 we're just waiting for the countdown phones on silent silent thank you Tony it's like church checking this mic hello testing one two three four five six seven eight hello hello hello I think we got this one hello hello testing one two three good morning thanks everyone for joining us thank you congressman Welsh for being with us Peter it's just a pleasure we're here today with members and leaders of the Vermont access network which are the public educational and government access channels and centers all across the state there are 25 centers operating more than 75 channels believe it or not quite impressive and we're here to talk to you about some of the threats that we're facing particularly from the FCC and we'd also like to talk a little bit about net neutrality which we know is on the docket in Congress and the House this week and there are folks in the audience who are board members as well and if you have any questions well you just come and sit here in this chair because we have them like when it comes there's anything you would like to say so we're going to start with some comments from the congressman and then we're going to just have a discussion about the issues that are of concern to us and you can see our name tags here so that gives you a little idea of who you're talking to the high command yeah public access well Lauren thank you and by the way let's acknowledge Lauren's pioneering status I just remember when you were beginning and a public access was really not formed and somebody had an idea and a lot of you here but nobody more than Lauren about how this could serve the public and of course okay we it's under threat now and there's two things let me give a little background that I want to talk about one is net neutrality and the other is the public access funding one of the reasons I think they're so important is rural rural America is really imperiled these days it's getting tough in rural Vermont and it's getting tough in rural America and it is a whole variety of reasons from the real challenges in the farm economy to the new digital economy and not having the broadband infrastructure that you need in rural America it's the dynamic of people moving in the urban areas but we have to have federal policies across the board that renew our commitment this my view my view but I think others share it with me we have to have policies that renew our commitment to rural America you know there were other times in our history right around the depression when electricity was getting spread across America and there was no economic case then to electrify rural America but there was a social case to be made and we made it and that social case was that we have to have all of us in it together so we developed a rural electrification program and we got that last mile of electricity out to rural America and it's important in my view because rural America does embody a lot of values that are so important to our country and we now are at a point where with the weakening in the farm economy we have to have a farm we have to have a farm bill that focuses on local production of agriculture with the internet we obviously have to make a commitment like we did in the depression to get broadband out to rural America so that there's a chance to compete and one of the most important things that has to be part of it too is public access television which has as its mission informing people in the local community and local is real it's the only you know there's such forces of globalization that we can talk about quite some time but one of the things about globalization is that it kind of fragments communities it doesn't bring them together so I've always seen a public access television and Lauren I think this was from the beginning your your vision but I know it's shared by everybody here it's a way to let people in the community participate in public dialogue they can do it by watching but they can also do it by participating I mean the opportunities that local people have to to speak to their neighbors on public access television is enormous is and the fact that a school board meetings or select board meetings are broadcast and then people talk about it that is really important so the two things right now in Congress and they're on the energy and commerce committee on which I sit and I'm on the telecom subcommittee so it's a good place for me to be to try to help us preserve what it is you're doing last week you know it's not I hate to disappoint you but it's not all Trump all the time we actually did a little work but the the House Telecom committee passed the net neutrality bill no blocking no throttling no paid prioritization and that was to reinforce what had been the FCC rule under Mr. Wheeler and was rescinded under the Trump appointee Mr. Pi but in addition to those three things which the big telecom companies all say therefore we want the FCC to have cop on the beat authority to make certain that some new maneuvers that favor companies at the expense of internet access they can control they can they can weigh in on that and make certain that the public is being protected and that's what's controversial do we have a cop on the beat or don't we and you have to have a cop on the beat because who knows what the next paid prioritization maneuver will be who knows what the next throttling event will be who knows what the next effort to try basically to make it tougher but for you to have access to the internet or the people of Vermont in the country to have access to the internet so we're going to be having that on the floor very soon and I hope that we're going to get a strong vote on it I know our side will vote the big issue is whether you're going to empower the FCC to have cop on the beat authority to make certain that what the next iteration of putting the squeeze on your access to the internet that the access to the internet everybody whether you're a startup company a neighborhood neighborhood capitalist who is that here there she is yeah we were talking earlier whether you've got a small store and you want to have access to that internet because you need it for your business or your big company you were not going to discriminate against you so that's out of the energy and commerce committee telecoms the full committee and it's going to be going to the floor shortly so I'm really happy about that and if I've heard from Vermonters about one issue more than any others it's really about keeping the internet open and accessible to everybody and then secondly there is a challenge on your funding and as you guys know if the cable companies want to have access to this extraordinarily lucrative market that's there and cable rates last I knew have never gone down they're always going up there has to be some contribution to public access for the purposes of letting the public participate in benefit in the democratic dialogue and that's what you guys do all around the state the fact that there's so many people here is an indication of how intensely