I recevied this email from Scott Hunt Managing Director ego creative media, producers of Wake Up! WA...

Hi all,
Those of who who are members of Access 31 will have received a letter last week notifying you of a member's meeting on June 27th and the board's intention to liquidate the station if a solid commitment and timeframe is not made by the Federal Government ensuring that Access 31 will be granted access to the digital spectrum.

We need to act to ensure the future of Access 31 by showing our support and letting Senator Stephen Conroy know that by not acting now WA will lose a valuable asset and will affect the lives of those involved in the local community TV sector.

Below is a sample letter. Feel free to copy it into a new email and send directly to Senator Conroy at senator.conroy@aph.gov.au

Please also cc it to Access 31 at reception@accesstvwa.com

Please also consider writing your own letter expressing what community TV means to you and how our community will be worse off without it.

It is important that you take the time to make an effort to SAVE OUR STATION. Please pass this onto as many people as you can.

Cheers, Scott

--- Message insert here

SAVE OUR STATION

Help ACCESS 31 Perth Go Digital

To the Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy

Dear Minister,

Do not allow the Western Australian community to lose our valuable community asset - ACCESS 31 Community Television. The company has a limited window of opportunity to stave off liquidation. They must be given a commitment from the Federal Government for a digital future, before the 27th of June 2008.

Minister, please give ACCESS 31:

• Access to digital spectrum
• Legislative change to allow it to go digital
• Time frame to go digital
• Funding for the transition to digital

For nine years ACCESS 31 has provided a diverse local community television service which has grown in stature and now forms an integral part of the local community’s social fabric.

The many volunteers who have dedicated their time and effort to contribute to the service will no longer have the platform to gain vital experience in pursuing television and media careers. Many producers and hundreds of community groups will no longer have access to this service and their community.

Minister you must act now or ACCESS 31’s demise will see the loss of a valuable local community asset and will cause concern to the hundreds of thousands of viewers and thousands of people involved with the station and its programming.

[Insert your name and address]

Yes Kerry you are correct, however the situation is not about the Compulsory Switch over deadline. If there is no guarantee from the Government to assist in the switch over, then Access 31 will be liquidating their services. They simply cannot support the transition themselves either now or in 5 years time. They are a non-profit, free to air service. It's not the timing, it's the cost.

Absit invidia

Jeff Watkins

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You have had an unfortunate experience with A31, and no doubt are not the only one. I accept that and acknowledge it.

I will then point to those shows that are currently on, some good quality, others not so. If you had theoretically managed to get a show running, would you invite the prospect of losing it over a management decision such as the one outlined above? Don't do it for Access 31 but for the shows that are currently there.

I do not support Access 31 in itself, but in the shows that are currently produced such as The Greenroom, Wake Up! WA amoung others, it would be a sad lose to the industry. Support it for the right reasons. Revenge is never a reason.

Absit invidia

Jeff Watkins

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My eyes are quite open and I see very well. Whatever funding they have (and a mill is not really that much these days) the threat has been made and we either do something about it or we sit back and let it slide. Personally, I don't really care if someone is filling their seat with dropped pennies, if there is a chance that it may go, then I will do what meager little I can do to see shows and productions that I support stay alive.

As for Access 31 - I'm not fussed. If there were another alternative to Access 31, I probably wouldn't have even bothered at all. The truth is, there is no other company supporting local TV in quite the same way as Access 31, or its interstate cousins are, so we do what we can.

Absit invidia

Jeff Watkins

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Who ever said I was a UNION REP? I am not. I have a membership, yes but I am not employed nor do I represent the MEAA or Equity in any offical capacity. (Bolded for emphasis) You are also missing my point.

My focus in this thread is not the management of Access 31 but the shows that are currently on it, and the basic opportunities that Access 31 has the potential to provide. I have no idea what the management are like or if they are up to dodgy dealings and in this particular case, I don't really care. My statement was flippant I'll admit and as for what I can do, all I can really do is to make others aware of this issue. Not a lot but better than nothing.

As for union policy, I am sure that the MEAA would frown on such things. That's their role and their choice.

Absit invidia

Jeff Watkins

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Actually, this is the very pending decision that has motivated the original posting to me (and others) and my further posting to here. Time is short.

Mind you, the article you have linked does a have a stronger sense of finality than what I had previously heard.

Absit invidia

Jeff Watkins

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This the deal - unless funding is not forth coming within a week, then Access 31 will start making plans to wrap up its services. There have been ongoing negotiations for a while now but it was only recently that this announcement was made to the public as far as I am aware. A final decision is to be made at the next Executive Meeting.

Absit invidia

Jeff Watkins

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This just in .... Brisbane Community TV (Briz 31) also expressing the same concerns and support for Access 31.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/06/11/2271153.htm

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Jeff Watkins

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I believe that some of the cheaper set-top boxes are pure digital.

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Jeff Watkins

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Thankyou Norma, pardon the colloquialism but "It's about bloody time"...

People have personality clashes, people disagree, people "shit stir" but one thing I have found is that people usually try to amalgamate in times of adversity. We are not talking about Fred, or Louis or Orion or even Norma for that matter.... we are trying (hopefully) to save an invaluable resource within OUR community... we all live here and pretty obviously we all watch C31. What is the problem? Are we going to let petty rivalry and snide comments cause everyone to lose out?

Personally, I don't give a flying (you guessed it!) about a persons past, why they were sacked, who said what to whom or who is dipping whose pigtails in an inkwell.....Get over yourselves and get on with the job!
 

Call yourselves a "community" and yet you behave like warring tribes..... for the love of Murphy... grow up!

 Maybe I tend to look at things from a simple point of view, but I cannot for the life of me see why we cant do our best to save C31 and once it is up and running on a Digital level THEN try to sort out what is wrong with it's format and "quality of productions".

It seems to me that the quality of the output from the station is pretty much irrelevant if the station is no longer there.

Perhaps part of the reason for the "production of stuff of sh*t quality" is because C31 is manned for the most part by die hard volunteers who need assistance. Instead of sitting back and saying, "This is shite!", why not get down to Belmont, go to the station, fill in the paperwork, join the team and see what you can do to help them change it?

OK, so maybe there are managerial problems at the top, but surely they have to listen to what the populace want? Surely they would take notice when told/shown that  there is a better way of producing? Who knows, if the prodcut improves, so do the ratings and then perhaps, just perhaps, so would the mangerial salaries and it may even flow a bit further downstream to the techs and presenters??

But, hey, it's much simpler to throw the hands up and say "Too hard! See ya!" and walk away. Rather like saying: "The world is apathetic, but who cares."

One person CAN make a difference, but several with a common interest make it heck of a lot easier... 

"Just because no-one complains, it does not mean all parachutes are perfect."

People, this is not about personalities or individual grudges. This is about preserving, in what-ever form, a creative outlet for Community Television.

The situation is still not completely resolved either. While Access 31 has been granted a Digital License, this does not mean that they can now make the transition. To convert to digital output is not cheap. Running a station, even one run mainly on volunteers, is not cheap. Those that actually do see the value in keeping Access 31, I encourage you to post the original message to the Senator.

You can also sign a petition found off the Access 31 main home page. No matter who is involved, how it is managed, Access 31, like it's sister organisations around the country, provides TV Accessability that would not exist otherwise. If you think that is worthwhile, then make yourself heard.

Absit invidia

Jeff Watkins

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