Yesterday, we covered the fifty year history of Knoxville Community Media’s work to capture local voices and stories. Today, we will look at reasons the next 50 years may not happen. Due to shifts in consumer behavior and the advancement of technology without accompanying changes in legislation, KCM has lost significant funding, and as Executive and Creative Director of Knoxville Community Media Amos Oaks stated, may be at their swan song.
Oaks tracked the funding, “ten years ago, I think we were…on about a $1.4 million budget. When I came on about three years ago, we were operating on a $785,000 budget. We lost over $112,000 in this last fiscal year. So we’re about down to $645,000 a year. And it is very, very hard to operate this place.” KCM currently has two production staff but needs four to get the job done. Oaks added, “It’s gonna drop again; we know that.”
Why Has Funding Shifted?
Public Access receives the bulk of their funding from cable franchise fees under the Cable Act of 1984, which require cable companies to pay a franchise fee based on subscribers. The act has had minimal updates and is subject to consumer changes, namely cable cord cutting that leads to reduced funding for communities. Boyce Evans, Chief Financial Officer for the City of Knoxville, verified that projected funds coming into Knoxville under existing franchise fees are projected to drop by $400,000 in this year’s budget. The loss of fees paid to Knoxville will affect funding for KCM. Franchise fees are also used by municipalities to cover general budget items, so Knoxville will see a reduction in this funding.
Oaks met with city officials on May 13 about funding. He said that city government is aware of the funding cuts and are “considering an adjustment in our new contract to help.”
Canada recently passed an act to preserve public access through franchise fees on streaming services. Most PEG (Public, Educational and Government) groups believe streaming services should pay franchise fees as they build out the same infrastructure on taxpayer-funded land. Otherwise, funding will continue to drop, and public access will begin to disappear.
In the United States, two competing bills in Congress will either threaten or strengthen public access.
A Tale of Two Bills
Kent Morrell serves on the Republican State Executive Committee and explained the impact of the American Broadband Deployment Act, submitted to Congress as H.R. 3557. Morrell told me that “the intention of that bill sounds very noble. It is to remove red tape to rapidly deploy broadband to rural communities.” Tennessee’s first district congresswoman Diana Harshbarger serves on the Energy Committee that introduced the bill.
Morrell added, “it’s not mentioned in this bill anywhere that this is going to wipe out public access TV and public access communications, which I want to importantly point out is not taxpayer funded. This is not PBS. This is not NPR. There is no tax money that goes to support community media across the country.” Knoxville is not alone. Oaks and Morrell both mentioned that there 1,600 stations that will be affected across the country. Morrell said that thousands of employees’ jobs are at risk if HR 3557 passes.
Oaks agrees with Morrell. He said that HR 3557 “sounds real beautiful. It talks about getting internet to all corners of America, so that everybody can have access. But, the truth of the matter is, when they’re running internet to rural areas, those rural areas are these million dollar farms where people are building million dollar houses. There is never going to be an internet company that’s going to invest millions of dollars in some Appalachian Hill country where 12 people live because they’re never going to reap the benefit from that.”
Conspicuously left out of the bill is any requirement to pay the previous franchise fees for running on public land. Morrell said, “I think the cable industry helped write this bill, because they don’t have to pay these fees anymore, and they just didn’t happen to tell anybody on the Energy Committee that, ‘this is going to destroy an entire segment of the communications industry across the country.’ “
Morrell was able to meet directly with Congresswoman Harshbarger. Morrell said Harshbarger was surprised about the unintended consequences of the bill: wiping out public access TV and radio stations around the country and taking away historical protections.
A secondary effect of the bill would allow cable companies to run lines across historical lands, like Blount Mansion or the Gettysburg Battlefield, without any recourse. He feels that the bill gives too much power to the broadband companies. He added that HR 3557 is a “power grab from big business that takes away the control that local communities have.”
Oaks said that both outcomes of the bill would be detrimental to public voice and transparency. He emphasized that a cable company “could put a tower on a historic site without permission if they wanted to.” If the bill passes, broadband companies would not be required to provide franchise fees. Oaks said, “that will be the nail in the coffin for public access television as we know it.”
