“We’ve always said that we will do this as long as the community wants us to do this,” Berkshire Busk! General Manager Carli Scolforo told The Edge. “When I see people meeting up with their friends or children coming and dancing every single weekend, it makes me feel like we’re doing something important here."
The Five Town Cable Cable Advisory Committee voted to send a letter to state Attorney General Maura Healey urging her to take legal action to reverse a decision made last month by the FCC that local access channels say would devastate their funding.
Those who run the county’s three access channels say the new rules, which would severely impact their revenue streams, would likely put them out of business and deprive the public of valuable programming available nowhere else.
In her letter Serene Mastrianni writes: “At WBCR-lp, all voices are heard and everyone has the chance to speak. In fact, if we can successfully move our station to Main Street, then anyone can walk into the studio and be on the air.”
In her letter to the chairman of the FCC, Sheila Irvin of Pittsfield writes: “We would argue that the FCC must rein in the demands of the commercial interests it oversees when those demands conflict with the public good.”
In his letter to the editor, Jim Balfanz writes: “[Cable company proposal ] will result in our local access stations like PCTV, CTSBTV, and probably every other one in the entire country to go off the air.”
Those who run the county's three access channels say the new rules, which would severely impact their revenue streams, would likely put them out of business and deprive the public of valuable programming available nowhere else.
North Adams Mayor Tom Bernard noted the irony that WWLP, the NBC affiliate in Springfield, sent a camera crew to the news conference but coverage of it would not be available to Charter's Berkshire County subscribers.
Since taking over Time Warner in 2014, Spectrum has consistently provided less for more. That double-edged practice requires attention from both legislators and the Five Town Advisory Committee.
"Without these stations, Berkshire County residents lose access to Massachusetts-specific information that matters to them, including Boston sports and news from their state capital, which is not reported on by an Albany station in New York." U.S. Sen. Ed Markey, in a letter to Charter-Spectrum
Some are moved to ask: Which would you like more – a tree and patch of grass or a refrigerator that talks to the grocery store? Evidently the big ugly is coming with precious little to prevent it.
There was also considerable grumbling about Berkshire County being included in the Albany, New York, television market, resulting in very few stations from Springfield or Boston in the channel line-up and, therefore, a dearth of news coverage concerning Massachusetts.
The opinion of Berkshire County experts ranges from skepticism to staunch opposition to the repeal of net neutrality, which is the principle that internet service providers must treat all data on the internet in the same manner and not charge different rates based content or platform.
"There can be no truly open internet without net neutrality. To believe otherwise is to be captive to special interest power brokers."
-- Former FCC Commissioner Michael Copps
Mt. Washington is going from almost no Internet and sporadic cell service to faster speeds than even Great Barrington, the nearest large hub town, which is served by cable but not at speeds high enough to support a thriving, 21st-century economy.
Convinced that Internet access is as essential modern living as electricity, the Alford Broadband Committee is well along the way of determining the process by which the town could build and organize a high-speed Internet infrastructure. Information meeting August 8, at 10 a.m. at Town Hall; vote on project Monday, August 10, at 7 p.m.
