the libraries if they don’t have Web access at home.

    You could probably reduce SCAN’s funding to $50,000–full-time salary for a single person to handle incoming and outgoing mail and e-mail, manage a Web site or two, and upload new videos online. They can do that out of their home, or from a library.

  15. I am pretty sure kids can find their porn on the internet now. No need for them to stay up till 2am suffering though nonsense religious programing and poorly formed political and sports commentary.

  16. Hey, that suggestion to eliminate the Seattle Channel is a good one! We should do that, and give Ferguson 10% of the cost savings as a reward for his suggestion. Then we should tell the outgoing Seattle Channel staff that they can have 10% of the cost savings from any other city jobs they can suggest eliminating. And so on…

  17. #7

    So get a job at Lockheed, buy a Flip camera from Amazon, and post “radical” vids anonymously.

    Get with the ’10s dwink-a-doodle.

  18. The sooner they get rid of this ridiculous boondoggle, the sooner the egregious taxes and fees that the city pours into Scumcast will cease. It’s bad enough that the idiots on this city’s cable control board (or whatever elitist label they stick on it) granted a MONOPOLY to a bunch of scheming, slimy jerks like Scumcast! Then they tacked millions of dollars of taxes on their bills to finance absolute garbage like this “public access” channel.

    Burn SCAN to the ground, salt the earth where it stood and refund the hundreds — if not thousands — of dollars I have poured down that rathole.

  19. SCAN ia the only place in Seattle that runs shows like DemocracyNow and Tom Hartmann. The local coverage of current events that Pirate TV and other programs provides is invaluable. Some of the shows like Queens Kitchen, Hootenany and Richard Lee made this channel extremly valuable for advancing the creativity and knowledge of all of the community.

    I grew up in California in a medium size valley city that does not have a service like this. Imagine people living in individual macmansions houses, commuting long distances,with latch- key children and people so tired by the end of the day that they do not connect with their community.

    A TV service like this is invaluable for keeping individuals informed and connected to their community. When you do not have a service like this then narrow and unconnected thinking results. People are not encouraged to learn about the portions of their community that are outside of their comfort zone. They may turn to FOX Noise or right wing talk radio to form their opinions about people instead of their neighbors.

    SCAN is the difference between the diversity of thought that is Seattle and the lack of diversity of thought that exists in Yakima or other parts of Eastern Washington where their media choices are limited.

  20. @12 They are on some very very shaky ground. You can’t just take money. You can piggyback things if they’re also used for video return like building a full IP network instead of a pure video one between buildings, but email would be very dubious.

    @18 There are no monopoly cable franchises. That would be against federal law. Any company is free to come in and apply for a franchise. However, I’m not going to dispute your assessment of PEG programming.

  22. It is evident by the questions you asked at the press conference “what are franchise fees,” that you were not knowledgeable about PEG’s, independent media, free speech, and localized programming amongst other things. But the beauty of free speech is the ability and right to have an opinion even if it is uninformed.

  23. Not a dime of your tax dollars are spent on public access. It’s called Cable Franchise fees. Do your homework before you spew complete and utter bullshit.

Comments are closed.