City redefines WCCA TV's local content.

Byline: Clive McFarlane

COLUMN: CLIVE MCFARLANE

Worcester's public access channel, WCCA TV 13, or the "People's Channel," finally has a new contract with the city, but the agreement's effect on the cable channel's future growth and flexibility is unclear.

"People need to know that we have one of the highest rates of locally produced programs and the most programs available online among local access channels around the country," Mauro DePasquale, executive director of WCCA, said.

Mr. DePasquale didn't discount the potential for WCCA to continue its ascendancy, but it was telling that in a press release announcing the new contract, it was former City Manager Thomas R. Hoover and not current City Manager Mike O'Brien, who Mr. DePasquale singled out for praise.

It was Mr. Hoover, he said, who gave WCCA "the opportunity to accomplish amazing progress in programming and membership diversity and expansion in all phases of our operations between the years 1996 and 2006."

Mr. DePasquale's salute to Mr. Hoover was not a slight of Mr. O'Brien, but rather a reflection of the uncertainty the new contract brings.

It is a five-year contract, not as long a term as the previous 10-year-agreement that expired in 2006, but certainly more secure than the yearly extensions WCCA have been offered over the past couple of years.

The local channel will receive 55 percent of the franchise fee payments the city receives from Charter Communications, as opposed to the 60 percent the local access station received under the previous contract. In calendar year 2008, that 60 percent equated to just more than $700,000.

The contract also comes with tighter accountability requirements that among other things will require WCCA to provide City Hall with quarterly reports detailing its equipment inventory, training programs, programming, facility usage and new clients and organizational members.

The most troubling part of the new contract, however, is the city's new definition of what constitutes locally produced programming, which, according to the contract, means "originally created programming aired over the Public Access Channel that has been created or produced by a WCCA member through the use of the Public Access Facility, or its equipment."

The city differentiates locally produced programming from "Imported Programming," which is not originally produced or created through the use of the public access facility and-or its equipment, and is not hosted by a WCCA member; and "Locally Sponsored Programming," which is imported programming hosted by a WCCA member.

The contract does allow programs that use up to 75 percent of imported material to be considered locally produced.

Nevertheless, Mr. DePasquale said the city's definition of locally produced is not the standard industrywide, and is different from WCCA's past practice.

"We consider anything local to be something that is created in Worcester or by Worcester residents," he said. "They see local as being produced in our studio."

The distinction is significant, because the contract calls for locally produced programs to take precedence over sponsored and imported programs, which could limit program diversity as well as the airing of some controversial programs.

WCCA, for example, has been roundly criticized for broadcasting speeches by Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan.

But City Councilor Joe Petty, a strong supporter of WCCA, said the focus of the new contract is to provide accountability and not content control.

"We don't get into telling them what to show, and what not to show," he said.

"We understand this is a diverse community, with different listening audiences. But (WCCA's) main purpose is public access which means a focus on the city of Worcester.

"As much as possible, it has to be about Worcester. We are the funding source, so we have to make sure they are accountable to the needs of the city."