Unger requests show on access cable Channel 20 Councilman calls for public meetings to be aired on TV, Web site BY CHRISTINE VARNO Staff Writer Councilman Brian Unger is awaiting a response from the city's cable commission on whether he can host an interview program on the Long Branch cable access Channel 20 (LBC20). Unger submitted a written request to the commission Jan. 4 seeking approval to interview community members on historic preservation issues facing the city. "I want to do a show about historic preservation and possibly touch on the Takanassee Beach Club development issue," Unger said in an interview last week. "I am not seeking a regularly scheduled program," he said. "I am looking to have an occasional public affairs show on issues of interest to the city and surrounding areas. "Maybe it would be once a quarter or once every five months when there is something of public interest," he added. At the Jan. 9 cable commission meeting held at city hall on Broadway, Unger reiterated his request to host a show and additionally asked that public governmental meetings be aired on LBC20. "It is time to bring the city into the 21st century and not deny vast numbers of our citizens and taxpayers a convenient opportunity to view their government at work and to enhance their communications with city government by giving them a window into the bimonthly meetings where we, the members of the legislative body, and the mayor and his executive branch department heads and managers discuss the business of running this town," Unger said at the meeting. "I believe that now our city needs to do what so many other towns and cities in New Jersey have done, and tape the major public governmental meetings in our city and air them on Channel 20," he said. Unger added that he would also like to see the meetings appear on the city'sWeb site. "A free press and free speech is sacred to this country," Unger said at the meeting. "It is what we are about. "It is why New Hampshire's Revolutionary War slogan is 'Live free or die.' Such is the commitment Americans have to their cherished freedoms," he said. Unger said he first made a verbal request in December to the co-chairman of the cable commission, Don Swanson, to host a show on LBC20. "He reported back to me a day or two later that my request had been rejected at a meeting of the commission," Unger said at the meeting. "Later it turned out that there wasn't a quorum at the meeting, but there was a consensus that my program was too controversial and that this was not the type of program that was appropriate for Channel 20," he said. Swanson said last week that Unger's written request would be discussed at the Jan. 22 commission meeting. "His request is absolutely something we will consider," Swanson said. "There is no reason to turn it down. "The key is to have the resources to do the show," he said, adding, "We haven't turned Brian down." The cable commission comprises 12 volunteers appointed by the City Council. Members include Councilman David Brown as well as a representative from the city Planning Board and from the school district. LBC20 is an EG - educational and governmental - channel and the commission's mission is to assure that the programs aired on the channel are consistent with that criteria. The programs that currently run on the channel consist of a bulletin board listing events of area nonprofits, anArmy news watch show, and "Community Connections," which is usually hosted by Mayor Adam Schneider. The commission also runs previously taped events, such as a rally on the Takanassee Beach Club that was held in the fall. The commission does accept applications, such as Unger's, for requests to host a program or to have a previously taped event or program aired on the channel, according to Swanson. "We have never done anything politically advocating one way or another," Swanson said. "If Brian had brought us a tape of the show he would like aired, we would simply look at it and say this is appropriate or inappropriate," Swanson said. "His content sounds like it would be relatively non-political and would be mostly informational. "Our biggest problem is that we don't have the resources," he said. The Long Branch Cable Commission, a nonprofit entity, has an annual budget of $5,000 in funding from the city to produce the cable access channel, which Swanson says is a tiny operating budget for a cable station. The shows are filmed in a studio at Monmouth University and the city does not have its own professional staff to operate production, according to Swanson. "We have no studio and no professional staff of our own," Swanson said. "We generally have to shoe-horn in a time and location." Unger said at the meeting that when he received the rejection from Swanson after verbally requesting a program on the channel, he tried to obtain a copy of the guidelines and rules and regulations for the commission and the operations of Channel 20. "They were not on the city's Web site, nor in the city clerk's office," Unger said. "It was nearly impossible, and still is, to get a copy of the guidelines for the operations of this channel and in particular for how to make an application to do a program," he said. At the meeting, Unger said he urges the commission to post all relevant rules and guidelines with the city clerk and on the city's Web site. He further requested that a contact person be designated by the commission to handle inquiries from residents regarding the channel. Unger said he also recommends that the City Council commit an additional $15,000 to LBC20 to help defray the cost of broadcasting and webcasting public city council meetings.