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GRASSROOTS TV12 CELEBRATES 35 YEARS OF FREE SPEECH

ASPEN, Colo.—GrassRoots community TV 12 is pleased to announce it will celebrate its 35th anniversary as the first and oldest community access television station in the United States this December.  Since its inception in 1971, GrassRoots TV has been dedicated to the first amendment rights of freedom of speech and expression.  In addition, its board of directors and staff has consistently taken a bottom up approach to the station’s community programming.  With a unique focus on community access, and the help of its professional staff, any Roaring Fork Valley resident can produce a show on GrassRoots TV 12 at a very affordable rate. 

“No other media operates the way we do,” said John Masters, executive director of GrassRoots TV 12.  “GrassRoots was a radical experiment in citizen-controlled media.  Today, even though we are an established and integral element of the community, it is still an experiment.”

Only a few years after John Smith, Eleanor Bingham and David Wright created GrassRoots TV 12 as the nation’s first not-for-profit communication network in December 1971, the station struggled with employees and finances.  In the last decade, however, GrassRoots TV 12 has become largely successful in terms of expansion, stable funding and programming.  In fact, in March 2006, a scientific survey conducted by Talmey-Drake Research Strategy, Inc. determined that 62 percent of Roaring Fork Valley cable subscribers watch GrassRoots TV 12 once a week (approx. 9,300), 27 percent watch GrassRoots TV 12 several times a week, 92 percent of those surveyed said the station adds value to the cable system, and 43 percent said the station greatly adds value to the cable network.  

Within the last year, GrassRoots TV 12 has created more than 750 original shows -- more than most major television stations.  The programming has included talk shows, arts, alternative entertainment, local sports, and until recently, local government meetings which now air on CGTV-11.

“We’re taken for granted now; we’re mainstream and accepted compared to 1971,” said Masters.  “But, we’re still doing the same thing.  Everyone just got used to the hippies setting off rockets next door.”

According to Masters, the station covers bottom-up grassroots community interests because GrassRoots TV 12 users and service-recipients control the content by being and knowing the producers.  Consensus and norms determine the content and its limits, rather than a corporate owner, editor, board of directors, publisher or government order.  Due to this combination of freedom and local relevancy, much of the content on GrassRoots TV 12 cannot exist on any other channel.

It is GrassRoots TV 12’s mission to reduce the barriers to access, so producing a show for community television is as simple as walking in the door of the station with a little money or with an underwriter.  The dedicated staff will take care of all the technical aspects of television production for $100 an hour, and airing the program is free.

To find out more about GrassRoots TV 12, free range television growing wild since 1971, please call John Masters at 970-925-8000, or visit www.grassrootstv.org for more historical information, viewer-ship data, programming and underwriting information.   End.

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