June 9, 2008 Televised Commission Meetings: WSCC Pulls Out

This will be a quick post--with more detailed information to come.

Walters State Community College, which has been taking the tapes of county commission meetings and airing them on Ch. 7 (cable gov/ed channel) on Tuesday and Saturday nights at 9:00 pm, recently informed the City and County that the college will no longer provide this service when its contract to manage the "City of Morristown's government and education channel (Channel 7)" expires on June 30, 2008.

History: Hamblen County Commission meetings have been taped and played on the cable government/education channel since 2002. Morristown City Council, however, has consistently refused to videotape and air its meetings.

During the 2002 county commission elections, several candidates--including me--pushed for televising commission meetings for those who could not attend meetings.

After the 2002 elections, newly-elected commissioner Nancy Phillips talked with Charter and secured a large equipment donation.

Nancy and I then obtained and donated microphones and other equipment at no cost to the county.

Nancy, Tom Lowe, and I and other private individuals personally paid for the taping costs of the first meetings---before the City turned "its" channel over to WSCC.

Good news (hopefully). It is my understanding that the plug will not be pulled on airing county commission meetings.

It is hoped that Charter--and perhaps even MUS--will continue to air the meetings on the respective cable channels that have always been set aside for government/education programming.