On May 16, Lisa Horner, Director of Access Television announced the closure of the station scheduled for the end of May. The City of Tucson is nearly broke and the station is not included in the draft budget under consideration by the City Council.
The City issued a request for proposals (RFP) for a new a media center.
According to Horner in a letter to supporters, “At the end of this month, Access Tucson will have only enough funds to cover the costs of ending service. We will pay the employees and the final bills. We will continue to program the channel through June. If no additional funding has been received by this time, a message will be programmed on the channel informing viewers why they are no longer able to see the wide spectrum of vibrant content they once enjoyed.”
Horner alleges that the City of Tucson is looking for “a different kind of community media center, one that serves not only the public, but the City of Tucson’s interests as well. The new center would provide coverage for City Council meetings, engage in workforce development training, create promotional materials to attract business to Tucson AND serve traditional community access services. You can bet that serving the community is last on the list for a reason.”
That reason, she writes is “a desire to eliminate programming. Free speech is great, just the RIGHT kind of free speech–not all that crazy stuff. They would argue that this is not censorship–just quality control.”