Page One

While Berkeley public access television is now available to a world-wide audience, that doesn’t mean it’s ready for prime time. 

Starting Jan. 1, Channel 28 became one of the first community stations to stream its shows online—zapping Berkeley legends like Frank Moore and Stoney Blake into homes from Albania to Zaire. 

But all is not well for Berkeley Community Media.  

First, the station barely has enough bandwidth to satisfy a Berkeley frat house. 

“If more than say 25-30 people try to watch over the Internet at the same time, it won’t work,” said station Executive Director Brian Scott. 

The Internet conundrum is emblematic of problems that have plagued BCM since its inception in 1992, Scott said. 

Lofty goals have been squashed by tight wallets.  

Like most public access stations, BCM gets most of its $300,000 budget—about 85 percent—from money local cable monopoly Comcast pays to the city. But unlike most other cities, Berkeley shunts more than half of its Comcast money—four percent of all subscription revenues—into its general fund. 

BCM gets the remaining 40 percent, leaving the five-employee station understaffed and poorly equipped to get Berkeley constituencies on the air, Scott said. 

Even the station’s staunchest supporters acknowledge the station has failed to win the hearts of Berkeley residents. 

“It’s a chicken or the egg type problem,” said Berkeley-based performance artist George Coates, who had to buy the station a TelePrompTer to produce a new show for the station. 

“If they had money and could serve Berkeley communities properly, then people would fight for it,” he said. “People don’t watch Channel 28 because the station doesn’t have the funds to create a loyal fan base.” 

Streaming the shows online costs almost nothing, but purchasing more bandwidth so lots of people can watch programs would run into the tens of thousands. 

Scott said he went online so he could improve access and drum up more funding, but unfortunately for the star-crossed outlet, the video streaming launch came amidst a city budget crunch that threatens to eliminate community television altogether. 

Rumors have circulated that the city has considered pulling the plug on Channel 28, leaving Berkeley viewers with government Channel 33—home to City Council, Rent Board and Zoning Adjustment Board simulcasts—as the city’s sole public access station.  

Like other city-funded entities, BCM has been asked to come up with a 20 percent budget reduction as the city tries to dig itself out of a roughly $10 million hole. 

If implemented, the cuts would gut training programs for production novices and pare operating time from six to four days a week, Scott said. 

Lack of staffing has already turned off constituencies that could have used the station to promote their agendas, Coates said. “We don’t really have public access TV in Berkeley,” he said. “It’s a lie. We have the capacity in terms of hardware and connections, but there’s no production staff.  

“If people wanted to do a show for the disabled community there wouldn’t be anyone to work the camera, or operate the sound board or edit the tape,” he said. 

Berkeley Community Media’s best opportunity for some financial breathing room could come in 2007, when Berkeley’s contract with Comcast expires. The city has quarreled with the company over the years, most recently over a scheduled $200,000 payment due to BCM. 

After the city was late in billing Comcast for the fee mandated in their contract, Comcast insisted it didn’t have to make the payment until Berkeley threatened a lawsuit. Scott said he is still waiting for the money, which goes to the station’s capital account. 

He hopes a new deal could generate more money for the city and the station and also launch the station’s programing onto Comcast’s bandwidth, which could truly give the station a global reach. 

That would be pivotal for Coates’ new show, “Better Bad News,” a collaboration with the Berkeley Adult School in which students play news anchors or expert panelists reading off a TelePrompTer whatever viewers ask them to say.  

Coates says the show mocks broadcast news by allowing regular people to fill the mouths of talking heads instead of entrenched political interests. 

The TV news “puppet show satire” allows residents to e-mail statements the announcers will deliver on television. If the show can go live online with enough staff support, viewers can write their text and watch the announcers say it in real time. 

“You’d gain a thrill that doesn’t happen when it’s tape delayed,” he said.  

“If you’re writing at your laptop and see a talking head reading every word you just submitted, that would be a thrill.”