The Dinosaur; Cable Access

Is it time to pull the plug on Portland Cable Access, now known as Open Signal?

 Published to public media December 19, 2020

Should Portland Cable Access return to normal operations post Covid 19? My answer is a resounding NO! Here’s why. The advances in technology where anyone with an I-phone can either made a video and upload it to the internet or live stream any event from a riot, to a porno flick, or a church service has rendered cable access obsolete.

It is now a dinosaur, in my opinion.

I have a few years experience doing cable access shows. I co-hosted over 200 Cannabis Common Sense shows with medical marijuana activist, Paul Stanford, from 2002 to 2006. Along with that I produced 12 of my own shows where were called “Brain Stew.” However, I soon realized I could not work a forty hour week job and do two TV shows and so eventually I had to drop Brain Stew.

The original premise of public access said it could not under any circumstances be used to solicit money or to sell a product. That requirement was always largely ignored by both studio management and the show producers, leading to a de-facto-policy of casual random hypocrisy. Many church groups quickly recognized the value of producing church services for broadcast. It seemed that Pastor A or Bishop B or Elder C aired their sermon shows with the implied message of (wink wink) please come to our church and fill the collection plate. They could convey this message in any number of creative ways.

Paul Stanford has produced over 1000 Cannabis Common Sense shows before Covid took him off the air. His shows were basically hour-long infomercials on how to obtain medical marijuana from his clinics and his doctors and to provide support for him in his various legal troubles and the numerous lawsuits brought against him for fraud.

I never blamed Stanford for taking advantage of this unspoken loop hole as many people suffering from pain were helped by Dr. Phillip Leveque and later Dr. Thomas Orvald. I was always a volunteer on the 200 shows I co-hosted and was never compensated for my time, effort or written commentaries, which I would read at the close of most shows.

There were a few programs produced at cable access which never asked for money besides my own show Brain Stew, notably a show called A Growing Concern, by Jim Lockhart, who was an activist. Lockhart’s program contended with social justice issues like keeping Oregon Rivers clean and how we can incorporate intelligent forest management as a way of maintaining Oregon forests.

I once did an hour Brain Stew show, in which I spoke live to a young man via the telephone. He was living in an 800-year-old Redwood tree in order to keep it from being cut down by greedy logging companies and another show about the pollution left by the Hanford power plant. Oregon Voters Digest, hosted by businessman and local activist, Bruce Broussard, was another show which interviewed upcoming candidates for political office. Bruce also never solicited money from anyone, either.

Which brings me to my sore point.

My wife Theresa and I were invited guests on Bruce’s show, Oregon Voters Digest. While waiting in the green room, I purchased a can of Pepsi cola and was sipping it while Theresa fixed her hair and put on her lipstick. When it was time to enter the studio we three, Theresa, myself and Bruce sat down at the table to be ‘miked up.’

The table was covered by a nice blue table cloth and after a few a more sips of my Pepsi, I set the can in front of me in case my throat got dry. As the lady producer was adjusting my mike, she spied the Pepsi can and became alarmed. I saw a look of shock spread across her face, a kind of deer-in-the-headlights look. “Oh!” she exclaimed, “You can’t have that on the table. We can’t advertise products here.”

Remembering  my four years of doing Cannabis Common Sense shows, I almost spit out a mouthful of Pepsi. I got a “she’s new here look” from Bruce, who chuckled. I took off my mike in disgust and left for the green room where I got a coffee cup and returned to pour the remaining Pepsi in the cup. I resisted the urge to educate this Joannie-come-lately with a tongue lashing, but it was not my show. Instead I smiled and put the empty can out of site on the floor.

I have always believed hypocrisy was the 8th deadly sin and Open Signal is full of it, it seems.

When Cable Access is no longer available, I believe the churches who used the facility would appreciate the fact that when they podcast or live stream, they can freely solicit money for their church, because to do so will give them much more freedom to receive community support. With live streaming all access shows would no longer be burdened with putting together a reliable production crew, or the worry about whether they show up on time or at all. There would also be less worry about keeping the crew up to date on certifications on how to use the equipment and technology which change each year.

The budget for this living dinosaur, Open Signal, is 2.5million dollars a year, raised by charging the cable companies an annual fee. This huge amount of money could better be used elsewhere or returned to the companies. The building itself, at the current OS location was once a busy grocery store and it could be used as a homeless shelter. It is a huge space located on a bus line and it also has a spacious parking lot.

It is time to pull the plug on Open Signal and repurpose the building. I believe the current economic disaster, due to the Covid Pandemic has strangely served at least one good purpose by giving us pause to rethink the future of Open Signal.

Technology has changed the world. Let the dinosaurs die!

By Don DuPay