local it is and the cable companies are lobbying in effect to basically be given credit for doing what they were supposed to do before as an offset to the contributions financially that are essential absolutely essential to your continued existence and by the way I've been to a lot of your cable stations you're not living large so you do a lot with a little and I really appreciate that so I with many of my colleagues are going to working very hard to make certain that you're not cut off from the source of modest funds that you've had that it has allowed you to keep doing your work so those two things keeping the internet open and accessible and keeping the cable our public access television programming funded those are two absolutely essential priorities for me and I believe for most of my colleagues on the telecom subcommittee on the energy and commerce committee so thank you so much for the work you do thank you for being here today and I'm looking forward to hearing about how important this work is and how threatening it would be if either the internet was curbed or your funding was restrained thank you thank you so much thank you so the floor is open for comments Kevin Christopher is the president of the Vermont Access Network he not only runs LCA TV which serves Colchester Milton Georgia the islands and beyond but he also works tirelessly on our behalf to keep us herded and moving in the right way I wanted to make a comment I think when we're talking with our lawmakers here in the state yeah there is no partisan approach to this right we have Democratic support Republican progressive independent I would say if there is a partisan divide in talking with your colleagues about what we do I think it's important to note the impact that we have on the job market in Vermont and beyond we employ almost 200 people in the state really and hundreds more nationwide in addition to that we're we're partnering with job development groups nonprofits internships so the our job impact goes far beyond our centers and I think that's an important thing to note when when talking to people about the possible impacts to what we do is that there's a in addition to that link to democracy into that community involvement there's also a serious financial impact to our economy as well thank you thanks I don't have anything specifically prepared to say I guess one question I would have is you indicated that the your colleagues on your committee are also supportive of that so awesome what we do so that's kind of a good thing to hear for us because I feel like in Vermont we're kind of preaching to the choir I think that you and the rest of our delegation from not really understand the importance of what we do but we don't have a sense of how the rest of the country feels so I'm curious you know it's what's really interesting to me is that when I talk about some of the challenges that we face in the rural parts of Vermont and that's a lot of Vermont and my Republican colleagues who I disagree with on a lot of things when I'm talking about the concrete problems we have in rural Vermont they're the I'm talking their language because those are not unique to rural Vermont they're they're they're all of rural America and it's a real it's a real challenge now where the dispute gets in is that the cable companies are pretty powerful lobbyists down there I mean they're the ones that are standing in the way of they're very active in in on the open internet and basically there they say they're against paid prioritization and throttling in blocking but they don't want to have a cop on the beat the FCC who is going to be able to come in protect everyday consumers and small businesses when some new iteration of that discrimination occurs okay so that's where there's a that's where there's a kind of clash but and in terms of a lot of my colleagues and the Republicans frankly represent more of rural America than the Democrats do so one of the things I'm always talking about is the concrete issues in rural America and that is I say allows me when I'm really specific about that we don't get into ideological stuff but how do you deal with your cable stations and what's their challenges and what's going to happen to their funding or what'll happen to your small entrepreneurs if they don't really have the long-term access to the internet then that's kind of that that's we share that in common so that's my hope that's that's the way I want to approach this yeah oh right exactly of course that's something that our stations are set up to really allow for right and you have a lot of like report by the local rep who's that's right we have that show at bctv but we also have right now we have the orca which is the station here on appeal year is streaming now live a lot of the budget addresses and legislative legislative committees and and governor's addresses and so that local people can stay in touch with that you know where's Brattleboro is so far from my appeal year and people there are very active and want to stay involved but they can't be driving two hours all the time right so I just think that's something that you know when you come and do a press conference in northern Vermont we're watching it right in Brattleboro no it's you in a lot of people will mention that to me I mean I know people are watching just by people commenting that they saw me you know on your program was there anything more that you wanted to add about the impact of the funding decline on bctv the course from Brattleboro as you well and and you probably know that our stations have a wide range of sizes right right and that's according to the the service territory that's designated to fund that station and and so bctv is on the smaller side of that and you know this threat to funding could potentially eliminate Brattleboro station so for how many others would this threat to funding pose an existential challenge all of us yeah you just because you have a pretty modest budget as it is if it didn't eliminate kingdom access television in st. John'sbury area it would at best completely stifle the outreach that we provide supporting community groups and institutions in our area these kinds of impacts would just be devastating to what we do well you know it's in I want to hear more but I know that if I'm in St. Alvin's or I'm in St. John'sbury and we're doing some event that you guys are there and just I can say that for everyone there so you're getting and that doesn't happen automatically you've got to have somebody on the staff who can bring the camera to the place at the time and do the production and ask the questions we rely on a network that we've set up by working together a file-sharing network where van has set up a system where if something's happening in st. John'sbury that's how it gets to Brattleboro is is by a file-sharing network that Vermont Access Network has set up and a little bit more about that because that that is like cooperation as opposed to competition that benefits the public right kind of