Wednesday, June 25, 2008

KPA SHUT DOWN


Kingston Public Access tv was temporarily shut down on Wednesday for safety code violations. My GOP counterpart Rich Cahill wrote on his blog that he thinks the station was shut down by Mayor Sottile to muffle free speech. I disagree, they have been bashing Sottile on kpa for years. As a matter of fact, I started my show a few years back because I wanted to counter these attacks. If Sottile cared about what was said on KPA it would have been shut down a long time ago.

If there are legitimate safety violations at KPA they should be addressed for the safety of all producers including Mr. Cahill. I assume KPA will be up and running in a few days.

24 comments:

Anonymous said...

So can the Town of Ulster taxpayer's get their $5,000 back?

Richard T. Cahill Jr. said...

Jeremy, you know better than that. Why are you expressing an opinion you do not actually believe?

Anonymous said...

The Town of Ulster
should take KPA over... Along with it's legal problems.

Anonymous said...

What are the safety violations?
It is very unfair for the City to close the studio without a statement of the violations and the expected opening of the studio.
The producers of Public Access shows deserve the courtesy of a radio newspaper blog press release explaning what is going on. Do you agree?

Anonymous said...

Cahill sounds crazier by the day. That building is a rat trap and Cahill needs to realize no one watches his show or takes him seriously anyway since he is so off the wall now....he has become a joke.

Anonymous said...

to 11:19 am, you must be one of the mayor's yes puppets. everyone watches cahill;s show.

Anonymous said...

2:41 PM : Not anymore!

Anonymous said...

9:09- right on target- As a Producer, former Commissioner and Chair, I was not aware of any previous Fire Department investigations nor meeting with KPA official. On Monday,Mike Lafevere- KFD called to inform me that the FD was going to check out the studio. My wife took the call and referred him to the KPA Board.

Last night,I was shocked when I learned that the studio was closed due to Fire Regulations. I support the actions of the FD in that there are probably many violations within the studio, but we should certainly be given access into the area that allows taped shows to be aired. The lights of the studio are probably a fire hazard, and there are no EXIT signs showing the way out of the studio.

Although it appears that the Mayors' administration is behind this closing, I do not believe that this is anything more than an occurrence that happened at this time. I agree with Jeremy in that if the Mayor wanted the studio to be closed, it would have occurred late last year prior to the election.
I am disappointed that the studio is closed and hope that the KPA Board can make the necessary repairs to the violations cited. I would also like to find out just what the violations were. This is the time that the city administration should revamp their financial budgets and put aside a minimum of $5000.00 to be used for the KPA. I use this figure as a minimum number in that the Mayor has stated on various occasions that he would be willing to place matching city funds into the KPA. Since Supervisor Woerner has already placed $5000.00 from the Town of Ulster, than the City of Kingston should at least match those numbers. As the former Chair, I was proud to be appointed to the Commission as a Member by the Mayor. I find it sad that the city does not support the KPA financially. I would be shocked to learn that the city receives less than $400,000.00 a year from this "golden goosed" Time Warner Cable Station. This dollar amount would be approximately .0125% of funds that are received per annum

In summary, the Kingston Fire Department did their job. Now it is up to the City Administration to help reopen the studio. Our KPA station is the finest in the area. We were the first to broadcast live shows. We were the first to feature municipal administrators. We were probably the only local NY station to have guests like General Colin Powell, Luciano Pavarotti, Placido Domingo as well as local educators and entertainers.
We are probably the only board not to have local municiapl financing to support the station. We helped Saugerties obtain and fund their station. Woodstock and Northern Dutchess Public Access stations are publically funded as most stations in this country. It is time for the local administrators to consider funding for this vital and necessary public station. The station is an important factor within the community. Many not for profit programs would not be successful without the support of the community calendar. Please help.
just my three cents
Shelly Z

Mike Madsen said...

The calendar is running and taped shows are permitted.
Once we get the electric mess figured out and re-inspected, we have been assured that we will be LIVE again.

Anonymous said...

Madsen is a man of the people. Hail Madsen. And he's so cute, too!!!

Skippy

Anonymous said...

What happened to my ideal with having a taped Public Access Tv Show in a public park? Broadway and Thomas St.

You Can Cancel That Bullhorn.


Thank you.

Clark

Anonymous said...

KPA is closed? And how do I find about it? Not by an email, but going there and seeing the sign. KPA is one of the worst org.. wait, I don't want to give the word 'organization' a bad name. I want nothing to do with the leadership of KPA and I personally hope they never get the live studio back. I have personally dis-encourage any contribution's to KPA in the hope that KPA would be shut down and only have tape shows.

All hail the community calendar, after all thats what is important, not producers of the shows.

I tried to get into to the studio to get my dvd's of the my show and the lock would not accept my pass code.

One last thing, I have seen the what KPA needs for electric repairs, nothing that bad because most of the walls are open, a few switches, outlets and some sheetrock, but now they have to pay a license electrician. Kiss most of the five grand goodbye.

