News briefs News briefs (October 29, 2004)

KMVT election coverage

KMVT will be providing coverage of local races until Nov. 2. Highlights include a replay of the city council candidates debate, taped three-minute candidate statements for participating local candidates and races, and live election day coverage on Tuesday night.

The debate will air on Saturday at 11:00 a.m. and the candidate statements on Thursday and Friday at 1:00 a.m., 7:30 a.m. and 11:30 a.m., and Monday at 7:30 p.m.

Live election day coverage will begin Tuesday at 8:00 p.m. with host Seth Shostak. Continuous local and regional election returns will be covered.

The coverage will be available live in streaming video at www.kmvt15.org, where Web surfers will also find taped copies of the debate and candidate statements.

Schaaf's show raises questions

A campaign show put together by city council candidate Stephanie Schaaf that airs on KMVT raised questions last week about equal media access when other candidates caught wind of it. But the show is not an equal-time issue since public access television is not regulated by the Federal Communications Commission.

Doug Broomfield, the station's executive director, praised Schaaf's campaign for thinking to do a show and used it to point out the benefits of community access. He said it was the first time someone had used the station for that purpose and held it up as a contrast to large corporate media, specifically Sinclair Broadcasting, which recently drew flak for ordering its 67 affiliates to show an documentary attacking presidential candidate John Kerry.

"We have no say over the content nor should we have any say," said Broomfield, "From a public access and resident perspective, anybody can submit any programming they want at any time regardless of content."

"Your message is your message, and you get an opportunity to share that here," he added.

KMVT broadcasts in 100,000 homes, according to Broomfield.

Mayfield meeting rescheduled

The environmental planning commission, which is scheduled to make a recommendation next week to the city council about rezoning the Mayfield site for housing, has rescheduled its meeting until Nov. 17.

The commission's recommendation will be the city's first public hearing on the controversial rezoning issue. The site is currently zoned for commercial use, and the zoning will need to be changed to medium-high residential to accommodate a proposed 600- to 800-unit project.

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