a weird concept don't let out don't let that secret out all right we might get something done in Washington that's interesting because there's always been that misconception of you know because we we work so closely together but it's always collaborative it's never competitive yeah and we get a lot done throughout the state the amount of local coverage that we have I don't think can be compared to any other media outlet that yeah where we cover everything and we really do work together to do that but that's right but but people are van board members as volunteers on top of their jobs also as executive directors of these stations yeah and so along with those stations being diminished what they can do those jobs are going to be diminished that network that is going to disappear talk a little bit about your boards because that's community people right yeah so maybe somebody could really for the viewers talk about that as much yeah no we have we have some great board participation it's it's it's critical for us because we're you know in terms of our staffing we have one and a half employees plus contract employees I got one and a half one and a half yeah mad river mad river Valley television in in in Waitsfield so yeah it's it is a critical source in terms of fundraising we have fundraising events and we have board members that help out there so we wouldn't be able to survive without our board members helping out in those are community volunteers in effect it's a volunteer position yeah we have we have a nine-person board eight currently serving but it's it's a nine-person board probably between seven and 15 yeah I mean just we were very worried about the same size one and a half people a budget of about 150,000 and we broadcast 24-7 on in our two channels 24-7 yes yeah I mean and we have much more material the thing is like we're the three little towns of Jericho under Hill and Richmond but there's always there's never a dull moment but often right here but we we tend to share a few shows with the rest of Vermont and actually the rest of the nation and the system the files sharing system we have like our calligraphy show has gone to California and a prison in Massachusetts and things like that most of our select boards we keep to ourselves but but we are big downloaders big users of the system we're constantly downloading things from CCTV from Mad River I mean we just have so much great local local content from on Pilar half of our government stuff comes from on Pilar so the media exchange is just a huge asset and it's also a great way to get producers in like a high school student if they know they're going to make a video with us and not just share it with their towns but like with the whole world it's pretty exciting for them and a lot of our students do go on to become to study film like I've seven years I've been there I've seen kids go through all those stages and they're now like media professionals so we're kind of a training ground and we always we have like three or four high school middle school students that come in like today I have to get back there at a certain time because I have a high school student I'm helping to learn the basics of editing so yeah talk more about that so like younger people I can learn these skills I like to share my name is Tony campus from Central Vermont television talking about training yeah recently I found out that one of the young men that we trained in our studio Aaron Janice is now vice president of 20th Century Fox and I said I called him up I said how did you get this job he goes well you taught me my passion gave you the opportunity and I shared another letter we partnered with a local sports online company and he sent me a letter last month that because of our station support of his small company he is employing 25 part-time people to cover sports so we touched so many people out there in our communities and you know I don't understand why the cable companies want us gone because we help them sell the internet with all the stuff that we do I think another point to make is that the training is free the facilities are free for people come in and to use so this is something that yeah I mean I'm in a rub because I actually that's a serious question why do they I mean it's not that much and they don't pass it on right but it creates a competitive disadvantage for them they see at first it was the satellite companies yeah didn't have the peg feet and then yeah now it's all the internet companies they're competing with please come use them like Greg Epler would is our member services yeah hi yeah I have us maybe to put two things two perspectives Kevin mentioned I think the amount of money that all the access centers in the state get a cat TV was one of the pioneers in figuring out what the what the value the value added the indirect result and so from the it works out to be a fact multiple error about 8.5 in other words the revenue into the state is about 8.8 point is it 8.7 million yeah of revenues that come from the cable operators to the 25 access centers 8.7 million yeah and if you multiply that times 8.5 of all the services the training the video recording of all the all that it comes out to us 65 million 68 million dollars something like that and so the jobs that are being supported is not the whole story but but let me look in the macro sense of this as well I was just telling Keith here on the way in that one of the difficulties that peg access has is that most of the rest of the country particularly the rural areas in the southeast in particular do not have public access it was either killed off by the cable operators and so when you look at a company the monster company of Comcast why doesn't come why don't the cable company support this well it's because one of the reason I believe is that because this thing that is so wonderful in Vermont is a small part of their business and they look at other states and don't see their systems and they've been able to stifle public access and so their their corporate policy does not include us and so we have to fight on the regional level you know that's interesting because you know the airways are public and the private companies end up owning spectrum but there's always been a sense that the public should benefit right and you know the cable fees are they're so outrageous and they just keep going up and basically what happens you know you get you get an athlete who gets a four hundred million dollar contract and how do they pay for that it's by television rights that go over cable and then our cable bills go up and up and up and the the the companies are feeling some pressure I think from subscribers who are I think rightly complaining about this escalation in rates but is the remedy to put the squeeze on public access I mean it's not to me and it's one of the big challenges we have in this country right now public community engagement we need more of not less of we've just got to have that if we're gonna kind of revitalize our democracy I mean