Author Archives: bryan

California PUC Hearings – We Need Your Help!

Residents, PEG Station Employees, Government Staff, Supporters… we need your voice!

The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) is holding public participation hearings in August and September 2024, to hear from communities about the performance of cable companies like Comcast Xfinity, Charter Spectrum, Cox, and others. A 2022 state law, known as SB 28, asked the agency to update the licensing of cable companies, a process known as franchising, and to adopt customer service standards. This is the first time cable franchising has been reviewed in more than fifteen years in California. It is an exciting opportunity to fight for community media, digital equity and consumer protections. Continue reading →

WAVE Awards Ceremony 2024

Our wonderful community of producers has worked hard all year and now it is time to see the best of the west recognized. The winners for 2024 were announced and honored at an online awards ceremony on Friday, April 19 at 7pm Pacific. Click here to for a full list of winners and to watch the ceremony!

Join us for in-person meetups in February

If you haven’t already heard, the ACM National Conference will take place in San Jose, California, this summer. We’re excited to welcome ACM members from across the country to the West Region. We hope you’ll join us.

That means this year ACM West will not host a regional conference. Our regional conference will return in 2025, location to be announced.

However, in February, we are offering several meetup opportunities in Hawaii and California. These are free to attend. Our Hawaii members will gather on The Big Island from February 1-3. For more information email Kat Tracy at kat@akaku.org.

For our California members, there will be a meetup at Contra Costa TV in Martinez, CA, on Monday, February 5 – click here to register; and a meetup at Pasadena Media in Pasadena, CA, on Thursday, February 8 – click here to register.

ACM President & CEO Mike Wassenaar will be in attendance at all the meetups. This is a great opportunity to network with and learn from your community media colleagues. There is no cost to attend and you don’t need to be an ACM member (though we hope you’ll consider joining).

What does the ACM do?


In order for democracy to flourish, people must be active participants in their government, free to express themselves, and educated to think critically.

Founded in 1976, the Alliance represents over 3,000 Public, Educational and Governmental (PEG) access organizations and community media centers throughout the country. The ACM works to protect the interests of these organizations and those who use PEG facilities and equipment to advance their causes through cable television and the Internet.

JOIN US:

Please explore this website, become an ACM member, or contact us for more information. We look forward to serving you by promoting civic engagement through community media. Also learn about our many training activities like our annual conference and trade show.

The best part of the ACM is that in addition to learning about issues, you also learn how to address them in your community. Through the ACM West and our national parent organization, you can learn how to help local voices on the most powerful medium. In addition, we support democratization of the media. This means we support radio, internet and many other means of communication integral to an informed world. Learn about creating a local news program on a shoestring, explore media literacy and digital inclusion issues, and learn how to address them in your community.

Action Alert for California PEG!

California Assembly Bill 2635 makes a small but important change to current California law. It would require the local PEG access channels to be in high definition (HD) or the modern technology used by local broadcast TV if the material is created in HD format. This change would ensure that open captioning embedded into video (for example on Zoom) for deaf, hearing impaired, and elderly audiences are legible. It would ensure that documents presented during public meetings such as maps, spreadsheets, and presentations are not indecipherable.

It’s critical that ACM members and their local governments and supporters take action now to keep the bill alive! For the bill to move forward we need ACM members, community media center users and supporters, and local governments to act NOW!

Here’s what we all can do:

1. Call your Assembly Member and encourage strong support for AB2635. Here’s the contact info and how each member voted on May 2nd: drive.google.com/file/d/1rI2cnR_ILAOricaeW4r2tlm0bAaFDVWQ/view?usp=sharing

2. Send an email to Assembly Members using Media Alliance’s “Take Action” page. This page has helpful “Facts vs Myths” for dispelling the cable industry lies. takeaction.salsalabs.org/AB2635MythFact/index.html. (Also, here’s proof that HD PEG channels did not increase cable rates in Oregon: drive.google.com/file/d/1bP7VZhWnroDNzkdNRE6ULfJLdbuPKmgW/view?usp=sharing)

3. Send this letter of support to your Assembly Member and the persons listed at the top of the letter. Encourage other elected officials or government officials to send the letter also. Link: docs.google.com/document/d/18wIj1O1SUQMH6jcuwjVD_MIbUtv_pITQ/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=112745945501984474403&rtpof=true&sd=true

We all will benefit if AB2635 passes… but we need your support NOW!