Fringe voices

Nationwide, public access television is becoming ever less publicly accessible. In parts of Indiana and Michigan, cable providers like Comcast are closing studios and permanently pulling the plug; in Chicago, behemoth provider AT&T is introducing the spiffy new service U-verse, offering a tantalizing array of bells and whistles while exiling all public access programming to broadcast Siberia. To understand why PEGs are disappearing, you must first get a grasp on why they exist. Contrary to popular belief, such channels weren't invented just to give fringe voices a home. The concept of PEG programming dates back decades to the birth of broadcasting, when Congress recognized that the airwaves are public property. Just as the far left end of the radio dial is reserved for non-commercial and community radio, so too is a certain segment of the television band dedicated to publicly-accessible free use.