The Demise of Berkeley's Public Access
A history of the early days of Berkeley Community BCM and efforts by Berkeley public access Producers to preserve citizen access (the P of PEG) our to city funded media center for those outside both the school district and city government.

Produced by Berkley Citizen
Copyright 2003
All Rights Reserved
All labor donated

"What's wrong with this picture?" was perhaps the most frequently asked question in the 1990's concerning the City of Berkeley's fledgling public access cable station, Channel 25. Well over a year ago, Berkeley Community Media (BCM) was awarded the city's contract to operate Berkeley's public access facility.

By early 1996, public access television producers began wondering why all the programming and facility access had dried up. Certainly part of that answer was reflected in the new direction taken by BCM’s board when it moved its facility into Berkeley High School to share its studio with the students. This radically reduced access for those outside the school.

In late October 1996, BCM’s producers came together outside the facility and drafted a letter of concerns and suggestions on how to make the facility both more accessible to the general public and more productive. The following video recording is part of a follow-up meeting with BCM’s facility director and producers.