Subject: Re: cable access
From: David Warner <[email-masked]>
To: Multiple recipients of list <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 19 Dec 1995 11:06:05 -0500

On Tue, 19 Dec 1995, Adrian Onsen - ASNG/F94 wrote:

> 	I have a few questions about cable access... How does this work? 
> If I have an idea for a show that I want to make, and let's say I have a 
> few episodes already made, do I have to pay to get my show aired? Do they 
> pay me, for airing my show? I"m more interested in who gets what (money 
> wise) and who's equipment you can use for whatever you're doing!

If you want to run your show on Public Access, you don't have to pay 
anything and they don't pay you anything...it's open air for the public 
to use, if they want, but the cable company could really care less if 
it's used or not.  There is some paperwork to fill out and you'll 
probably have to make a number of phone calls before you find the person 
with the paperwork...you usually have to submit you shows at least 2 weeks
in advance, but there are ways to get around this.  

The rules of this type of Public Access are that you CANNOT do any sort 
of commercial announcement...you can't sell something, you can't tell 
people to call a phone number, you can't tell people to go somewhere...
I'm sure that different station managers enforce these rules differently, 
so check with your local station management and GET THESE RULES IN WRITING!

You CAN post a phone number in the show that people can call, but you 
have to be real careful about what you tell people to do with that phone 
number...for our live shows, we would post a number for people to call 
and we'd usually get some pretty bizarre people on the other end of the 
phone but we also had an answering machine that people could leave 
messages on. (and boy did they leave messages!)

CableTV carriers are obligated to provide a facility and equipment for 
your to use on your show, but you will have to attend a "class" to learn 
how to use the equipment...mostly mindless stuff, like "Yes or no, is it 
a good idea to point the $5,000 camera at a 500-watt halogen lamp?".  The 
studio provided by Bridgeport Cablevision was less than pathetic and it 
wasn't long before we were producing the entire show out of my basement 
when I lived down there. (the good old days!)

Now, there is another form of public access that does pay for programming 
(or may charge you to run your show) and they do allow commercial 
programming and advertisements...this is usually referred to as Local 
Cable TV...in the Southern CT area, most of these shows were mindless 
fluff news programs or astrology infomercials (crap).  I only have 
experience with the free form of Public Access...otherwise known as 
AnarchyTV.  =)

Hope this helped...please forgive the long-winded post though, I couldn't 
help but reminisce a little...

                                     -David Warner