Urbana Cable and Telecommunications Commission Meeting

CHAMPAIGN-URBANA CABLE AND TELECOMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION MEETING SPECIAL MEETING DATE: April 16, 2014 PLACE: Urbana City Council Chambers 400 S. Vine Street, Urbana, IL MEMBERS PRESENT: Karen Walker Peter Folk Dale Sinder Chris Lukeman Giraldo Rosales MEMBERS ABSENT: Chris Foster STAFF PRESENT: Jake Schumacher, City of Urbana Jeff Hamilton, City of Champaign 1. CALL TO ORDER There is a quorum. The meeting was called to order at 4:05pm and attendance noted by clerk. Commissioner Foster indicated he will be attending the meeting late. 2. MODIFICATIONS TO AND APPROVAL OF AGENDA Commissioner Sinder moves to delay discussion of rules and regulations until Commissioner Foster is present. All in favor by voice vote. Commissioner Foster subsequently notified the Commission he would not be able to attend. The agenda was unanimously approved. 3. APPROVAL OF MINUTES The January 16, 2014 minutes were unanimously approved. 4. CORRESPONDENCE Page | 1 Jake Schumacher, with UPTV, states no calls were made regarding any Comcast complaints. There was only one phone call to get Comcast’s phone number for a billing question. Commissioner Sinder also sent out an email regarding rules and regulations, to be discussed later on in meeting. Jeff Hamilton, with the City of Champaign, states there were five cable complaints made; copies and resolutions of those complaints have been provided. Champaign received a state-wide annual report from Comcast and AT&T U-verse; copies have also been provided on the City of Champaign website. Chair Folk provided an article “Internet Essential: Comcast Low Cost Internet Access Program” and briefly discussed what the program is about. 5. REPORTS A. Committee Reports None B. Staff Reports Jeff Hamilton, Champaign, states CGTV is working on a new project: starting in the summer, Champaign will be replacing its old equipment and converting the field station, broadcast station, and council chambers to HD. CGTV has also invested in new field cameras. Vendors have been notified to place bids. CGTV petitioned AT&T and Comcast to convert CGTV’s channel to HD; both have declined. For Unofficial, CGTV produced three PSAs as “The Responsible Drinking Campaign”, which also showed on social media. CGTV will host “Stars Awards” on April 17th, 2014. Page | 2  Jake Schumacher, Urbana, states there have been some equipment challenges with the video toaster and the automation system. The automation system is up and back working. Julia Jones is the new Production Assistant for UPTV. UPTV will be starting a new program at 4:30am; this show will target the Malayalam-speaking audience in Asia and India during primetime there, when there is little audience here. UPTV submitted five entries to the Alliance for Community Media’s regional chapter video awards competition, and all five won. UPTV’s website urbanapublictelevison.org and UPTV’s Facebook page received merit awards. Ricardo Diaz’s C-U Immigration Forum TV won Significant Community Program. Marie Polk’s C-U Freedom Celebration won the Achievement Award. Ray Morales’s Chicago City Youth Performance Spoken Word Piece won the Excellence Award for Best in Show. Jason Liggett will be attending the regional conference in Wisconsin and will be receiving awards there on behalf of UPTV. C. Operator Reports None 6. NEW BUSINESS A. Station Clips Reels from UPTV Highlights, UI7, Parkland College and CGTV were shown. B. Renewal of Cable Commission Website The Commission had a lengthy discussion regarding the website. Cucabletv.com is the URL the Commission purchased five years ago. Champaign has paid for and renewed the website for another two years. On the Page | 3  Cucabletv.com website a person can file a complaint and find links to the PEG channels. The Commission will address program guides on the website for the PEG channels sometime in the future. C. Amendment of Commission Rules Commissioner Sinder discussed corrections made to the rules since last meeting. 1) Chair Folk proposed to adopt these rules and regulations. Commissioner Rosales moved to adopt the changes of the rules and regulations as written. Commissioner Sinder seconded the motion. All in favor by voice vote. Staff from both cities will meet to discuss the comprehensive list of code changes for both cities. 1) Commissioner Sinder motions staff collect said changes of code for the cover letter, forward said changes to chair, and chair present said changes to City. Karen seconded motion. All in favor by voice vote. 7. AUDIENCE PARTICIPANTS None. 8. COMMISSIONERS COMMENTS Chair Folk applauded all the local PEG channels for moving forward with great shows. Page | 4  Commissioner Lukeman states UI-7 is putting together 20-30 minutes of music videos for the show “C-U Headphones”. Episode Two will air tonight 7p, 10p, and midnight. Jake Schumacher mentioned UPTV airs “WEFT Sessions”, local live music, Saturdays at 9pm and Thursdays at 11:00pm. Jake also stated Thursdays is music night on UPTV. 9. SET NEXT MEETING DATE AND ADJOURNMENT Next meeting will be held Thursday, July 17th 2014 at 3:30pm in the Urbana City Council Chambers, 400 S Vine St Urbana IL. Meeting adjourned at 4:55pm. Minutes by Julia Jones. Page | 5