A Letter From Senator George

Congratulations on Portage Cable Access expansion!

Recently as I was flipping through the television channels at home, I found something I had not seen before.  There on my cable channel 96 a live Portage School Board meeting was underway.  This meeting was being broadcast by volunteers from Portage Cable Access.

For years, the work Portage Cable Access was not accessible to residents of Texas Township despite the fact that most of us reside in the Portage Public School District.   Why?  Because of geography!  Because, Texas Township and Portage are served by different cable companies.  In the 1980´s most of the county had negotiated franchise agreements with Cablevsion of Michigan, while Texas and a part of Oshtemo Township gave their franchises to Adelphia Cable.  

As part of the agreement with Cablevison, franchise fees were used to fund the access centers in Kalamazoo and Portage and the company was required to carry the signal to their subscribers.  

Portage Cable Access uses volunteers to produce a broad array of community programming ranging from local government meetings to concerts and high school sports.  Some local volunteers produce high quality special interest programming.  Chuck Bentley for example, a noted local playwright and actor, makes documentaries and full length movie dramas.  Many area churches record their services and broadcast them weekly for shut-ins.  Portage Public Schools use the access facilities to teach television production to students and to communicate with parents about school activities.

Because Residents of Texas and Oshtemo Townships subscribed to Adelphia Cable they could not be part of the cable access systems that were exclusively carried by Cablevision.   As time passed, the original franchise agreements between local governments and the cable companies began to expire and come up for re-negotiation.  During the same period, consolidation in the cable industry resulted in both Cablevision and Adelphia being eventually acquired by other companies (Charter and Comcast).

Re-negotiation of the franchise agreement created an opportunity to expand the access system.  In order to accomplish this, the two competing companies would be required to make an interconnection so that the signals could be transmitted from Charter to Comcast subscribers.  Competing cable companies are normally not interested in sharing resources, but not only did Texas Township make this a requirement in their negotiation with Comcast, but also the City of Portage make this a requirement in their new franchise with Charter.

As a result of this governmental and cable company cooperation, the interconnection was recently completed and a Portage Cable Access channel activated for new viewers in Texas and Oshtemo Townships.  Broadcast of the access signal to township viewers helps connect us to events and meetings happening in the City of Portage and Portage Public Schools.

Expansion of the signal to new viewers in Texas Township is a feather in the cap for Portage Cable Access staff and the Portage Public Schools who have expanded their viewership to a growing area of the county.

State Senator Tom George has been a volunteer producer at Portage Cable Access and produces a monthly public affairs program—Current Events.