SMTV-3 Committee To Have More Independence in Programming Choices

and Channel 98, Sierra Madre's government access and public education television stations, respectively, provides citizens with live coverage of happenings around town including meetings of the City Council and Planning Commission as well as other community events and educational programs.

A subcommittee to the Community Services Commission, the SMTV3 Committee is responsible for independently planning and reviewing SMTV3 and Channel 98 endeavors within the community.

"The Community Services Commission shall approve the list of productions and events to be covered by the Community Media of the Foothills," according to Kristi McClure, Deputy Director of Community and Personnel Services.

Although programs are chosen for broadcast by the committee, much of the public education channel's programming is actually run through Cal State Dominguez Hills' channel, giving the City of Sierra Madre less control than they might otherwise have.

Now, through their partnership with Time Warner Cable, which provides the channel to the city through franchise fees paid by cable subscribers, the SMTV Committee and city staff will soon have complete control of the channel and what programs play on it.

“Our role is basically [to] build the shelf, and you can buy the product that you're going to put on the shelf,” Time Warner Director of Government Relations Stephen Sawyer said.

This is not anything different from what other cities in the area have been doing. In fact, Sierra Madre is probably one of the last cities in the area to work with Time Warner Cable to gain more control over television programming.

With final touches in the process of completion and staff training ahead, more independence is on the horizon.

“The last piece is to put in the switcher to allow us to go ahead and turn off and turn on the education channel and what we’d like to program on it,” said McClure.

Also discussed during the committee meeting were DVD submissions of possible educational programs from various independent parties that the committee could then consider broadcasting. The committee plans to review these DVDs before their next meeting in July.