GrassRoots TV expands to Carbondale and Glenwood
Damien Williamson
Aspen Daily News Staff Writer
Aspen, CO Colorado
Friday, May 7, 2010
GrassRoots TV fulfilled its four-decade-old mission of providing egalitarian community television to the entire Roaring Fork Valley on Wednesday, as viewers in Carbondale and Glenwood Springs were finally able to tune their tubes into the nation’s oldest community television station.
Years of lobbying by Glenwood Springs and Carbondale officials, coupled with the recent switch to an all-digital cable system, made the move possible.
With the expansion, GrassRoots TV will now reach over 17,000 cable households with more than 50,000 local viewers.
Viewers from Aspen to the Ranch at Roaring Fork can still view GrassRoots on cable channel 12, while viewers from Carbondale to Glenwood Springs can view the programming on channel 82.
"The original vision for the Grass-Roots Network, which is what it was called in 1972 when it was founded, was to bring the entire Roaring Fork community together," said GrassRoots Executive Director John Masters. "The idea back in the day was to have separate little cable companies up and down the valley, and there would be the capacity for the citizens to produce programs in each of the communities."
But minimal budgets and communities that were too small to support a full-fledged network spelled the end of the network.
What survived was the Aspen studio at the Red Brick Center for the Arts with the ability to transmit its signal on Channel 12 as far as the Ranch at Roaring Fork.
Founded in 1971 by Katy and John Smith as the first nonprofit community media network in the nation, GrassRoots TV quickly gained popularity in the ’70s in Aspen mainly due to its unlimited access and nonconformist nature.
But like many burgeoning nonprofits with a lack of institutional infrastructure, GrassRoots struggled financially throughout the ’70s, ’80s and early ’90s, closing and opening its doors several times.
GrassRoots TV reopened in its current form in 1999 when the city of Aspen and Pitkin County committed funds to the organization.
Masters took the helm in 2001. Since the mid-2000s, Masters has seen a significant spike in the number of producers coming from downvalley, with nearly half of the station’s users at the Red Brick traveling to Aspen from below Snowmass Canyon.
"The whole point was really driven home a little while ago when GrassRoots was shooting Aspen teams playing sports at Roaring Fork High," Masters said. "And we realized the folks in Carbondale couldn’t watch their own kids on TV even though we had underwriters who wanted to make it happen."
Masters, who lives in Carbondale, said the demand was certainly there. And with the fiber optic cables that were laid down when Highway 82 went to four lanes near the beginning of the decade, the technological capability was also there. The last piece of the puzzle was the cable company.
"We approached Comcast starting about four or five years ago to see if they would provide space for the public access channel," said Glenwood Springs Mayor Bruce Christensen. "And it wasn’t until they recently updated their equipment to digital did they even have the space for it."
The expansion, however, means more than upvalley programming making its way downvalley; both Masters and Christensen envision more programming from downvalley being broadcasted throughout the valley.
"It’s going to be a slow roll-out," Christensen said, "but eventually it will truly be a valleywide network."
But longtime Glenwood Springs resident Lynn Aliya sees that roll-out happening a lot faster.
Aliya — a former Mountain Parent magazine contributor and frequent guest on Aspen’s Plum TV (before the recession forced the folding of the publication and a pairing-down of the television show) — plans to get her show "The Buzz" up and running on GrassRoots TV before the end of the month.
"It’s going to be the first time ever that there’s been a show that focuses exclusively on the last 15 miles of our valley, and that’s pretty exciting," she said.
She plans to interview locals, provide information on live music in the Glenwood area, revive her parenting segment, and perhaps even host a "Sex in the City"-style feature on valley relationships.
"I’ve got a lot of ideas. The fun part will be figuring how I’ll put it all into my weekly show," she said.
For the time being, Aliya will still have to make the trek to Aspen to film her show.
But plans already are in the works for a satellite production studio at Carbondale’s Third Street Center.
"This expanded access to community programming accomplishes only half of GrassRoots Community TV’s mission to protect and nurture open channels of communication for the residents of the Roaring Fork Valley," Masters said. "The other half is lowering the barriers to citizen production of television programming."
To celebrate the expansion, GrassRoots will host a Channel 82 launch party at Carnahan’s Tavern in Carbondale today from 5:30-7:30 p.m. Information on how to receive and produce programming on GrassRoots also will be available at the GrassRoots 82 booth at the Dandelion Day festival in Carbondale’s Sopris Park on Saturday, May 8, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
GrasRoots TV is now available on local channel 12 from Aspen to the Ranch at Roaring Fork; channel 82 from Carbondale to Glenwood Springs; on demand at grassrootstv.org; and on channel 29.3 via the Pitkin County Translator System.
damien@aspendailynews.com
Years of lobbying by Glenwood Springs and Carbondale officials, coupled with the recent switch to an all-digital cable system, made the move possible.