It is absolutely a free speech issue. I’m going to be against anything that takes away local control from our local communities. And this bill does that.” -Kent Morrell
Morrell said he considers “public access to be the digital version of the town square.” He did a thirteen episode show on KCM recapping bills in Nashville from local Knox County legislators. He is currently working on another show that will cover politics and accompanies Oaks to open doors to legislator’s offices. Spending years cultivating relationships with chiefs of staff and legislators, Morrell was able to meet more people face to face in legislator’s offices in two days than KCM had been able to meet in two years.
HR 3557 was introduced in 2023 and has not made it out of committee. If you remember your Schoolhouse Rock, bills that do not make it out of committee die. Morrell is convinced that, with the power of the cable companies and lobbyists, it will get reintroduced this year, and he’s very concerned that it will get passed. He told me that “it’s going to be an uphill battle.” At one meeting, he mentioned that he was the only Republican in the room, and said that it will take Republican support to stop the passage. He is working to bring legislators onboard to fight the bill.
In his meetings with Congresswoman Harshbarger, she said that local government transparency through public access broadcasts were a need in the Tri-Cities. Morrell is concerned that “people are not going to have the transparency and access that they have right now.”
The opposing bill is called the Protecting Community Television Act (S340), also introduced in 2023. Though it won’t counteract the American Broadband Deployment Act, it will close a loophole. In the intervening years, the FCC reversed elements of the 1984 Cable Act. Cable franchisees no longer have to provide franchise fees if they provided a television channel for public access as an in-kind donation. S340 closes this loophole but leaves public access subject to the shrinking market share of cable.
Oaks noted, “if we don’t have fees to operate a channel, it’s worthless to have a channel, because we can’t pay our staff to populate the channel with content or to give people equal voices.”
Funding Models
Funding remains the major issue for the existence of KCM and organizations like it around the United States. Oaks said they attend conferences with the Alliance for Community Media, allowing them to network with other access centers. Community media members are always discussing ways to get funding.
Oaks noted that they have a grant writer helping with youth outreach. He said, “That’s the only way we can do the arts part is with that grant money. And then we have a community arts coordinator who’s helping us with the arts part…he helps me with development, helps me think of creative ways to do community outreach and to kind of bolster our vision.” He added that they have general website links and QR codes for donations. They continue to do various fundraising through communicative arts events that feature artists and performers who explore storytelling through multimedia as well.
A Future at Risk
Knoxville Community Media gives us a voice and provides governmental accountability. Their workshops help young and old to express themselves. They are an integral part of our community and have plans to enrich Knoxville even further with a brand new festival next year.
On June 5 – 7, 2026, Oaks and KCM are working with musician, festival organizer, and Knoxville native Matt Morelock to host the first annual Knoxville Storytelling Festival. This new festival will take place in the 900 block of Gay Street with a long list of community partners that are already on board, including Blount Mansion, the East Tennessee Historical Society, the YWCA and the International Storytelling Center in Jonesboro. The festival will bring what KCM’s mission to life through urban storytelling. The festival is planned to feature folk storytelling with puppetry, podcasting, music and documentary film added.
Through this event, KCM wants to celebrate storytelling and listening to each other. They will have stories of faith, stories from the judicial system, stories from the Cherokee Nation and stories from the black community. Oaks would like to make this a legacy event for KCM, though he noted that this is an unfunded event currently. Sponsorship would make the event free to the public.
What You Can Do
First, come by and see what KCM does. Then join their mission as a member. Oaks said, “I would invite people to come tour the studio because every time we give a tour, people [say] I didn’t even know this existed. So please come please reach out to us and become a member.” Once you find the entrance at First Horizon, the offices for KCM are pretty easy to locate.
Second, you can directly donate to the mission of KCM. Click here to donate.
Finally, like the mission of KCM, use your voice. Morrell told me, “I just think it’s important that we the people are involved in the governing of we the people. And I think people need to be aware of what’s going on in D.C., because they’re passing stuff that affects us negatively.” Advocate with your legislators for laws favorable to public access. Then tell others about this issue, or like the pictures of equipment without humans throughout this article, local voices will be silenced.