COMMENTARY : Community Access--an Experiment That’s Failing : Television: Cable companies’ attitudes often inhibit producers, leaving the channels dominated by ideologues.

Once thought to be the next great step toward opening television to the masses, community access television instead has become a bastion of the esoteric and the frequent butt of jokes.

Mention community access--the channel most cable systems set aside for the open use by the public--and people often think of “Saturday Night Live” skits, such as Dan Aykroyd’s sleazy character E. Buzz Miller, who does a show about the mating habits of insects. Or SNL’s “Wayne’s World,” the wicked heavy metal talk show hosted by a guitar-bashing teen-ager.

The reality is not that far removed from the jokes.

A typical evening’s fare on Cox Cable’s community access channel might include the “Metaphysical Forum,” a round table discussion of occult topics; “Unarius, Science of Life,” a half-hour show promoting the coming of the “space brothers,” extraterrestrials from outer space; “Art Maggot Hysteria,” a compilation of underground student works; a couple of religious programs, and white supremacist Tom Metzger’s hate-filled chat show, “Race and Reason.”

There are also some fine public service programs and political debates on community access. Many shows on child care and health issues wouldn’t be on television if not for the access channel.

But few would deny that the quality of access programs is, to put it tactfully, inconsistent. Most shows are dark and grainy and feature people sitting around talking on a simplistic set. Viewership of access shows, which is hard to measure, is generally thought to be small, at best.

Something went wrong with community access. There is no federal regulation requiring cable companies to provide an access channel, but most companies promise to support access, to one degree or another, when they reach an agreement with a city or county government to provide service to an area.

While most people agree that it is a wonderful concept, it is far from the engaging medium some hoped it might one day become.

“Between the expectations and the reality there is a huge gap,” Cox Cable spokeswoman Sandra Murphy said.

Community producers--those who actually take the time to go through the workshops and learn how to use the basic video equipment--often point to the lack of support from the cable companies as the major obstacle keeping access stations from becoming viable entities.

To the local cable companies, access “is sort of a forgotten stepchild,” said Mark Shapiro, who produces “Kill Them With Comedy,” a half-hour skit show produced at the Cox access studio that airs on systems throughout the county.

The cable systems say their level of

interest in access reflects the community’s, that they would support access more if the community cared more about it.

“I don’t think I’ve ever found somebody who subscribes to cable for community access, except community access producers,” Cox Cable’s Murphy said.

It’s a vicious circle. Cable companies say they don’t support access because nobody cares. And producers say nobody cares because the cable systems don’t support it.

“Either cable companies or cities have to do more to promote it, and then the quality will follow,” said Bob Lucas, a radio and television teacher and a frequent community producer.

“People have to know it’s there.”

Whether they admit it or not, cable companies commonly use access as bait to dangle in front of cities. The level of a cable system’s commitment to access is usually directly proportional to how important access was during negotiations for the franchise agreement and how much time is left until the franchise agreement comes up for renewal.

In San Diego, the attitude of cable companies toward access runs the gamut from enthusiasm to indifference. According to producers, Dimension Cable, which serves inland North County, makes only a token effort with its access channel, while Southwestern Cable, covering San Diego from I-8 to Del Mar, is considered an active advocate of access programming.

Southwestern recently upgraded its studios and is imposing stricter technical requirements on tapes in an attempt to boost the quality and quantity of its access.

Cox Cable--an older system with one of the largest population bases of any franchise in the country, covering San Diego County south of Mission Valley--”provides adequate service for what we are required to do,” spokeswoman Murphy said. But she acknowledged that Cox is focusing more on programs it produces itself, which amount to one hour each weekday, including one talk show hyping cable television.

“What we are trying to do is make the (access) channel available and staff it and have the equipment there, but it’s not something we actively promote,” she said.

Ten years ago, after a fierce battle among cable companies, the city of Del Mar chose Daniels Cablevision to serve the seaside community, partly because of Daniels’ willingness to support an active community access studio.

The end result is that tiny Del Mar, with only 6,000 residents, is a hotbed for community access, while Daniels’ system in much-larger Carlsbad is not nearly as open to or supportive of access.

In Del Mar, anybody who successfully completes the workshops can check out equipment and tape their own programs on whatever topic they choose. In Carlsbad, potential community producers must either pay hundreds of dollars for studio time or apply to a five-member panel appointed by the mayor for a financial grant. The grant money comes from a percentage of the fees the city receives from the cable system.

