Pocono News Section

New Owner for Scranton's Public Access TV Channel

New Owner for Scranton's Public Access TV Channel - Friday, February 8, 2008 at 12:08PM EST

Reported by: David DeCosmo
Friday, Feb 8, 2008 @12:08pm EST
SCRANTON, LACKAWANNA COUNTY- A search committee appointed by Scranton Mayor Chris Doherty has selected a new organization, Electric City TV, to operate the city's Public Access TV station. Channel 61 is a community supported station that broadcasts on cable TV and covers community events including City Council and school board meetings.

The station has been operated by an organization called Scranton Tomorrow which had also submitted a proposal to the search committee. A third group, NEPA Public Access Project also made a proposal to the committee.

Committee Chairman Tom Welby said that proposal submitted by Electric City TV was the unanimous choice of his panel. The group is comprised of members of the arts and business community.

The new operator plans to employ the two current employees of Channel 61.There are also plans to build TV studios in the basement of a church building in the city's Hill section and to offer videotape and training classes to encourage the public to create new programs to be aired on the channel.

Programming on the existing Channel 61 operation had become the subject of controversy primarily linked to live broadcasts and multiple tape repeats of Scranton City Council meetings. Critics complained that the public speaking segment of the weekly meetings had become a platform for people who berated city government and elected officials just to be seen on TV. Supporters argued that people were only exercising their right to free speech.

The new operators plan to continue covering Scranton City Council meetings live and to offer one taped replay of the meeting. They also plan to stream the meetings onto the internet so that anyone with computer access can watch the meetings whenever they wish.

Electric City TV hopes to finance its operations through an allocation based on the cable company's franchise with the city through grant applications and public donations.