 Hello and welcome to another episode of Under the Dome, your source for legislative news for the 2023 legislative session. I'm joined today by two leaders in Vermont's community television media movement. I'm Lauren Guendividian at CCTV. I'm Angelica Contis at MMCTV based in Richmond. And you're also the president of the Vermont Access Network, which is made up of 24 organizations like ours. So before we get too deep into today's episode, which is mostly about securing funding for community media as funding revenues diversify, can you both explain a little bit about what community media is and why it's important for folks watching who might not know? Well we're not the public broadcasting system for one. We are, the way I think about it is we are kind of like the eyes and the ears of communities all throughout Vermont. And we are nonprofit organizations and we basically do a lot of things. We document events in our communities. We help municipalities in schools. We help a bunch of nonprofits and amplify their message and their work on a shoestring and empower them. We educate young people and old people and everyone in between. And we also keep all that stuff and all those voices for generations to come. We're also shepherds of that information over time. Archivists. Yeah, I would describe community media as, and our goal is building, our goal is to build community using media. And media is just one tool in the toolbox of social change and to make video equipment and channels and training available for the public for free in a truly non-commercial way. This is not YouTube. YouTube is a data collection system. It is commercial. It's not even a media system. It's not social media. It's not mainstream media. It's not public media. This is hands-on, free, commercial, non-commercial media so that people can make change happen in their communities. There's a political goal for community media makers, and that is to make the place that they live a better place for everyone who lives there. And so we briefly mentioned it, but, Angeliki, you are the president of VAN, or the Vermont Access Network. Can we go just slightly deeper into what that means, because CCTV and MMC TV are not the only public access centers throughout the state? Yeah, so I guess it goes back to how all the cable lines were set up throughout the state. Like, for instance, I'm in the Mt. Mansfield Community Television. We're based in Richmond, but we serve Richmond, Jericho, and Underhill. Why those three towns? Because they're close together, and in the old days when Adelfia set up the cable system, they just happened to be in that area. Actually, it was before Adelfia. It was a local guy, generally, who wanted to sell television sets, set up an antenna in a mountainous area, which Vermont was. And so that was even pre-Adelfia. It was the 50s. Yeah. We've inherited our geographic identities, and in many ways today we've gone beyond that, like us in Richmond, or people in Brattleboro, or Montpelier. And we are serving areas that are not just from where the cable lines are set up. We're serving areas that maybe have a cultural connection to us now better, because the word I'm not saying here is online. We're also doing a lot of our work online. But okay, how do we all connect to each other? We could just sit there in Richmond and reinvent the wheel, and for every problem we had to solve or technical issue we were facing, just figure it out ourselves, or we could have a mutually beneficial organization that helps all of us at the same time. And that's pretty much what the Vermont Access Network is. We all, it's kind of, we're all, and I think Vermont is ahead of a lot of other states in the sense that we are in constant communication with each other to our mutual benefit. And it's a professional organization in a way, but it's also, we are on Slack constantly speaking to each other every day. We share our files for free. Like if this program, we play under the dome all the time at MMC TV and our local cable channels. And we share these programs amongst ourselves for free, and we also share them with other access centers throughout the U.S. And there are some really interesting differences between the community media centers. So St. Albans, for example, has a real specialty in high school sports. And people depend on St. Albans for those sporting events. Orca Media and Montpelier focuses a lot on the legislature, and they cover, under the dome, they cover legislative hearings. And related activities that are happening on the steps are inside the state house. You have Bennington and Manchester in the southeast corner of the state. You have Brattleboro in the south, they're in the southwest, you have Brattleboro in the southeast. And then all the way up, you have St. John'sbury, you have Newport. So in every corner of the state, there are community media centers that are open for youth, seniors, people of all ages and municipalities to get their hands on the equipment and tell their stories. It's very exciting. And in fact, during the pandemic, we were identified by the legislature as an essential service. Yeah. So can you tell us a little bit more about that? So it was determined to be an essential service by the Vermont legislator. Can both of you tell us what adjustments you made during the pandemic and how the legislature made this decision? Well, the big change for us, well, on the one hand, we were in nonstop communication. Like I feel kind of like the members of Van got even closer together than we had been in the past during the pandemic because we're like, what's happening here? What are we going to do? What are you doing? What's the latest from St. Albans? What's the latest from Burlington? What protocols are you putting in place? And the biggest change that many of us did is we changed how we serve our municipalities. Like in my small nonprofit, normally over 50% of our resources in our time goes into municipal