Dale Morgan - Dueys 'Off The Wall'

Anonymous said...

KPA is a complete joke; the producers all have their own agenda. people abuse and neglect what equipment there is. and no one respects the right to put a professional quality product out to the public. i have watched many shows; and producers continue to work hard at putting out bad audio and spew out their product with no regards to production quality.

kpa needs fulltime station manager(s); to oversee equipment; play tapes and keep this public tv toilet clean. the 5k the town of ulster gave just flushed the toilet and now it needs to be cleaned up. everyone deserves the right to broadcast an opinion; but the they should respect the viewers and agree to the rules of quality tv production standards.
until that happens, this station will continue to fail.

Anonymous said...

The studio is closed. There is no access to the VCR's to play tapes.

Anonymous said...

KAPA will stay down for a while (at least a few months0. It will come back, however, and be less of Kinston and more of the entire community it is designed to serve. It will hopefully make the expression LESS IS MORE a reality.

The Kingston crickets, groupies, foot-draggers and naysayers will lose control and their tempers over what transpires. Getting what they always wanted may not be as happy a feat as they anticipated.

Let the games begin and may the best players win...smitty

Anonymous said...

What about the tennants upstairs getting kicked out with no where to go?

Anonymous said...

you can see by the pics in the freeman that there is to many extenstion cords! JUST UNPLUG THEM! why is the building so unsafe that tennants are getting kicked out yet Allways There gets to stay? are they not going to burn too? total BS

Anonymous said...

I cannot believe you liberals would tolerate the closing of a station which serves as a great avenue for the First Amendment.

I guess being liberal today means serving the Democrat Party. There was a time when old liberals like me saw the Democrats standing for people's rights and liberties. What has happened to my party? We used to lead, now we are lemmings.

Anonymous said...

Hide the news on Sottile's screw-ups again. People have fought and died for the freedoms allowed by Public Access - what a mockery of Democracy - Jimmy Hitler is here.

Anonymous said...

SOTTILE IS THE GREATEST MAYOR THIS CITY HAS EVER SEEN AND TO DENOUNCE HIM WILL RESULT IN YOUR HOME BEING CONDEMNED!!!!!

HAIL OH GREAT ONE SOTTILE!!!!

PRAISE OUR GREAT MAYOR OR THE BUILDING DEPARTMENT WILL BE COMING TO YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD. OH YES, IF ANYONE SPEAKS OUT AGAINST OUR GREAT MAYOR, NOT ONLY WILL THEIR HOME BE CONDEMNED, BUT EVERYONE ON THEIR STREET SHALL SUFFER THE SAME FATE. SOTTILE IS OMNIPOTENT. SOTTILE IS ALL KNOWING.

THE FIRST HOUSE TO BE CONDEMNED UNDER THIS NEW POLICY WILL BE THAT OF RICHARD T. CAHILL JR.

DIE HARD SOTTILE SUPPORTER,
P.O.

Anonymous said...

We have renewed faith in you for poasting our poasts. Keep on let'ten'em fly blabber!!!

Mutha of all trollz

Anonymous said...

I haven't participated in any of this discussion thus far, and frankly, in reading all of this tonight, I find it all discusting.

I DO feel bad for the people being put out of their apartments on such short notice. I DO feel bad that KAPA is going out (apparently) of Kingston on such a sour twisted note. I DO feel bad about the fact that the adults in our city act a LOT WORSE than the children do...

And I can't help but wonder where any of this behavior, on anyone's part, will lead.

I'm hypervigilent down to the bone. I've been called a "goody too shoes" and nicknamed the "OSHA rep" - but it SURE seems to ME that some people out there could USE a LITTLE BIT OF WHAT I GOT!!!

Ya' know?

Somehow all of this shi*** is managing to wreck MY personal life (along with a bunch of other stressors) - and I've got to say that I DON'T APPRECIATE THAT AT ALL!!!!

Play your nasty little political games, boys...

AND IT IS PREDOMINANTLY BOYS THAT ARE PLAYING IT!!!!!

And have a GOOD LIFE.

Who knows? Maybe there is something toxic in the water supply around here...

That surely WOULDN'T SURPRISE ME!

Agh.

So much for note-taking. So much for trying to stand for something decent...

'Cause I surely can't figure out what THAT IS...

But I DO KNOW WHAT IT IS NOT!

Jeremy, I guess you've ignored my blog entirely, as have a lot of other folks...

It's a shame.

You might learn something a bit more integral over there.

N.S. / PHOENIX

Anonymous said...

Why not close down electrical inspector's junkyard on Broadway? Selective enforcement as usual in Kingston. This will be used by King's Inn owner to recover damages.

Anonymous said...

Jeremy,

My previous comment was arrogant and rude and probably based in hurt feelings as much as anything.

I apologize,

N.S. / PHOENIX