SHENANGO VALLEY Adelphia helps fund local access channels

A New Castle company has expressed interest in developing and running the public access channels.
By HAROLD GWIN
VINDICATOR SHARON BUREAU
HERMITAGE, Pa. -- Adelphia Communications has come through with some promised seed money to help start two local cable television access channels.
James DeCapua, executive director of the Mercer County Regional Council of Governments, said the cable company recently sent a check for $40,000 to help launch both a public access and a government access channel. COG helped negotiate the last franchise agreement between Adelphia and a number of local municipalities three years ago.
Franchise agreement
The money and the access to two local cable channels were part of the franchise agreement between Adelphia and the Pennsylvania municipalities of Hermitage, Sharon, Farrell, Sharpsville, Wheatland, Shenango Township, West Middlesex, South Pymatuning Township, Pymatuning Township, and Clark, and Brookfield Township in Trumbull County in Ohio.
Those municipalities formed a joint Shenango Valley Cable TV Advisory Board, which DeCapua chaired, to negotiate the 10-year agreement.
DeCapua said the COG executive board voted Wednesday to have the cable advisory board examine a proposal from a New Castle man to run those access channels.
Proposed operator
J. Robert Irvine, executive director of MC 2 Inc., a nonprofit corporation, would provide the operating and administrative responsibilities for the channels, DeCapua said.
The goal would be to make the channels self-sustaining through the sale of advertising and fund-raising activities, including securing grants for the nonprofit venture, DeCapua said.
Irvine, contacted after the meeting, said he is working on a grant now to buy equipment for the project. He's also trying to find a location for the channel offices, preferably in Hermitage.
His company was formed a decade ago to promote arts and education through the media, he said.
Content
The local access channels would broadcast local events such as council meetings and perhaps high school football games, but the ultimate goal would be to produce Public Broadcasting System-type programs and eventually develop a family channel.
The channels also can serve as a marketing tool for the member municipalities and as a training ground for students interested in careers in radio and television, Irvine added.
gwin@vindy.com