meetings for our three towns, select board meetings, water sewer commission meetings, planning commission meetings. And during the pandemic, we switched to suddenly being like tech support for our three towns. We used to maybe speak to them once every few weeks. Since the pandemic kicked in, we've been speaking to them on a daily basis and we personally have actually moved into Richmond's municipal building. So it reinforces that. And we've set up in the past, our videographers would haul all their equipment into the towns and record the meetings during the pandemic. On the one hand, we wanted to keep our staff safe and we also didn't want to have an extra person in the room. So we set up what we think of like little C-span systems in each of our three little rural towns and we're quite proud of them because we can actually from home have our field producers, actually they stay home now and they control the cameras remotely. I mean that introduces a host of audio problems, but I think we figured most of them out like one headache at a time. And also the public can participate remotely. And that was a giant pivot to go from in-person one camera shoots or two camera shoots to these hybrid meeting coverage. And in fact, all around the state within one week of the pandemic happening by the 20th of March, most every access center, community media center had figured out how to help keep the wheels of municipal government going. And for that, we were recognized by the legislature as an essential service. I think that's really impressive and to note that even as we're three years in to the pandemic, some of those, like you mentioned, your field producers are still doing it from home and the availability to participate in remote meetings for the public remains the same, which I think is really important. And that was a giant innovation that happened in a very short time, as many innovations did during the pandemic. And I think like the strength of VAN, the Vermont Access Network, really came through. For instance, at MMC TV, we were speaking to everybody digitally every day on Slack, and we just completely borrowed a system that Springfield Access Television had already set up. The same equipment, the same little map of how the computers speak to each other for hybrid remote meetings. And it was really helpful because we didn't have to go do all the research in the trouble of shooting ourselves, as it had already been done. Absolutely. And so I think one of the burning questions here is the fact that cable TV revenue or people watching cable continues to decline. And traditionally, public access TV has been funded by that cable revenue. So how have the 24 Access Centers, a part of the Vermont Access Network, how have they coped with this funding change? Well, let me just start by saying we've seen this coming since 1990. So when the phone companies got into the video business, we knew that cable was no longer going to be the only game in town for getting video programming and that there needed to be a public policy change that ensured that any provider of video services had to contribute to the public good. Now cable companies themselves don't contribute to the public good per se. They pass that cost on to their subscribers. They do set aside certain channels. And in Vermont, about 5.5% is tacked on to every subscriber bill. And that's what funds community media around the state to the tune of about $7 million. That used to be more closer to $8 million, but that number is starting to decline because, as you said, people are cutting the cord. They're not really cutting the cord. They're just replacing the cord from cable to fiber. So the revenue that we depend on is declining. And we've been trying to figure out very actively for, as I said, since 1990, but in particular the last 10 years, how community media centers can diversify their own revenue and not just rely on the cable franchise fees, but also how we can get some support and policy change from the legislature. Talk about a little bit how you've diversified at MMCTV. You've been very innovative. So I've been there for the past decade as director. And in the past, I think it was like 100% of our funding came from the cable franchise fees on individual cable subscribers in our towns. And we are still very reliant on cable revenue. It's been really difficult actually to get individual donations. I think just people assume that since we're there and we're doing all that, that we're fine. We always appreciate donations. And whenever I see one come in on PayPal, I'm immediately emailing the person, thank you so much. We needed that. But one of the things that we finally turned around, we've asked our municipalities for help, which we never really did in the past. And we don't ask them for a lot of money because we're intimately familiar with their budgets and their restraints. But we do ask them to cover some of the labor costs involved of running half of the bazillion meetings that we do all year. So we give them a pretty good deal for the dollar. But we have turned around. And that has been helpful. And we also do things like we run summer camps. If I had staffing for that, which has been a struggle to find co-teachers, but they're hugely popular. They always fill up. The kids have such a good time. It was one of the things we were happiest about returning to in person after the pandemic. We tried to do one remotely. It was fun. But it's so much fun for these are middle schoolers every summer to spend a week. And lately, they've been spending a week making a scene for the crowdsourced Cinema Vermont project, which is spearheaded by the media factory also in Burlington. And it was just a wonderful thing during the pandemic for people to do a creative collaborative effort around this state and have fun. Like we felt like we injected some fun into Vermont during the crisis. You'll find community media centers have fees for service. So