Some day, predicted Andy Warhol a few years ago, "everybody will be famous for at least 15 minutes." Thanks to the Federal Communications Commission, such universal celebrity may soon be possible. In 1972 the FCC ruled that all cable-television stations entering the top 100 market areas in the U.S. and having more than 3,500 subscribers must provide at least one channel for the exclusive use of the public on a first-come, first-served basis.
"It's like an electronic Hyde Park speaker's corner," said Shirley Simmons, a member of an off-off-Broadway repertory company planning to perform on public access. Indeed it is. Anyone can walk through the cablecaster's door, sign up for an available time slot, and go on the air (or, more precisely, through the wire) with any kind of show: Tom's neighborhood news, Dick's consumer reports or Uncle Harry's rendition of I'll Take You Home Again, Kathleen.
Public access is strictly do-it-yourself. Cable operators are required to provide the hardware—studio facilities for live programming or video-camera and editing equipment for taped shows—and the cable time. Some cable companies also provide technical assistance, but few can afford to hire full-time public-access aides. The FCC lets the cable company charge a small equipment fee for programs that run more than the minimum five minutes allowed all applicants, but most stations schedule longer shows at no charge. If openings allow, in fact, even regular weekly shows may be arranged for. Usually the user's only expense is for video tape (about $10 per half-hour).
Although public access is still in its infancy, at least 150 of the 3,000 U.S. cable stations now spend from $50 a month (in Wapakoneta, Ohio) to more than $200,000 a year (New York City) on such programming. DeKalb, Ill., schedules 24 hours a week; San Jose, Calif., 100 hours; in New York City, two companies now offer 600 hours a month.
"The first fear that cable television has about public access is that fringe groups will be the ones to use it," says Sharon Portin of Channel 3 in Lynnwood, Wash. "Our experience has been the opposite." The most active participants are community groups: religious organizations, libraries, ethnic and minority associations.
Public access can never be accused of being monotonous. The schedule in Reading, Pa., has included the regular half-hour Che-Lumumba-Jackson Collective Black Community News and a twelve-year-old budding sportscaster's report on the junior stock-car races. Bakersfield, Calif., has programmed square-dance instruction, an environmentalist appeal to save Redrock Canyon and a college spoof called Stagnet.
Technical quality on public access is highly variable, from the charmingly erratic to the abysmal. Most cable operators offer instruction in the use of camera and tape equipment. Even so, "it takes a little practice to get the hang of using the camera," notes Joe Collins of Orlando, Fla.'s Orange Cablevision. But stations encourage novices to air their efforts. Thus Orlando has recently seen one Warholesque half-hour that consisted of a man cutting down a tree, and another that zeroed (or zigzagged) in on the ducks around Lake Eola.