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Announcement :: Media |
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PETITION: Democracy Now! and FSTV on UPTV cable channel 6 |
Current rating: 0 |
by Randall Cotton
Email: recotton (nospam) earthlink.net (unverified!)
Phone: 217-722-8470 |
02 Jul 2004
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Help make Democracy Now! and Free Speech TV available in Champaign/Urbana on UPTV (public-access cable channel 6) by signing the petition. |
There is an effort underway to get the video edition of Democracy Now! broadcast on Insight public-access cable Channel 6 (Urbana Public Television or UPTV). The proposal would broadcast the same thing that you can hear on WEFT at 4PM every weekday, only with the accompanying video feed, which has been around for quite a while now and is being increasingly utilized by Democracy Now! AND, it would be broadcast LIVE, as the program is created, from 7-8AM each weekday (as opposed to 9 hours later on WEFT).
If you already know what Democracy Now! is and you want to join the petition, here's the list of six locations where you can sign up (please try to sign up sometime in the next week, before the next UPTV commission meeting on July 12th). And, by the way, if you'd like to gather signatures yourself, just grab an extra petition sheet at any of the locations below and make copies of it (double-sided - one side has the petition and the other has all the necessary background and contact information).
If you want to learn more, read on (after the list of sites).
WEFT
(in the lobby just outside the studio)
113 N. Market St.
Champaign
World Harvest
(at the counter)
519 E University Ave
Champaign
Boardman's Art Theater
(the AWARE table there)
(this will be around as long as Fahrenheit 911 is playing there)
126 W. Church St.
Champaign
Jerusalem Restaurant
(at the counter)
601 S Wright St
Champaign (campustown)
Strawberry Fields
(at the public bulletin board between the cafe and the store)
306 W Springfield Ave
Urbana
Independent Media Center
(hours vary - call ahead: 344-8820)
218 W. Main St.
Urbana
The details:
UPTV
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The UPTV Commission (Urbana Public Television Commission) is the body which advises the City of Urbana's public-access cable-TV channel, UPTV. This channel is available to anyone who subscribes to local cable-TV service from Insight Communications in the Champaign/Urbana area (UPTV is channel 6 on their system). On July 12th, 2004 the UPTV Commission will consider the acquisition of "Free Speech TV" and the broadcast of "Democracy Now!".
Free Speech TV
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Free Speech TV (FSTV) is a publicly-funded, independent, non-profit progressive media channel that offers 24 hour programming. They offer their programming free of charge to any public-access cable TV station. Once a public access cable-TV station (such as UPTV) acquires FSTV, they obtain the right to retransmit any of FSTV's programming. One of FSTV's programs is "Democracy Now!"
Democracy Now
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"Democracy Now!" is a publicly-funded, independent, non-profit, alternative news, analysis and interview program that is growing in popularity. It currently broadcasts on over 220 public-access cable and radio stations nationwide. The audio portion of Democracy Now! can be heard in the Champaign/Urbana area on WEFT, 90.1FM from 4PM to 5PM on weekdays.
While Democracy Now! was born as a strictly audio program for radio, for some time now DN! has been broadcasting as a full-blown video program. Most of the time, the video is just of the host, Amy Goodman, and any co-hosts or guests she has in the studio, but increasingly, the video shows footage of newsmakers, documentaries and speeches featured in the program.
More importantly though, getting DN! broadcast regularly on cable-TV makes the independent, alternative news and analysis of Democracy Now! more accessible to anyone that has at least basic cable in Champaign and Urbana. Both because it's a different media and because it's in a very different timeslot than WEFT's (most importantly, it's outside of work hours).
Another benefit is that, though it seems counterintuitive, it's typically easier for folks to record a video program (with a VCR or DVR like TiVo) for later viewing than to record a radio program for later listening. This might make it easier for some folks to watch DN! if neither 7AM on UPTV or 4PM on WEFT is a convenient time for them.
And another bonus of this project is that it would make all programming on Free Speech TV (FSTV) readily available for retransmission on UPTV (see www.freespeech.org). FSTV access and retransmission rights are required as part of this project to get DN! on UPTV. But once FSTV access is in place, community members could make requests for UPTV transmission of other FSTV programming besides Democracy Now!
Randall Cotton |
See also:
http://www.democracynow.org
http://www.freespeech.org
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This work is in the public domain |
