Keeping the Channel 36 voice alive

As Councilman Rosendahl urged last Wednesday the Channel 36 funding issue is being addressed in the CAO Budget Memos:

Item #19 Options for Funding Channel 36

The City will shortly begin to receive a new fee from franchise holders totaling one percent of their gross receipts. The revenues from this source can only be used for capital costs associated with providing public, educational, and government (PEG) access programming. This fee is anticipated to generate approximately $5.2 million in revenues annually, and at least one quarter of receipts, or $1.3 million, is anticipated during 2008-09. Of this revenue, $430,000 is appropriated in the 2008-09 Proposed Budget for Channel 35's capital costs, but the remaining balance is sufficient to fully fund Channel 36's $125,000 in capital costs.

The Information Technology Agency and Channel 36 have discussed increasing capital expenditures for Channel 36 by $125,000 to $250,000 to purchase equipment that will allow for on-demand access to Channel 36 programming. The balance from the PEG capital franchise fee would be sufficient to cover this increase.

Item #17 Channel 35 and Channel 36 Facility Sharing

The Budget and Finance Committee requested a report on potential cost savings that could be achieved if Channel 35 and Channel 36 shared their facilities. No savings are available in the short term through facility sharing although eventual collocation should be considered as part of Channel 35's plan to relocate and upgrade its facilities.

Channel 35 is in the beginning stages of planning a multi-year studio upgrade that may involve moving to a new facility. The new studio space could be selected and configured to accommodate Channel 36 as well as Channel 35. While this will not result in savings in the 2008-09 Budget, there could be long-term benefits or savings from collocating the two operations.

Channel 36: http://www.la36.org/

Patt Morrison (LA Times): If anything can save Channel 36 in the last reel, it may be Councilman Bill Rosendahl's role on the budget committee. He hosted an influential cable show for years and helped push the city and the cable companies into airing public interest programs. The zeroing out, he told me, has left him upset, surprised and determined not to let it happen. "To give up a channel like that is like giving up gold."