Open Stage Media, public access, find new paths during streaming era

National conference brings representatives together to talk about difficulties facing free speech

SCHENCETADY — Proctors Collaborative’s free speech and expression values don’t exist solely on the stage – they spread across digital streams thanks to Open Stage Media. For the last 15 years, Open Stage Media has been an unfiltered conductor of those values in Schenectady County. Faced with enormous challenges over the years, their platform is more important than ever to those wishing to stay informed.

Recently, OSM staff attended the yearly Alliance for Community Media conference in Boston, where they met with hundreds of other representatives of public access channels from across the country.

The conference featured speakers on crucial topics affecting media today, such as digital equity, inclusion, journalism, working with youth, and public policy.

For over 40 years, public access channels have featured voices and perspectives of everyday Americans in big cities and small towns across the nation, supported educational opportunities for school districts and colleges, and offered citizens the ability to engage with and observe their local governments unedited.

According to OSM Program Manager Zebulon Schmidt, “It’s very important because we’re here for people to see the meetings or to hear from people in our studio through their own words, without being edited or behind a paywall. It is important for a functioning democracy.

We operate at a local level, which is important because we air what is happening now, We’re a non-corporate entity that’s open to everybody.”

Public access channels are funded through the 1984 Cable Communications Act, which allocated fees from cable companies to support these free channels. As cable subscriptions have decreased over the years, so has the funding — and the accessibility to the channels.

In an effort to broaden that accessibility, OSM launched a streaming app in 2021 to equalize the digital equity in the community. Their app is available on Apple TV, Roku, and Amazon.

“It used to be that everyone had access because everyone watched [cable] TV. Now we’re more of a community media center, because we have different modes of distribution. We have a YouTube channel and several podcasts on Spotify and other podcast apps. We go to many different sources,” Schmidt said.

OSM continues to open its channel to everyone to help bridge the gap between underrepresented and underserved communities and the information, resources, and platforms they deserve. Be sure to download their app and stay connected to what is happening in your local community.