this is really existential for our democracy I'm sorry one of the underlying issues here is that the franchise fee is compensation for the rights of way and so really what is happening the FCC is doing is an assault on the state's authority to manage the rights of way right and so peg funding is a symptom of this bigger issue which is the FCC saying you don't get to actually be in charge of your local rights away so I think that's an important kind of bigger issue for Congress to be aware of because the the legislature and the Public Utility Commission half it's a fight on them and their ability to say to the cable operators you have to allocate some of these resources that are subscriber dollars not cable company dollars to public use in exchange for the rights of way for the viewers could you just break down that public right of way and what that term is that you're talking about so it's the it's this green belt in the streets where the poles are where you see phone poles and cable wires are attached to them they're in this public property which local municipalities and in this case the state have the authority to dictate the terms and conditions on behalf of all of us because that's public property so when you put in a phone pole you have to pay a fee when you string when you string cable you're in effect the franchise fee and the peg fee is compensation that the that Congress said in the cable act in the communications act is legitimate payment for the use of these right of way and so just to be very specific about the financial impact on our channels the FCC is going to is likely to say that the in kind the in kind franchise compensation the channels right okay could be the cost of the channels could be subtracted from this that's what they're trying to say so we don't know yet how the cable companies are going to value like what the permission is going to be to value so it is really uncertain whether it will be market rate whether it'll be some kind of internal rate but they're clearly planning on quantifying this as as far as the FCC will allow them so we have we don't know exactly what the implications are but we are expecting that they'll try and accrue reduce the peg fee as much as right and that's a big issue for us right I mean I think and that so it's a real question and we also with Comcast at least have even in very recent history they they're poor communicators they don't tell us what their business activities are that will have an impact on us in with enough time in advance so we are really in the dark about what the implications will be so how much notice do you usually get year-to-year in order to plan your budgets they pay us quarterly right we get yeah we get no no notification we get a check and that's how much you get and you but has it been steady so actually yeah this past year comcast which is the majority of our cable operators made an accounting change that affected us by five to ten percent which yeah so when you're a non yeah and it's particularly big when we've been seeing growth in almost that direction some of us right particularly in the rural areas have seen continued growth year over year so it's not even just a five to ten percent loss it's a five percent loss plus the five percent that you were perhaps budgeting an increase which is the case in ours so because we're nonprofits we don't really operate with large margins and even just that small small change meant that those community events that you mentioned that were always at I had to start saying no because I didn't know what the next quarter's check would be and so that's a problem yeah because if you can't do the local events you can't do your mission exactly and then you start losing viewers and that's five to ten percent and people are forecasting if this new rule goes into effect from the FCC they're forecasting 30 to 50 we just don't even know how much we'll lose of our budgets yeah if I could speak hypothetical here in 2003 Comcast sued the city of San Jose I believe part of their filings they stated that they valued a cable channel at $150 per subscriber per year so that's a very different market but also a very different time I did the math on our end operating budget of 560,000 roughly mm-hmm our three channels will be valued at 4.5 million mm-hmm charge back against us that math doesn't really make sense in terms of our path forward yeah you'll owe them yeah okay do folks want to talk a little bit about what we're doing to respond to this because we we're not actually just sitting ringing our hands right we're doing some creative things and I think folks might want to talk about I know Tony likes to talk about his his ideas and the work he's doing in Barry to generate revenue and help fund CVTV well we focused as you mentioned earlier on agriculture yeah and our sharing our videos we have people stations in California downloading our food and travel shows and I asked them why they go because Vermont does it so well you know one thing people are always looking for our things these are other cable TV channels Massachusetts Connecticut we share our videos on this platform yeah and you know we get underwriting for that we received a USDA grant to create our programming because we focus on the local farmers we focus on the local story and we hire young people we pay them anywhere from 15 to $20 an hour we don't have them do it for free and we give them an education but everyone in this room has a passion for what we do in the public access world and so you know we're looking down the road of other revenue sources to keep our local programming going because people will eventually cut the cable and watch their program on this and we we we do not receive any revenue from internet it's all cable subscribers but I'm sure many of the stations now I mean we've just started doing it we we are providing streaming our channels are streaming on the air they are you can watch it on your yeah watch it on the iPhone watch it because we do know this technology is changing but as he says we are seeking out other revenue outlets because we know people are cutting the cords people are looking at other options to the view and we don't get that revenue from the internet which is you know but you you you deliver on the internet yeah with the ads to our expenses you know in terms of staffing and technology and you know you have to you have to go where the viewers are or deliver where the viewers yeah that's it it's coming out of our budgets yeah so but I think that everybody is locally trying to work to find alternative revenue sources a lot of us have had to go to our town you know boards you know we've never charged our towns for meeting coverage but we've had to do that on this town and school board meetings and there's I think you know everybody at this table can talk about things that we're doing locally in our own stations to try to identify ways to remain sustainable but I think that as a group collaboratively we've been doing a lot of work as well with