With the expansion, GrassRoots TV will now reach over 17,000 cable households with more than 50,000 local viewers.
Viewers from Aspen to the Ranch at Roaring Fork can still view GrassRoots on cable channel 12, while viewers from Carbondale to Glenwood Springs can view the programming on channel 82.
"The original vision for the Grass-Roots Network, which is what it was called in 1972 when it was founded, was to bring the entire Roaring Fork community together," said GrassRoots Executive Director John Masters. "The idea back in the day was to have separate little cable companies up and down the valley, and there would be the capacity for the citizens to produce programs in each of the communities."
But minimal budgets and communities that were too small to support a full-fledged network spelled the end of the network.
What survived was the Aspen studio at the Red Brick Center for the Arts with the ability to transmit its signal on Channel 12 as far as the Ranch at Roaring Fork.
Founded in 1971 by Katy and John Smith as the first nonprofit community media network in the nation, GrassRoots TV quickly gained popularity in the ’70s in Aspen mainly due to its unlimited access and nonconformist nature.
But like many burgeoning nonprofits with a lack of institutional infrastructure, GrassRoots struggled financially throughout the ’70s, ’80s and early ’90s, closing and opening its doors several times.
GrassRoots TV reopened in its current form in 1999 when the city of Aspen and Pitkin County committed funds to the organization.
Masters took the helm in 2001. Since the mid-2000s, Masters has seen a significant spike in the number of producers coming from downvalley, with nearly half of the station’s users at the Red Brick traveling to Aspen from below Snowmass Canyon.
"The whole point was really driven home a little while ago when GrassRoots was shooting Aspen teams playing sports at Roaring Fork High," Masters said. "And we realized the folks in Carbondale couldn’t watch their own kids on TV even though we had underwriters who wanted to make it happen."
Masters, who lives in Carbondale, said the demand was certainly there. And with the fiber optic cables that were laid down when Highway 82 went to four lanes near the beginning of the decade, the technological capability was also there. The last piece of the puzzle was the cable company.
"We approached Comcast starting about four or five years ago to see if they would provide space for the public access channel," said Glenwood Springs Mayor Bruce Christensen. "And it wasn’t until they recently updated their equipment to digital did they even have the space for it."
The expansion, however, means more than upvalley programming making its way downvalley; both Masters and Christensen envision more programming from downvalley being broadcasted throughout the valley.
"It’s going to be a slow roll-out," Christensen said, "but eventually it will truly be a valleywide network."
But longtime Glenwood Springs resident Lynn Aliya sees that roll-out happening a lot faster.
Aliya — a former Mountain Parent magazine contributor and frequent guest on Aspen’s Plum TV (before the recession forced the folding of the publication and a pairing-down of the television show) — plans to get her show "The Buzz" up and running on GrassRoots TV before the end of the month.
"It’s going to be the first time ever that there’s been a show that focuses exclusively on the last 15 miles of our valley, and that’s pretty exciting," she said.
She plans to interview locals, provide information on live music in the Glenwood area, revive her parenting segment, and perhaps even host a "Sex in the City"-style feature on valley relationships.
"I’ve got a lot of ideas. The fun part will be figuring how I’ll put it all into my weekly show," she said.
For the time being, Aliya will still have to make the trek to Aspen to film her show.
But plans already are in the works for a satellite production studio at Carbondale’s Third Street Center.
"This expanded access to community programming accomplishes only half of GrassRoots Community TV’s mission to protect and nurture open channels of communication for the residents of the Roaring Fork Valley," Masters said. "The other half is lowering the barriers to citizen production of television programming."
To celebrate the expansion, GrassRoots will host a Channel 82 launch party at Carnahan’s Tavern in Carbondale today from 5:30-7:30 p.m. Information on how to receive and produce programming on GrassRoots also will be available at the GrassRoots 82 booth at the Dandelion Day festival in Carbondale’s Sopris Park on Saturday, May 8, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
GrasRoots TV is now available on local channel 12 from Aspen to the Ranch at Roaring Fork; channel 82 from Carbondale to Glenwood Springs; on demand at grassrootstv.org; and on channel 29.3 via the Pitkin County Translator System.
damien@aspendailynews.com
