CABLE COMMITTEE WANTS TO GIVE PUBLIC MORE ACCESS TO SYSTEM

For Brian Driscoll, Cape Girardeau's public access station didn't provide much access.

The graduate student at Southeast Missouri State University wanted to air some informational videotapes for Historic Preservation Week. He called Ron Duff, who operates the local station, and was told the selected airtime wouldn't work.

Driscoll called a city councilman, then the city manager before finding out how to have his videos aired. He appeared at Tuesday's City Cable Committee meeting to relate his experience.

Committee members want experiences like Driscoll's to stop. The group was inactive for months but came together again Tuesday to advise the city council on new issues.

First, they want to assemble bid specifications for a third party to operate the local cable access station. They also want to define a way for people to get programs on the air.

Finally, they want to continue monitoring TCI, Cape Girardeau's cable provider, to be sure the company lives up to its franchise agreement.

Cable committee members are diverse -- the group includes an attorney, a high school teacher and a disability assistance coordinator -- but committed to putting the public back into public access.

Michael Maguire, the attorney, said there are very few limitations on programming the channel must accept. It can't be obscene, but a variety of political and religious viewpoints may be aired.

The only expense to Cape residents is production of the programs they want aired.

Currently, few programs air on the channel -- designated as channel 5 on the local system -- other than Cape City Council and Cape school board meetings. When programs aren't being aired, the station broadcasts community service announcements.

"If more information is given to people telling them they can utilize the station to televise events, we will get more interest," Maguire said. "Local programming will beget local programming."

Susan Hekmat, the media and communications teacher at Central High School, said a city or school-owned television studio would be a godsend for her students. With little money for field trips, their hands-on experience in television is limited to brief visits to local television stations KFVS and KBSI.

With more attention to communications as a career pathway, more grant money is becoming available for television equipment, Hekmat said.

"If we were in control of our own studio and had input from professionals, we could point our students toward technology in the 21st century," she said.