Static in KMVT's future Static in KMVT's future (February 18, 2005)

More announcements in coming weeks

By Jon Wiener

Future programming at KMVT Channel 15 is uncertain as local television providers consider their next move.

Jeannie Conner, a former board member who was hired as development director last year and now serving as interim executive director, said that it is premature to talk about changes to the station's programming at this time. She said that KMVT will continue to air government access and added that she expects to announce several new initiatives in a few weeks.

In recent years, the Mountain View-based station has faced a declining revenue stream, leading to the layoffs of executive director Doug Broomfield and public access director Wendy Fleet, whose workshops taught about 100 people each year how to produce shows. The cuts saved an estimated $100,000 annually.

Like other cable access stations around the state, KMVT is considering entering video production services for nonprofit organizations. Another option under consideration is seeking underwriters to sponsor local high school sports coverage.

Broomfield, who served as the executive director for 13 years, said that people running cable access channels today can draw some lessons from businessmen leasing horse-and-buggies in the late 1800s.

In each case, ascendant technologies posed a threat to viability. Back then it was automobiles. These days, said Broomfield, it's the Internet.

"They had to realize that they weren't in the horse-and-buggy business, they were in the transportation business," he explained at the time of the layoff. "We're really at the same point."

Last summer, KMVT changed its mission statement to "Creating a digital marketplace to share the stories that connect our communities" in an effort to reflect its new outlook. Fleet noted that the word "television" is absent in the statement.

The nonprofit's board is facing big decisions as it struggles to become self-sufficient. Chief among them is the need to make up for more than $220,000 in lost annual funding that the Mountain View City Council decided to stop contributing in 2003.

The city, one of four served by KMVT, handed over control of a $750,000 endowment to the station to help support it through its transition.

E-mail Jon Wiener at jwiener@mv-voice.com

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