Street Jazz on public television in Fayettenam

Richard Drake on history of public television in Fayettenam

Richard Drake has a wonderful article on his blog linked above. I hope others who remember those times will add comments. I had not yet moved back to Fayetteville from Little Rock when the events he describes took place. I had been working at the Democrat and next at the Gazette till it closed and finally at the Log Cabin Democrat during 11 of those early open-channel years.

Maybe, if open channel hadn't gone through such a difficult period in Fayetteville, by now other cities in the state would have an open channel/CAT channel plus a government channel and an education channel.

We know that a great many dedicated and talented volunteers are needed to make that happen in any city, large or small.

Fayetteville is fortunate to have not only great volunteers but also generous donors to make the system work here.

So much of the abuse of power and corruption in government we read about in other cities and counties is avoided here because there is an amazing amount of public information actually available on PEG TV channels and in alternative newspapers.

This keeps the commercial media alert to details of government that might be overlooked otherwise. And it keeps public officials aware of their responsibility to all members of the public.

And the Web logs now on the Internet are contributing greatly to the same process of allowing everyone access to information and giving everyone a voice in government affairs.