For 35 years, Dick Kerekes wore a spotted dog suit, hood with ears, collar and mask while reviewing local community theater on public access television.
“The Amazing but Humble Watch Hound” is one of the longest-running local access programs in Duval County.
But that show, and many others, will soon come to an end.
Comcast has notified producers of 60 local programs that effective June 20, the public access portion of the Public, Education and Government Channel 99 will provide only content from the City of Jacksonville and Duval County Public Schools.
The canceled shows include “Hispanic Issues Today,” “JaxPort Review,” “Kosher Kowboy,” “Legal Issues Facing Jacksonville,” “Rotary News Network,” and “Understanding Islam.”
The city will continue to provide live coverage of City Council, standing committee meetings and other city television programming, including content provided by the Parks, Recreation & Community Development Department and the independent authorities.
The public school system will continue to provide live coverage of school board meetings.
But the lineup of locally produced programs focused on topics such as music, legal issues, politics, religion and programming for seniors is signing off for the last time.
Under the terms of the first franchise agreement between the city and the original cable television provider, the cable company was required to, at no charge, provide and staff a studio for use by the public. The city also was granted use of the facilities.
In addition, the agreement required the cable company to make the programs available to its subscribers.
Over the years, as cable companies were sold and merged, the agreement was renewed until July 29, 2017.
However, in 2007, the Florida Legislature enacted a statute that reserved to the state all authority with regard to granting a franchise for cable television service. The statute also terminated existing county and municipal franchise agreements.
The state statute does not require cable providers to maintain studio facilities for use by the public.
It requires only that they provide capacity on their networks for free access channels.
In a letter sent May 20, Bill Ferry, Comcast senior director of Government Affairs and Community Investment for the Florida region, notified local content producers they would no longer offer the free-of-charge services for taping, playback or broadcast of locally produced programming.
Ferry wrote the decision was based on changes in technology, including YouTube and streaming video, as well as challenges with maintaining the production equipment and studio facility at Comcast’s Richard Street location in Southside.
He also said locally produced programming “has attracted progressively fewer viewers.”
One of the programs affected is “Legal Issues Facing Jacksonville,” a program produced by Jacksonville Area Legal Aid and The Jacksonville Bar Association.
Kathy Para, chair of the Bar’s Pro Bono Committee, said the monthly half-hour program represented an opportunity to share facets of the legal community in a question-and-answer format.
“The legal community can be mysterious and intimidating,” Para said. “It was a way to share information about legal resources that are available.”
However, she said, “It has been a gift for us to be able to do it as long as we have.”
Another program coming to an end is “St. Johns Riverkeeper.”
Riverkeeper Executive Director Jimmy Orth said having the public access on Comcast gave the organization a platform to talk about issues in depth.
It wasn’t the organization’s major communication tool, but it was another way to reach people to advocate for the river.
“We’ll find other options,” he said. “We’re looking at expanding our social media and webinars.”
As for Comcast’s contention that viewership for local programs was steadily dwindling, Orth said the Riverkeeper program definitely had an audience.
“We joked that only our families watched it, but I was always surprised at how many people said they saw the program,” said Orth.
As for Kerekes, he is disappointed to be hanging up his dog suit, but he’ll find another way to promote and review the local community theater scene.
“I knew it would happen eventually,” Kerekes said. “Heck, even David Letterman quit.”
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