The Carlsbad access channel will air any tape that meets its technical requirements, but if a resident wants to produce a show that doesn’t meet with the approval of the board, he or she must either pay for the studio time or go to another system. The board doesn’t review applications for content, but they are “concerned” with how potential producers are using city funds, said Daniels spokesman Phillip Urbina.

Daniels views access “only as a public-relations tool,” claimed Lucas, the former manager of Daniels’ access department. “They aren’t into promoting public service, they are into looking good.”

Daniels General Manager Joni Odum counters that, “in terms of what we do, we go way beyond what we’re required to do.”

Cable companies’ executives say it is the community that sets the tone for community access, not the cable companies. They point to the vast number of people who go through the workshops but never follow through to produce a program.

Despite the public-relations advantages, access can be expensive and troublesome to the cable companies. It requires a tremendous amount of staff time to oversee the operation. The actual programming is often frustrating to cable executives, who often have to explain to customers who complain, as well as to their own executives, that they can’t control the content. In most areas, including most San Diego systems, tapes can be rejected only if they are judged obscene or if they fail to meet technical standards.

With so few guidelines--and the foundation of access is that there be no quality or content guidelines--access is ripe for abuse. That is the downside of having a completely open channel. In Manhattan, for example, the access channel has become a haven for a wide variety of soft-core pornography shows, and the cable system is helpless to do anything about it. So far it hasn’t happened in San Diego, but it is definitely something all cable companies fear.

Several cable systems nationally have attempted to take Metzger’s show off the air, but they have been rebuffed by the courts, which say Metzger is protected by the First Amendment. Locally, Southwestern Cable recently tried to drop the show, using a clause in its franchise agreement which says only “responsible” people can use access.

When a Portland, Ore., court ruled last year that Metzger was involved in the murder of a young black man, some Southwestern executives thought it might provide a window to take the show off the access channel. But the system quickly backed off, reportedly because officials feared legal action.

Unfortunately, it seems that Metzger and a variety of offbeat religious groups looking for a venue to express themselves are the ones taking best advantage of the access channels.

“The real purpose behind community access is that it provides a voice for the community,” Odum said. “Some people bring canned programs in from all over the country, and that’s not really community access.”

Groups with contrasting viewpoints or more mainstream ideas often don’t have the time, resources or interest to use access in the same manner.

“We have discussed (using access) in terms of public education,” said Linda Hills, executive director of the local chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union. “Our assessment was that it would be too great and too intensive an effort for us.”

Of course, it might be worth it, if it could be proven that people actually watch the channel.

“You get so little response, it’s very frustrating,” Lucas said. “People aren’t going to call for community access like they do for MTV. The squeaky wheel gets the oil and there aren’t that many squeaks about public access.”

Sharon Ingraham, chairwoman of the National Federation of Local Cable Programmers, said community access is a viable, exciting part of the local media scene in several cities. In Austin, Texas, four access channels air programming around the clock, seven days a week, she said. Portland and Sacramento also have thriving access programs. San Diego systems vary; on a typical weekday, Southwestern, for example, airs its access channel for five hours beginning at 5 p.m., while Cox airs eight hours of programming beginning at 3:30 p.m.

“The really good access centers will have very organized community outreach programs,” Ingraham said.

Community access works when it is pushed by the cable companies, when they put effort into it, she said. “Access is more of a community service organization than a television station.”

However, in San Diego, producers are often discouraged before they get started.

“At the very beginning, when I first took the class (at Cox), they were very encouraging,” Shapiro said. “But the reality didn’t match what was promised. Nine out of 10 times you can’t even get through to anybody” in the access department of the company.

Some in the cable industry believe that cable systems eventually will eliminate community access, or at least impose guidelines on it, in order to better control the product. Daniels’ system of grants and review panels in Carlsbad makes sense to many in the industry who feel quality controls are more important than complete freedom.

Most producers agree that it would be a shame to lose the concept of pure access, the idea of a totally open channel.

“It is either free or cheap access to the medium for normal people,” Lucas said. “Whatever incarnation that takes, at least it is a way for locals to communicate with each other.”

Shapiro said producers may find the system frustrating, but at least it exists.

“In a way it is like real life,” Shapiro said. “If you want to do it, you have to fight adversity.”