[Peace] Update: Democracy Now! Petition

[Randall Cotton]

I just finished setting up 3 more locations for the petition:

Strawberry Fields (at the public bulletin board between the cafe and the
store)
306 W Springfield Ave
Urbana

Jerusalem Restaurant (at the counter)
601 S Wright St
Champaign (campustown)

and

WEFT (in the lobby just outside the studio)
113 N. Market St.
Champaign

So this is in addition to the other two spots:

Urbana/Champaign Independent Media Center
218 W. Main St.
Urbana

and

Boardman's Art Theater (the AWARE table there)
(this is really just a convenience for folks seeing Fahrenheit 911)

Please stop by and put your name on the petition before July 11th at the
latest
(so I can present the names to the UPTV commission on the 12th).

Thanks much =8-)
R

: ----- Original Message ----- 
: From: "Randall Cotton" <recotton at earthlink.net>
: To: <peace at lists.groogroo.com>
: Sent: Friday, June 25, 2004 4:19 PM
: Subject: Need help! (Democracy Now! Petition)
:
:
: : Hi all,
: :
: : I've been working on getting UPTV to broadcast Democracy Now! on
: : Champaign/Urbana's cable-TV system. This would be on channel 6, Urbana
: : Public Television (UPTV) and ideally, DN! would be broadcast live at 7AM
: : every weekday. I've been keeping AWARE folks up to date on my efforts
and
: : they have endorsed this project at AWARE meetings and have also approved
: : funding (if necessary) for up to $350 (that would be the maximum cost
: needed
: : to implement this proposal for the first year).
: :
: : But I need folks to help me with a petition (either by just signing it
: : yourself or by signing other folks up) to help get this going.
: :
: : The petition reads:
: :
:
: --------------------------------------------------------------------------
: -
: : We, the undersigned residents of the Champaign/Urbana area, thank the
: Urbana
: : Public Television (UPTV) Commission for considering the acquisition of
: Free
: : Speech TV (FSTV) and regular broadcasts of "Democracy Now" from FSTV,
and
: :
: : We strongly encourage the commission to vote in favor of making FSTV
: : available for retransmission on UPTV and to broadcast the live feed for
: : "Democracy Now!" every weekday at 7AM.
:
: --------------------------------------------------------------------------
: -
: :
: : And I'm hoping to get at least 200 signatures by Monday, July 12th, when
: the
: : UPTV Commission has their next meeting.
: :
: : You can sign the petition yourself at the AWARE table for Taste of
: : Champaign/Urbana (which starts 5PM today and runs through the weekend).
I
: : also plan to have it available at the AWARE table at Boardman's Art
: Theater
: : during Fahrenheit 911's run (the film starts today, of course, and I'll
be
: : there at the 7:30 show with petition in-hand). I'll also have it at
AWARE
: : meetings and other gatherings.
: :
: : And please reply to me if you're interested in signing folks up yourself
: : (that would help a lot and I'd really appreciate it) - I'll get you
blank
: : copies of the petition.
: :
: : If you're curious about all this, but want to know more, read on...
: :
: : You may or may not know this, but Democracy Now! (democracynow.org on
the
: : web) does indeed have accompanying video. While it was born as a
strictly
: : audio program for radio, for some time now DN! has been broadcasting as
a
: : full-blown video program. Usually, the video is just of Amy and any
guests
: : she has in the studio, but increasingly there's also video footage of
: : newsmakers, speeches and documentaries.
: :
: : Of course, that's not the only reason to get DN! available on UPTV.
While
: : you can hear DN! on WEFT, 90.1 FM at 4PM on weekdays, the program is
: : actually produced at 7AM central time, so it's 9 hours old by the time
it
: is
: : rebroadcast on WEFT. My proposal is to broadcast it LIVE as it happens
on
: : cable channel 6, 7AM every weekday  morning. In addition, many people
are
: : unable to listen to Democracy Now! on WEFT because it broadcasts during
: : working hours. Finally, having Democracy Now! available on cable-TV
would
: : make it easy for people to record the program using a VCR or DVR
(Digital
: : Video Recorder - e.g. Tivo) and more accessible for folks who don't
often
: : listen to the radio. I believe many folks may discover DN! for the first
: : time by accident just by flipping through their cable channels and
: anything
: : that makes independent, alternative, non-profit news and analysis more
: : accessible to the general population can only accomplish good things.
: :
: : There are already over 100 public-access cable-TV stations across the
: : country that broadcast DN!, so this isn't exactly a bold new precedent.
: : Check out:
: :
: : http://democracynow.org/stations.pl?op=fullsearch&broadcast=tv
: :
: : to see a complete list.
: :
: : But I do need help. In particular, I feel I need to put together a
: petition
: : to influence the UPTV Commission (the body that governs/advises UPTV).
: I've
: : already made a proposal to the UPTV Commission at their most recent
: meeting
: : to acquire broadcasting rights for "Free Speech TV", which will, in turn
: : allow them to broadcast Democracy Now! (which is one of Free Speech TV's
: : programs). They'll be considering my proposal at their next meeting on
: July
: : 12th. It's not a certainty that they'll vote to approve this proposal. I
: : hope to have 200 signatures by then (and more after that) to help
: influence
: : the commission.
: :
: : Feel free to reply to this message (but please don't include the whole
: peace
: : list) if you'd like to know more. Or you can contact me by phone at
: : 722-8470.
: :
: : Thanks =8-)
: : R
: :
: