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The Community Media Access Partnership (CMAP-TV) board of directors voted to withdraw support for the Low Power FM (LPFM) radio station KQKE, contrary to commitments made to the KQKE steering committee pledging financial support for the effort during a public meeting in March. 

The CMAP-TV board of directors commissioned an independent survey of a sample of San Benito County residents to gauge the level of interest and support the community would lend to a LPFM radio station and decided the results did not merit continuing to support the effort. 

Of course, it is easy to make that determination when you have no presence or sense of responsibility to serve San Benito County, a decision made several years ago when CMAP moved its headquarters from Hollister to Christopher High School in Gilroy. 

According to CMAP’s website, the following statement is true. 

CMAP is a community media center that:

Creates democratic change and civic engagement through serving the media and technology needs of the communities it serves;
Creates community dialogue, voice, expression, government transparency, and free speech through cable access and Internet distribution channels;
Develops leadership, job and life skills, teamwork, and media and technology literacy, critical thinking skills, and self-reliance in youth and adults;

CMAP, Community Media Access Partnership, is a non-profit tax-exempt public, education and government access media center that serves Gilroy, Hollister and San Juan Bautista. CMAP is a partnership with the communities that it serves. Although it is housed at Christopher High School, it is a separate non-profit organization.
We are funded via Franchise Agreement with the cable company, Charter Communications in Gilroy. Cable subscribers pay a certain percentage on their monthly bill (around a dollar) towards our operating funds. We also received a one-time capital equipment fund for purchasing distribution, production, and office equipment. The cities of Gilroy and Hollister provide additional quarterly funds for government access services.

In truth, CMAP does not serve Hollister and San Juan Bautista very well at all. There is an abject sense of apathy toward San Benito County by CMAP even though Charter Cable customers here and the City of Hollister provide a revenue stream to the media outlet. 

I support Bob Reid and his passion and the hard work he has done to bring LPFM radio to San Benito County. I attended meetings and spoke with CMAP staff and board members about the obvious need for this communication tool in Hollister. 

At the end of the day, the CMAP-TV board of directors failed San Benito County even while it capitalizes on funding from Charter Cable TV customers that live here. I am reminded of the 1976 Academy-Award winning movie “Network,” in which character Howard Beale, the longtime anchor of the Union Broadcasting System’s UBS Evening News, learns from the news division president, Max Schumacher, that he has just two more weeks on the air because of declining ratings. While on-air, Howard Beale rants “Things have got to change. But first, you’ve gotta get mad!… You’ve got to say, ‘I’m as mad as hell, and I’m not going to take this anymore!’ Then we’ll figure out what to do about the depression and the inflation and the oil crisis. But first get up out of your chairs, open the window, stick your head out, and yell, and say it: “I’M AS MAD AS HELL, AND I’M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE!” 

After that, let’s build a low-power FM community radio station through community participation and crowdfunding efforts.Â