MAM meetings

  • MEDIA ACTION MARIN (MAM)

    meets twice a month on the Sunday before the second Wednesday of each month at the Social Justice Center office 1000 Sir Francis Drake Blvd. Rm.#18 in San Anselmo.

    Our second meeting follows two weeks later. Members of the public are welcome.


    May meetings - Sunday May 11th and May 25th.

EVENTS

ANOUNCEMENTS

  • DIGITAL INCLUSION TOOLKIT - PDF

    at the Media Alliance website

    www.media-alliance.org

Contact MAM

  • Media Action Marin / Social Justice Center of Marin 415-454-5027

MEETINGS

  • MARIN TELECOMMUNICATIONS AGENCY (MTA)
    meets the second Wednesday of the month at 6 pm at the San Rafael City Hall. Check the MTA website for latest meeting information - http://mta.marin.org/index.cfm.

  • MARIN ACCESS ADVISORY COMMITTEE (MAAC)
    meets the first Tuesday of the month at 5:30pm at the Marin Civic Center, Rm. 410B. Check the MAAC website for the latest meeting information - http://www.mta.marin.org/maac.cfm.

Internet

CH26 SCHEDULING INFORMATION

A channel agreement must be submitted in order for your program(s) to air. The following explains the procedure for the type of program you have produced. If you are interested in a particular time slot, realize that the timeslot desired may not be available until a previous contract is complete.

If you are submitting another channel agreement for a series that has already been airing, we do not guarantee that you will get the same timeslot you had before, or that your program will resume airing without a gap between your previous airdates and your future airdates. Programs are scheduled on a first come, first served basis.

The earliest date you can re-submit a series is FIVE WEEKS prior to the end date of your current channel agreement. If you re-submit at the earliest opportunity, you increase your chances of staying in the same time slot, although this is not guaranteed. You may have gaps during your scheduled airdates; gaps occur on holidays when we are closed, or when there is a previously scheduled single program in a timeslot.

STUDIO SERIES PRODUCED THROUGH THIS FACILITY:

You may submit the first program of your series with a channel agreement after you have completed your third program. You will be provided with a schedule to run your entire series twice at the assigned airtime (i.e. if you produced 6 shows: every Tuesday at 5:00pm for 12 weeks) for a maximum of 10 programs.

SINGLE STUDIO PROGRAM(S) PRODUCED THROUGH THIS FACILITY:

Please submit the program with a channel agreement immediately after your production date. You will be given 4 airdates at various times and on various days.

FIELD SERIES PRODUCED THROUGH THIS FACILITY:

Since producing a series in the field is time consuming, we ask that you submit each individual program with a channel agreement for air. You will be given 4 airdates at various times and on various days. When you have completed the series, you may then submit a channel agreement with your first program of the series. You will be provided with a schedule to run your entire series twice at the assigned airtime (i.e. if you produced 6 shows: every Tuesday at 5:00pm for 12 weeks) for a maximum of 10 programs.

SINGLE FIELD PRODUCTION PRODUCED THROUGH THIS FACILITY:

Please submit your program with a channel agreement immediately following the completion of the editing process. You will be given 4 airdates at various times and on various days.

TRUCK PRODUCTION PRODUCED THROUGH THIS FACILITY:

Please submit the program with a channel agreement immediately after your production date. You will be given 4 airdates at various times and on various days.

PROGRAMS PRODUCED SOMEWHERE ELSE :

Submit a channel agreement with your tape(s). For a satellite program, arrange for the necessary equipment and submit a channel agreement (see satellite handout). Single videotaped programs will be given 2 airdates; single satellite programs will receive 1 airdate; a weekly series will receive a maximum of 10 airdates.

FM Station Line-up on CH 26

Comcast announced the station lineup for their new FM service (replacing, after great public outcry, the FM service which had been carried on Marin Cable for more than 29 years.) There are only 4 non-commercial stations but 7 stations belonging to a single media conglomerate Clear Channel. There are at least 4 carrying the same play list (so-called Adult Contemporary). In short there is a great deal of duplication of commercial content and the corporate media influence is evident. Comcast has refused the proposal first made by MTA member Larry Bragman, and underscored by Media Action Marin in its letter to Comcast that the FM station line-up should be tailored to the needs of each community.

Thanks for the over 1000 e-mails with requests; 73 stations were requested: Jazz station KCSM (a non-commercial licensee) received 30% of the requests. KQED, KPFA, KRCB are included.

Subscribers on the basic analog service will have to upgrade to digital, at the cost of an additional $5 per month for a Digital box. You can go t Comcast to pick up your box, otherwise for Comcast to deliver and install it there is a onetime charge is $13.99.

Media Action Marin is asking the MTA to insure the continuation of the FM service by requiring it in any new franchise agreement with Comcast. We are asking Comcast to sit down with the community and review its offering in three months.

Books

  • BE THE MEDIA | Buy The Book!

    Buy BE THE MEDIA
    Support Media Action Marin.
    For every book you buy, 20% will be donated to MAM.
    That’s almost $6 per book for MAM!
    Simply click on the cover above to complete your purchase.

ABOUT MEDIA ACTION MARIN (MAM)

  • Media Action Marin (MAM) is a task force of the Social Justice Center of Marin, 1000 Sir Francis Drake Blvd. Ste 18, San Anselmo, CA 94960 (415) 454-5027

    Who is Media Action Marin (MAM)?

    Media Action Marin (MAM) is a grassroots media advocacy group in Marin County.

    MAM was originally established to be a watchdog over Comcast's activities in Marin County, and to lobby the Marin Telecommunications Agency (MTA), to ensure that Marin County cable customers receive service that is comparable to the highest cable standards in the country.

    MAM was successful in bringing public pressure on the MTA, so that when it recently negotiated a new cable agreement with Comcast, $2,500,000 was included for the creation of an independent non-profit community media center (CMC). The CMC nonprofit will be taking over responsibility for the Public, Government, and Education channels of Comcast's Marin cable system.

    MAM is committed to ensuring that the programs broadcast on Marin's public access television station (CH26) are of the highest quality, and represent the diversity of Marin. We believe that it is essential that public access television in Marin offers high quality news and current events programs, that provide a broad spectrum of views on the important issues of the day. MAM believes that Public Access television should be an independent community media institution, located in a state-of-the-art Marin production facility, run by a non- profit corporation with a diverse Board of qualified, motivated community members, that it is adequately funded. We want to ensure that community members are adequately trained, and capable of using the public access production facility to communicate with each other, with government agencies, and with the greater community.

    MAM continues to sees itself as part of the broader, national, Media Justice & Democracy movement, and will continue to work for media in Marin that informs teh public, ensures our democracy, encouragaes popular participation, and guarantees a diversity of both programming and news and information sources.