Where Is Our Public Access Cable Television?

by Bob Weeks on May 19, 2005

This is a letter I am sending to Cox Communications, plus government officials who I think can help.

Recently I was in Portland, Ore. I happened to notice that there was true public access cable television. I watched several talk shows covering a variety of topics. There were locally-produced music shows, featuring local bands.

This experience caused me to wonder why Wichita doesn’t have this type of community cable television access. I seem to remember that when cable television was new, that local governments were granted public access channels as part of the franchise agreement. In Wichita we have a few channels that are used by the City of Wichita and the local school district. It seems to me, however, that these entities use the channels for very little useful programming. Most of the time these channels are rolling the same stale and useless public service announcements, or the same photographs of downtown Wichita statuary for the past few years.

Can you tell me where I can learn about the history of public access cable television in Wichita? Better yet, how can we have a truly public — and therefore truly useful — channel in Wichita?

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