the state legislature and I mean Lauren Glenn can speak to all the things I think we're trying to look at it from all different levels so that we're not just sitting and wringing our hands but it's an unknown we don't know when the FCC is going to rule we don't know how quickly after they rule but you have to have some stability in what has been your traditional fee revenue yeah and unfortunately I mean we're going to have to turn to more of a fee for service model realistically and I think all of us got involved with this because it provided pure access for anybody no matter who they were no matter what they could pay no matter what they wanted to say right you know that's the free speech yeah ideal but I'm going to be looking at saying you know if you want to use the studio it's going to be this much money because I have to pay a staff member to run the studio and that's really would change the culture I would think huh one of the we deal with a lot of challenges as an organization and the members on our board but this is one of the toughest things that we've looked at and tried to resolve because we're nonprofit community groups that are transparent under the nonprofit bylaws and we're providing a transparency service for in a lot of cases for local municipalities and schools so if we go out to monetize part of that service streaming on the video and getting underwriting to supplement that and make up for any of the budget cuts that are on the horizon one of the things that we've realized in st. John'sbury is that we're going to be going head-to-head competing for underwriting money with the local museum the local library the local arts center right on the commercial side we don't have a broadcaster in st. John'sbury that's offering television service right but we will be going up against local radio stations right and going after that money that could be used on the nonprofit sector for right you know their missions and also getting into the commercial for-profit sector taking money away from those organizations it's devastating it's a total change in the way we have to run our businesses instead of delivering our mission we're trying to you know learn how to create a new business to stay sustainable yeah we've had to launch several new services to try to generate revenue and it's essentially a form of fundraising you know we've got a live streaming service we've launched a production services you know division in terms of doing production work for folks and charging for that work and yeah so it's and we do underwriting as well and it's it's tough because in our community in the manor of alley there's not a lot of big businesses that can you know support that that kind of fundraising so well you know this is really alarming because we're chuckling because yeah we're glad you think well it you know it's there's there's such a I think of concentration of there's an assault on the public good you know the common and there are certain things that we just as a society have to decide that we share that we're in it together and we have to have a system of funding where the objective of the service to the public can be viable and you know it's like we can't have a mini Comcast in the Mad River Valley in the Northeast Kingdom you know where you're trying to compete as though you're some type of entrepreneurial cable company you've got you've got a mission to the local people and we believe in that or we don't that's really kind of what it boils down to so if we believe in it we have to have a funding system is viable and sustainable and again I I keep you know I haven't been to so many of your studios it's pretty modest it's not like we're talking big money here and what did you say the headcount for full-time people is about one and a half people in general that's for you yeah so if you have to do all these other things that you're talking about then that comes at the expense of what the basic mission is so it's a different it's a different animal then you have to be competing in a marketplace and markets are fine for the appropriate places but you know it's like public schools have to be publicly funded because we believe in public education and public access television is serving a public function I mean we were talking a little earlier what I love about the public access television is people feel authorized to get on there and say their peace and it not might be the peace I would say but the people can say it they have access to a public forum where their words get disseminated it's so core of democracy for people to feel empowered to speak and to be heard and you provide that I just wonder Bill is that Bill from Nat TV or Bob I'm sorry to put you on the spot but you drove all the way up here and I just want to give you a chance to come and sit and tell us a little bit about the work at Nat TV because that's quite an innovative center I mean all of our centers are but there's a really good yeah come on up here and yeah good and you came up from London area I came from London area this morning snow still have snow in the lawn yeah yeah not too much on the roads anymore we're just about gone but yeah it's still winter there banana belt you know so we serve about 11 different towns that TV so Manchester is your Manchester our home is in Arlington but we serve Manchester and the hills we are to hear us hear some stats for you that I think are kind of interesting because and these are six numbers they're based on a study we did between the period of 2013 and 2018 so it's not just last year was a great year or anything else but we had 3600 locally produced programs during that time 3600 3600 we trained over 2600 people to use the equipment we covered over 1200 government meetings and in terms of people coming in and using our equipment we had over 3700 reservations for that equipment over the five-year period we had 2000 plus volunteers involved in the programming during that five-year period and online video views this is a good one 303,114 online video views so we don't we don't have you know part of part of the problem is you know our we spend a lot of time creating nice programming and then cable company puts it up on the channel for us and they put it in standard deaf and nobody watches it I mean unless you want to watch a board meeting or a town meeting or something where it really doesn't matter so we can't it's very hard to compete on that level so everybody goes to the internet I mean that's the that's the best place for us you know we have your programming goes out over the internet or I think our biggest views are probably on the internet yeah and they go out in high-def you know because there's all it's all 720 on the internet so looks it looks great and it's convenient and we get a lot of that on their devices yeah you can watch it on your phone you can watch it on your iPad your computer not necessarily in your television unless you got a very good one one of the newer ones it takes you to the internet we have about 4400 subscribers