Philadelphia Community Access Coalition
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MR. KEUTEMYER: My name is Michael Keutemyer. I'm an Executive Director of Termite TV Collective. Termite TV is a video production and distribution collective based here in Philadelphia. And we distribute the works nationwide to over 70 public access and educational access stations nationwide.

I just wanted to speak briefly on something I think that hasn't really been addressed. But as a video producer, I see public access as sort of being an economic asset for the City, an asset that's not really being utilized. Because, personally, I really got my start in video production in public access. When you make video and you have no way to distribute it, it's sort of like the story, you know, if a tree falls in the woods and no one's there, does anyone hear it? or does it make a sound? As a young video maker that -- you know, you think of the same thing as far as if I make a video and no one sees it, am I wasting my time?

So I was fortunate enough to be exposed to public access. But unfortunately, I had to leave Philadelphia to do that when I went to school in Madison, Wisconsin. But I could see that as being the beginning of my career as a video producer was sort of having that direct experience of making work to be distributed for people to see it -- not just sort of to make it for the practice of it. Because video production's really about communication, and that's something you learn about kind of abstractly in school, but until you actually broadcast work, it doesn't really make sense.

But anyway, there is this asset that Philadelphia should have for the communication and video production industry in the Philadelphia area, and it's not being utilized. People often ask me, you know, when am I going to move to New York or L.A. because, you know, that's where real television producers go to work and live. And, you know, the two reasons I give are that, for one, this is my hometown and, you know, I'd like to stay here. But the other reason is that there's a very vibrant media community here in Philadelphia, and it's a very exciting place to work.

COUNCILMAN COHEN: We've had evidence of that today.

MR. KEUTEMYER: Yeah exactly. But then, you know, the economic realities, you know, do come into play. There are limited opportunities for paying work in television here in Philadelphia. And it seems that with public access, you would have this infrastructure, you'd have this arena where people could be trained in the skills of video production, multimedia, as well as providing this opportunity for people to create work and broadcast it, which validates it and kind of creates much more of a community of makers.

And it just seems that tremendous amounts of money are spent on economic development, you know, shipyards and baseball stadiums. Whereas here, there's something that is essentially for free and that would really strengthen this communications industry in Philadelphia, and it's not being utilized.

So thank you.

COUNCILMAN COHEN: We thank you. Very interesting observation.

(Applause.)

COUNCILMAN COHEN: Mr. Siftar?

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