Broadcast Media

Channel 4 looks to expand their programming

By Sam Pfeifle

The sun has just peeked over the Wednesday horizon, as interested parties begin filing into the annual meeting for Portland's Community Television Network and Portland Public Access -- channels 4 and 2 to the layman. Board members mingle and sip coffee with representatives from the city and CTV members, nonprofit and otherwise, and there is a positive air in the room at 100 Oak Street, though it may just be that "all the pizza boxes have been picked up and stowed away," says event organizer Lesley Jones.

Newly elected vice president David Canarie is less glib. "We were struggling about four years ago," he says. "But we seem to be really hitting our stride now."

From the opening remarks of outgoing president Julie Cameron, it is clear that Channel 4, the more regimented of the two stations, has ambitious aims for the coming year. Cameron trumpets their recent accomplishments: a 25 percent increase in production of new programming over last year, the addition of 39 new dues-paying members, and the documentation of the Portland Observatory renovation.

She is followed by an introduction of new officers including president-elect Neal Allen, by John Walker, network member since 1986 and the executive director of the Maine Association of Nonprofits. He turns the floor over to executive director of CTV, Tom Handel, who is buoyant and visibly excited for upcoming programming.

"I see us in the future," he says, "as an agent for social change." Pretty heady stuff, but backed up by the program offerings that he reports are waiting in the wings. Local human-rights activist Cynthia McMullin is putting together an eight-part series titled "Solutions to Ending Sexism," that will begin showing this month. Volunteer Anne Pringle is helping to produce "Breaking the Barriers," a series focusing on mental illness that will include shows taped with live studio audiences. And the NAACP will be debuting a half-hour show in November.

And then there is "Law on the Line," a call-in show featuring free legal advice starring local lawyers Derry Rundlett and Ken Altshuler, that everyone agrees is Channel 4's big hit of the new season. Rundlett arrives just as the meeting is to adjourn, late from a morning court date. He moves to the podium and begins by harkening back to when he and Allen were working together at City Hall some 25 years ago, trying to predict the impact of the very cable television on which he now finds himself. He admits, "Being on TV is a dream come true."

But is anybody watching? "I get comments from other lawyers and judges all the time," says Rundlett. "They never say how long they watched it, but they always tell me how good I look."