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Distribution: Public Access Television

It's a federal mandate to local cable companies (the Federal Cable and Telecommunications Acts of 1984, 1992 and 1996, to be exact): depending on your city or county's franchise agreement with your local cable company, there may be an entire video production organization at your disposal - everything from video gear, video editing computers, studio space and even a way to broadcast your finished masterpiece at no cost to you. All you have to do is provide the labor and brainpower.

Back in the 60s, as television cable service was expanding across the United States, cable companies were using the public right of ways such as sidewalks, power poles, alleys and the like to string transmission lines from house to house. Various politicians and community activists were searching for a way to charge these for-profit corporations for using the taxpayer-supported right of ways. Eventually, this "rent" culminated in the public access channels we see daily on our local cable systems, as a sort of exchange for the right to use the right of ways. Also, a small percentage of the franchise fee the cable companies pay goes to funding these channels. There are three kinds of public access channels; they carry the acronym PEG: Public, Educational and Governmental. Let's start with educational and governmental before we get to the good stuff.

Educational channels service the needs of the local elementary, middle and high schools for announcements, broadcasts of graduation ceremonies, televised classes and other activities. Video production classes in local schools can take advantage of the broadcast capabilities of the educational channel to show off their latest video work or student-run broadcast.

Government channels provide a look at how local government operates. City council meetings are a very common sight, as are help wanted ads, water restriction announcements, weather conditions and announcements of local interest to the average taxpay…