I think in our total area and it's going down it's not going up it is going down but you know the interesting thing is that if you get your cable bill if you look at the bottom of the bill it says peg and there's a charge there for peg the cable company gets I think I got it right it's $10.95 a month it depends on your bill it's a percentage of your bill percentage of your bill five percent or five and a half percent of your bill which is which is the revenue that we're supposed to receive right it's the five percent so we're actually we're already paying for it and we don't get it we do the cable subscribers are charged it and then the cable company passes that on to us in the form of a check yeah in total but not in it but offset against the the the original commitment which is about five percent right well they pass it on originally the cable companies paid it out of their pocket and then they were given the option to pass it on so they're they're they're doing what they're required to do subscribers month exactly this is really what it comes right so it's now local people supporting their local channel right exactly and a recent Vermonter poll we had four questions on the Vermonter poll and it indicated that about 30 percent of the people surveyed watched our channels and it's pretty good and 78 percent of them felt that it it was either important or very important that this service really that's great yeah fantastic I also want to point out one of our towns we cover is playing field that a lot of the people don't have cable but about 2,300 people are watching the select board in the school board online and again we do not we see that's the court cutting or they're still getting a company this doesn't go out there yeah it's but they're still watching the service that we're providing but they don't pay for it right and so right it's the ultimate dilemma so I wonder if um is there anyone else in the audience that would like to make a comment just while you're sitting there I have one more thought you're all right no we haven't thank you those are impressive statistics by the way I just wanted to go back to something that you were saying before about this being an opportunity for anyone to have access to the channel a show that you were on at bctv is meet the candidates right and that is an opportunity where we send a and all of our stations do this send out an email when all of the candidates are registered and saying hey if you want to come and be interviewed so that people can get to know you right come to your local access and we're doing that across the state and for some uh third party candidates this is the only access to media they have right this is the only time that they get to say this is what I stand for this is why I'm running and um so we have um uh established politicians such as yourself on this show but we also have people who are just saying hey um yeah we're making you know it's wonderful because that again people feeling the the ability to decide to run and to speak their mind and to be heard that's a good thing you know that's great and how else are they going to be heard right if we don't have this network of stations we're reaching out and saying this is your right to be heard just a historical note to say is that bctv and bennington actually oh bctv and st. johnsbury have been running access channels since the 70s wow and um bennington for a long time maybe before 84 but um so we got sort of the whole movement going but it existed in 1975 that's it in 75 you're out of her wow they wanted to see that brown bro select board that's right they did exactly so and yeah let's have angelica yeah just a little point um and I think us all being here today is part of it as non-commercial small public access channels none of us really have time for marketing we're always just busy doing stuff filming meetings sending out equipment training people but this has you know not to be all doom and gloom this um negative oppert is an opportunity for us to remind our communities of our value and when i turned around this year to our three towns for the first time was asking for some money to cover the shortfall from Comcast funding they were extremely supportive and um just the process of going through and number crunching and realizing our own value i think it's good for our communities to know so that we're not taken for granted after 21 years of doing all this stuff in our case that's reassuring that's good and i just want to point out earlier you're talking about competing against the local radio station and newspaper you were in our studio with steve pappas right and what we've tried to do is central vermont television is to partner with the local newspaper right and saying all right we're going to go after the well but we're also going to support you and use their sales people because we fly we all agree the newspaper is a huge value for our communities and we want to keep them alive so we're trying to partner so you link up with them bundle yeah i just wanted to add i'm scott campatelli i work with the vermont access network i've also worked uh with retn and uh and i've actually been in the vermont media ecosystem professionally for 30 years and one thing that gets lost sometimes is that this group in the vermont access network is the most powerful group of television professionals here because no one else compares actually in terms of the volume of programming created and especially the training and i think these folks sitting at the table with you are struggling with how to create the sustainable business plan it's the community's channels it's the community's television it's the community's media and and the community is thousands and thousands of people and having worked in the business for this long in vermont one other thing i've worked with college interns for three decades uh both in my work at vermont pbs vermont e tv and retn i can't even count the number of times college interns have said some of their first experience was in their community media organization and i'm not just talking about vermont talking in colleges people come from massachusetts they come from all over the country and their formative experience might have started with their high school and some of these organizations are both the high school and the community media organization but i've worked with with young people who that's where they started they've gone on to work for nbc cnn whoever it is and some have come back i can't say i've gotten to the top of 20th century fox tony but uh but i didn't either but but it's it's really about the people it's about the people of vermont and i just wanted to say that's a perspective from 30 years of having been involved with television you got a lot to be proud of i mean that's that's the thing this is tens of thousands of people you know and young young people they really love the media right well i just want to share too as well of scott mentioned i'm with retn the regional educational television