they'll charge for production services. You'll find pretty ambitious underwriting campaigns. For example, in Brattleboro, they've done a very good job with their underwriting. And at Okima Valley, they've done a great job there. In addition to expanding private donations, and then at CCTV, what we've done is we have actually diversified the kinds of programs that we run. So whereas town meeting television used to be 85, 90% of our programmatic activity, now we work with the Vermont Language Justice Project, which translates public health messages into 16 languages. We have an archival program that we fund independently. We have a production company. And we have over the years brought in different kinds of projects that we've innovated such as Common Good Vermont and the Old North End Community Technology Center, which we're actually sitting outside of right now, that building that one day in the past we owned. So we're relying not only on cable revenue, but philanthropy and federal grants and state grants. And that is what we're seeing happening increasingly. However, it is really necessary for the legislature to support this work. And so we have been actively lobbying in the legislature. Angelica can speak as the president of VAN on our efforts to raise bridge funding, one-time bridge funding from the legislature over the past three years. Well, I would just like to say that as with the municipalities, I feel like it's been an easy sell following on the pandemic and the work we did during the pandemic, that people know us throughout this state and they work with us very closely, like in all parts of the state. So it's been pretty easy saying, you know what we do, you know who we are, you know how valuable it is to the whole state to have this strong organization in each community. So we've been asking for a short-term funding and we were successful in receiving money last year for fiscal year 23. And now we're asking again for fiscal year 24 and it's made its way through the house is in the Senate and we're going to hopefully have some short-term funding as we figure out a long-term funding plan. Yeah, so we got COVID money, we got FY 22 money, we got FY 23 money and this year, the Senate appropriations actually just voted our $1 million request out. So that's gonna go and be part of the larger budget that's being discussed right now. So we're hoping and that results in about $35,000 per community media center. And that's significant help for the small ones and the big ones. Now, as Angeliki said, there is a longer-term policy change that we need to affect because there has to be another way to contribute to the public benefit, other carriers to contribute to the public benefit. And so we have drafted with Representative Avram Pat, Community Media Public Benefits Bill. And that is currently in a short form in the House Environment and Energy Committee. We've drafted a longer form. We're hoping for a hearing in that committee this legislative year before the end of May. And then we're hoping for it to work its way through the legislature next year. Now, because the governor is not a big fan of new taxes, we imagined he would not, we know from the Department of Public Service that he would not be a fan of this. So it does face a veto if it made its way all through the legislature. So we are taking a long view and this may take one or two sessions in order to pass. But if we do, it will provide an ongoing long-term revenue alternative to cable franchise fees. So as they decline, this other revenue source will increase and create some stability. It won't replace all the funds we're getting from franchise fees, but it will create a stability over the long-term. And it will also be there's only two or three other states who are pursuing these kinds of approaches. And so we are in Vermont, in the Vanguard, as usual. I just wanted to add for that, that in a way it's a lot more equitable too to think of funding that's not just on the cable franchise fees because we're looking like in our towns, there's very few people that are still just watching everything on cable programs like under the dome. And there's many more people that are watching things online, like all our programming is online. And we know the statistics there that we don't know the statistics on cable, but it's really clear to us that a lot of people are watching you do an F cable at home. So in a way, and we've had legislators tell us, oh, I don't have cable at home. I think I should be contributing to my community media center. And this is an alternative to that. We're just some people who are paying for cable bills are contributing to the whole state for our services. Like a way to make it more equitable throughout the state. And in fact, in the Vermonter poll, which we recently commissioned, about 30% reported they watched on cable and about 30% of respondents reported they watched online and about 30% said they didn't watch us at all. So actually that's not bad set of numbers, but as Angeliki said, the numbers are changing. And in fact, there's a lot of pros and cons to not being able to go through the dial and see a lot of competing voices were very siloed and how we watch. And so a lot of the principles of community media are being called into question in this period, principles of free speech, principles of alternative views and dealing with ideas that you don't normally run into and it's very hard to run into them. And then really forging a new community out of conflict and different points of view, you know, really has been our premise. And as the media ecosystem has changed, many of those fundamentals are really need to be looked at again and discussed. And I've been negligent, we haven't said the word. We also have a new statewide channel called Vermont Community Television, which is on 1070 throughout the state on Comcast cable, but it's also online. So. And that's a great, if you want to see all the great