[October 10, 2008]

City mulls TV subsidy

(Arizona Daily Sun, The (Flagstaff) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Oct. 10--Some members of the Flagstaff City Council are still mourning the demise of Channel 2 News.

But apparently not enough to pay to bring a new TV station back to northern Arizona.

The council spent roughly an hour Tuesday night discussing the closure of KNAZ in August and various scenarios to re-establish a television station to cover local news and sports.

A wide range of options was discussed -- from the still-for-sale KNAZ property and its FCC broadcast license to the establishment of a new public access channel that would feature local news.

But concern over the cost was a deal-breaker for council members Joe Haughey, Scott Overton and Mayor Sara Presler as the city faces a $2 million budget shortfall. A price to establish a new station was not discussed, but the city is limited by law in how much it can raise from cable subscribers and the council seemed reluctant to use money from the general fund.

The council eventually directed City Manager Kevin Burke to facilitate a community discussion among various groups interested in providing local news.

The open-ended council discussion was started several weeks ago by Councilmember Rick Swanson, who describes himself as a "news junkie."

Swanson said he might be willing to offer an incentive similar to the one the city offered to Horizon Air to establish air service to Los Angeles.

Other members of the council said the city should, at the very least, get interested parties together to discuss possible scenarios.

"I'm not sure it is our job to be a TV station, but we might be able to be a catalyst to get it started," said Vice Mayor Al White.

Among those who waited more than 90 minutes to address the council on the issue was John Misner, the president and general manager of both Channel 2 and its sister station, Channel 12 in Phoenix.

He cautioned the city that the local station was never profitable during the decade it was owned by the media giant, Gannett. In addition to Channel 12, Gannett owns the Arizona Republic and USA Today.

"[Closing the station] was a decision that we did not come to lightly," he said. "The station was for sale for three years without a serious buyer."

Misner also pointed out that the station was never able to convince satellite television carriers, Dish Network and DirecTV, to carry Channel 2 to the region.

He said satellite TV subscriptions are popular in northern Arizona and that only a portion of the community truly had access to his station.

Misner told the council the station is still for sale and that Channel 12 has established a Northern Arizona bureau after Channel 2 closed its doors.

But most of those news reports produced by the new bureau are posted online, noted Presler.

Misner also noted he has had discussions about the station with NAU's School of Communication.

The dean of the school, Michael Stevenson, downplayed the talks between the school and KNAZ, saying the school is primarily interested in partnering with news agencies that will provide professional experiences for communication students.

Recently, the school expanded its student-produced newscast, NAZ Today, to a four days-a-week format broadcasting at 6 p.m. and 10 p.m.

NAU students primarily write, produce and present campus and local news as well as sports and weather.

KNAZ alums Jan Petrie and Lee Born have been contributing to the show since late September.

Presler said she was impressed to see the college step up and try to fill the void left by KNAZ.

Several other community members suggested the city mirror other larger communities and establish a new, city-controlled public education and government (PEG) channel with the local cable provider, NPG Cable.

The city already had two public access channels several years ago but turned control over to NAU.

Benefits of such a channel would allow for local coverage to be easily produced and uploaded to the channel by community members.

Flag News, an independent news operation in Flagstaff that posts online and on NAU's public access channel, might be one of the groups to benefit from the establishment of a public access channel.

Tyrus Coursey, who established Flag News two years ago, said he prefers to cover the "good news" in northern Arizona.

"Our idea of news isn't shared with what the Arizona Daily Sun and Channel 2 think is news," he said.

But if the city chose to create a new channel it would be limited by its franchise agreement with NPG Cable to adding just a 25-cent charge to the monthly bills of cable subscribers. That would raise roughly $42,000 a year for the channel.

Swanson said the community wants a variety of sources to get local news and sports, and local law enforcement needs to have various outlets to reach the community about important breaking news like wildfires.

After the meeting, Swanson conceded that during his two years on the city council, KNAZ rarely covered the council meetings or broke into local programming to issue breaking news to the community.

Burke is expected to report the results of those meetings to the council in a few months.

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Copyright (c) 2008, The Arizona Daily Sun, Flagstaff
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