Launched in 2005, Asheville’s public-access channel is “a televised forum for legal, noncommercial speech; a place where you can express yourself creatively at little or no cost,” according to its Web site.
In exchange for annual dues and initial training fees, URTV members get access to the station’s equipment and a place to air their programming. The lion’s share of URTV’s revenue comes from the PEG fee charged to Charter Communications cable subscribers and funneled through the city of Asheville and Buncombe County, which distribute a portion of the money to the station.
In the past year URTV presented 1,400 hours of diverse first-run programming representing many facets of the community. Local producers averaged 21 hours of new programming per week, according to the station’s figures. Shows run the gamut from political forums to religion to underground music to plants.
But the nonprofit has been riven by internal disputes concerning membership, programming and the appropriate role of the channel’s board. And in recent months, those conflicts have gone public, with dissenting board members asserting that Executive Director Pat Garlinghouse and the board’s leadership have violated the state’s open-meetings law.
The first public hint of trouble came when two board members—Richard Bernier and Davyne Dial—took issue with an oath Garlinghouse administered to the board Jan. 15. Further controversy erupted when Garlinghouse prohibited former URTV producer John Blackwell from filming a board meeting for broadcast; a subsequent memo from board President Jerry Young barred board members from speaking to the press on behalf of the organization.
These battles have culminated in an attempt to remove Bernier and Dial from the board. And at a Feb. 17 meeting of the Buncombe County Board of Commissioners, county officials raised the possibility of withholding URTV’s funding (see “Saving Lives Trumps Money” elsewhere in this issue).
Meanwhile, outside events pose further threats to the station. URTV’s agreements with the city and county expire at the beginning of next year. And changes in state law opening cable service up to competition mean that the PEG funds—part of Charter’s exclusive franchise agreements with the city and county—could disappear at any moment. All this leaves URTV facing a conflicted present and an uncertain future.
Anyone interested in Asheville -- or just in some of the problems that public access channels face -- should read this piece.
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