things we do. Yeah, that's a really great resource. And the Vermont Access Network has a website as well. I'm not sure of the exact address, but we'll put it up for folks so that they can take a peek, a little deeper dive into all of the community access networks throughout the state. And on that note, I'm curious just for folks watching, what is there something that the public can do to other than philanthropy to help this legislature, this pass, or just as a way to show their support of community media? Is there anything that the public can do? I think when people see their legislators, it's really helpful for them to say, we love our community media centers. They make a big difference. My kids go to summer camp. I watch the public meetings. This is why it's important. So our legislators would really benefit and would back them up to hear how valuable this service is. And then I think at the time where we need to mobilize a lot of people to the ranks, you know, to the boards, we'll make that call and we'll call people out to ask them for their support. Yeah, I think that people can just see in their communities how something that is produced by town meeting television or the media factory or Brattleboro community TV, like their ski jump, the Harris ski jump, I'm thinking the Harris Hill ski jump. People can think about what that service means to them and how it has exponential value in the community and how it's great to have the archive of the whole four hour or five hour town meeting and not just three minutes that's available at their fingertips. Absolutely. And so before we wrap this interview up, I would like to give you both a chance just to have a moment to say anything that you think folks should know or any last updates on what you're working on lately, anything like that. I would just like to make another plug for the crowdsource cinema Vermont program that a lot of us are doing at our TV camps this summer and you can sign up with a team or sign up at your local community media center. We'll provide you with cameras and microphones and you can do something really fun with your family or your workplace this summer. I think it's important to point out that every community in Vermont, almost every community is within driving distance of a community media center. And these, as we said, are great resources especially for developing critical media skills for young people. It's absolutely essential because it helps them engage as citizens and it helps them to be more discriminating about the media that they consume. And then as a service in terms of opening the doors of local government, you know, to have access to a public meeting from beginning to end, you might not watch it but that one thing that you care about that one time is available for you and that is worth having the service there, an abiding way. In addition to running community media centers with these fantastic people, we have Travis here, we have Scott here, we have Hugh, we're all here, we're all working, we also maintain this statewide network. So there is a cohesive initiative effort movement that helps to protect and preserve what we do and Angeliki is the president of Vermont Access Network and she's doing this work over and above all the other things that she does and so I think it's really important to recognize the work that we're doing and then the over and above because for us, this is not a job, this is a mission. We are doing this because we want our communities to be better, safer, happier, more productive, more equitable, more just places and we believe that communications is the way to make that happen. And so I really have enormous respect for all of us who are doing this but also for those of us who really see this as a movement and how necessary it is to do that extra work to make that happen and I want to thank Angeliki because she puts enormous shoulder to the grindstone on that. And I want to help and thank Lauren Glenn for keeping us focused. I mean, you all started this whole community media thing back in the 60s and 70s in Vermont and we're just doing our part now to make sure that it doesn't end when the cable revenue ends. So we want it to keep going into the future. I'm not that old, but it has been 39 years. So 1984, so we're about to have our 39th anniversary of community media but I will say that in Brattleboro and St. John'sbury they were covering municipal meetings in the late 70s and that is true. And we are, it's so much fun to dig into our archives and share them with the public. It's really fun. And I just wanted to say like most of us are people, like if you look at Venn and the people are there we have our annual meeting coming up for members. Most of us are like problem solvers and people who like to do things behind the scenes. So this effort to do this advocacy work, be in the legislation, let's just later, be in Montpelier all the time. It doesn't come naturally to all of us but we do feel compelled to be involved in it. Thank you. Yeah, well thank you both very much for speaking with us today. And I just, I really want to encourage folks before we wrap up that to check out Venn, check out MMC TV, CCTV, whatever local access station is like Lauren Glenn said, a couple of minute drive or a walk away probably from where you live. There's some really fantastic work being done and I also want to thank you both for the fantastic work that you're doing in terms of advocacy because you're exactly right. We want to make sure that this continues and doesn't stop when the cable funding runs out. So thank you both again for taking the time to inform about what work, public access and community media centers around the state are doing in the Vermont State House. And for folks watching out there, thank you so much for tuning in. Stay tuned in the coming weeks for more under the dome programs. You can find a full schedule on our website at ch17.tv. Thank you very much for tuning in.