Local Newswire Minneapolis Television Network withstands $90,000 budget cut

Thanks to a little invention they call the Internet, we live in a time where entertainment is constant, plentiful, and free. It’s easy for many twenty-somethings to forget that, once upon a time, YouTube didn’t exist. But there exists a dying vestige of that before-time from which some of the greatest, craziest, most sincere programming in the history of broadcast was born: community access television. Unfortunately for those who give a shit, the well of funding for such trifles is beginning to run dry and public access stations, including our beloved Minneapolis Television Network, are undergoing a bevy of economic downturn-related funding cuts.

As we’ve mentioned before, community access TV is in general decline, but it could be worse. Originally slated for a $250,000 budget reduction this year by order of the mayor, MTN is sitting comparatively pretty, that proposed cut now reduced to a paltry $90,000 after a tidal wave of public and political supporters rallied around the underdog television station. The station provides viewers with everything from to programming produced specifically for the local Somali community to batshit crazy green screen talk shows. Trimmed-down as it is, the budget cut will still affect MTN’s methods of operation, with executive director Pam Colby stepping down in the hopes that her replacement will be better able to squeeze blood from a stone and keep things rolling in spite of Mayor Rybak’s cuts. [MN Daily]