network and talking about you know that the student piece of it and there's there's this sort of intangible thing that we all do as well or sometimes very tangible but the real direct work within our schools and teaching teachers how to use video in the classroom and using video as an engagement tool one of my favorite stories to tell is you know what happened last year and it goes back to that sort of television professional piece and that we are the professionals here and we had an opportunity we serve chitin in county charlotte central school had this opportunity to talk to the international space station and the folks in school called us and said we don't know how to do this how how do we do this and you know and how do you do that you know and i think is it legal it is i think i can speak for everyone around the table where you know our answer is always we'll figure out how to do this i love even if we don't know how to do it and you know we we did it so because we have television professionals and our community investment in the work we do we were able to basically be the crew for a satellite uplink with the iss so the students spoke directly with astronauts on the international space station and it was a live broadcast on nasa tv that our team supported and and we take it further and that then our education team goes in and works with the students to make videos about their experience so it's it's this sort of multiplier effect in a way that i think you just can't undercut and you know what an experience for the students i mean you know i can't tell you what it was like to be in that room and suddenly up on the screen came the international space station it was mind-blowing you know that is that's remarkable it's a wonderful story so were you able to like to share that with the other absolutely and we we made a short documentary about it and shared it on the media exchange so that folks could see it and and a lot of the programming like that really does end up being picked up by other stations you know around the country and that particular show also got to be broadcast on nasa tv so that's me that's cool Helen really Helen hi how are you i'm i'm very well and i just wanted to make two comments from another perspective i serve on the channel 17 board so i'm very interested in this and i share your concern it is very concerning and troubling but i also am on the south barlington city council and for me having all of the meeting meetings film is really critical to the public eye serve to really understand the breadth and depth of the issues that we deal with on a on a twice a month basis precious few people unless we're debating guns or the f-35 actually come to council meetings right so but there's but they're still interested they are and they listen and they come up to me in public and i know they weren't at the meeting but they know what's going on and have input so i think um it's just so critical to democracy and and such a good point um and and that i mean it's that seems to seems to be um a challenge nationally or for a whole nation about really communicating and getting the real news or hearing that's really true and they can't go to the meetings you know they're getting kids got hockey or you know they're making dinner they're doing whatever that keep the busy lives of people who are working uh but they want to know what's going on and all they have to do is tune in and you run do you do you repeat the you don't have to get out there also we're fortunate enough we have live streaming so you have live streaming work so there's some convenience but not very often does it not work so you hear when it doesn't you hear when it doesn't yeah yeah we know when it's uh disappointing but it's it's really remarkable and really i think critical to our democracy and having informed voters yeah well especially i mean you've got some very controversial issues you know um so that's good to hear in your colleagues you find that with your other other colleagues pardon me and it's just on your board but other boards say that they get a lot of input from oh i think you do yeah it's amazing um and then we did support our our um fees were doubled or contribution and um the council even in a tight budget year said of course this is really so critical the public would be up at arms if they had to come every monday night right so thank you Helen good to see you lisa i had some thoughts as i'm listening to everybody kind of backing up into a big picture view for a second um yeah and um i think it's important to understand that we've known cord cutting was coming and and we've seen a slow decline in revenue over time and i think that kind of all been preparing knowing that we have to um diversify our funding and and all of that at the same time technology was changing and and we were trying to really seek parity um here in vermont with comcast specifically for hg channels to be listed on the programming guide and those kinds of things and we've been fighting comcast on the on those things for almost five years they um the the public utility commission has been very supportive of those issues and and have supported us but comcast continues to fight those obligations and is now suing the commission over those very issues and we continue to be involved in that case in a very intimate way um so the the FCC rulemaking is kind of a blind side for us you know it came from nowhere we had no idea that it was coming um and it's like taking us out at the knees right because we felt as though we've been so focused on the future and making sure that we would be here as technology changed as cord cutting happened and this just kind of came out from left field and it's undercutting the very foundation of why we're here it's it's taking away the very funding through the public rights of way that we thought were protected with the cable act right um so we've been fighting all of these other fights um just to find out that we're being taken out from the cable act and um that's i think what's so jarring for all of us is because um this is a fight that we don't know how to fight we've been fighting comcast we've been there and we've made some really great headway at protecting peg in vermont but we don't know how to fight the FCC and this battle could mean that it could shut us all down right and that's i think the real um you know we feel helpless we don't understand what to do and we're worried uh what's going to happen so that's why we need your help um that's my job and patrick and bernie and i'll do everything we can and i do sit on the committee so i've got a good place uh to make the case on your behalf and as i say you know there's conversations like this going on probably in iowa and colorado you know wyoming and michigan michigan i mean it you're so much part of the local community uh around the country that those are our allies and also the point you made that it came out of nowhere that's just not right you know you you you just can't disrupt established patterns that communities depend on everyone from the city councilor in south berlington who sees it as the way that she can communicate with her voters to the kids who get their first opportunity to learn media skills to the programming that is intensely local and can only be done by people who fundamentally care about where they live what's what what religious impact you know how much faith-based programming we have how much you know we really the shut-ins the elder yeah i mean there's just right forever change vermont if peg access didn't exist so um you've been able to from congress to take action on net neutrality right because there is this relationship between the FCC and congress well we've done it in our committee the energy and commerce committees passed out legislation to protect net neutrality and that's going to go to the floor and i'm confident that we'll get it passed on the house floor it'll go to the senate and senator mcconnell has a lot to say whether comes up or now but it's one of those things where you put it on the floor anybody who votes against net neutrality they've got a lot of explaining to do and again i don't care whether you're republican or democrat people just want to know what's your problem of course we want to have net neutrality so we get it on the floor i i bet we'll get a number of republican votes even though in the committee we didn't get them so is there a corollary that we action that we could take once i imagine what's the FCC rules or is there some congressional action that can offset what the FCC does well here theoretically there is it'd be much it'll be it'll be difficult so i think the best place to start is fighting on the rule change because the legislation just always has a different agenda and then you're talking about your funding as opposed to where your strength right now is in the cable act that already is in law and then what has been the FCC protection of that and now we've got this new FCC and a new trump administration that's not as friendly to the local access efforts and you know it's odd with chairman pie he's from Kansas you know and they've got similar challenges there very rural and they like this so i think there are things we can do the letter heaven members of congress speak out that's all very helpful but i think the focus of our attention should be in opposition to a change in the rule that has been the basis of your funding your secure and stable funding do you feel as though your committee can influence that i i guess again we don't we can influence it we can't you know but it's the it's a mysterious process to some extent we can influence it and you can imagine how we feel because no right but but in you've got powerful forces the cable industry against you okay and that's a powerful interest you have got a kind of people power to some extent on on your behalf because as i mentioned my counterparts in say Kansas or Oklahoma they're probably sitting around a table with people just like you who are saying to them the same things you're saying to me all right and that's this rural coalition that i've been trying to create in congress so the more of us who let the FCC know where we're coming from that has some influence you don't see a direct line but it's advocacy and it's persistent and ongoing and the more people like you in other parts of the country can speak out to their local members of congress the more we can get republicans frankly because it's a trump appointed majority commission we've got two great democratic appointed members on there new one just last week but the more we can get your colleagues in other parts of the country particularly if they are represented by a republic house member that creates an alliance for for us so i don't know if there's any way to reach out to them there is a petition going around and i'm sure many of us have sent out to our communities and it is it's nationwide there's been nearly 8,000 signatures good that what you would recommend the public to do is to write their congressperson is that well i think the most important thing is like you guys here you all have the responsibility to make these stations run you talking to me patrick and bernie that's makes the biggest impression on me so if i'm a member i'm a republican member democratic member of congress from cancels or oklahoma or wherever and i'm hearing from you you know not just an internet petition but from people who are actually showing up at the equivalent of the south burlington a select board meeting and i'm hearing from her i'm hearing from the folks who do the production that has a real impact because you're you're embedded in the community you know and the personal contact i think is the most important it makes a difference you know anybody in the job i have when they hear from people in the community you pay attention you know it might not be you know we might not be as responsive it depends from member to member but we hear we hear it when it's from somebody in our community much more so than when it's an over-the-transom petition signed by people we don't know and aren't from our district so we're at eleven fifteen okay any other closing comments other than thank you everyone so much what would you like to say in closing well i want to just reiterate how important it is that the public be a consideration in these major decisions affecting our technologies and access to our technologies and you know there's two issues right now that are incredibly important will the public have access to an open internet that's under dispute right now you know are we going to have an internet where if you're a local person you're going to have the same access as if you're a giant corporation you know no throttling no blocking no paid prioritization and to have an ally in the form of the FCC who's there to make certain that if there's some new encroachment on your access to free and open internet you'll be protected that's essential and interestingly listening to you more and more people view your program on the internet and then secondly is there room in this vast media universe for an institution public access television whose sole purpose is to serve the public well i hope there is that's really what we're talking about you know in this multi-billion maybe trillion dollar industry is there not some room for public access where some young high school person or a local school board or a select board that's dealing with very very important issues for that community that they can't have that information disseminated to the people who live there locally well we've got to maintain that we have to preserve that that is fundamentally what democracy is about so your mission is really important and i'm committed to doing everything within my power to protect your ability to do the job you're doing thank you thank you thank you thank you everybody thank you that was really helpful yeah no i will maybe lauren you can be the point of contact yeah kevin and i yeah if anything you want