Access TV group says its door – and studio – are open “There hasn’t been a program denied for content in my eight years here,” said Robert “Boots” Riggan, Ho’ike Kaua’i Community Television’s acting executive director. Riggan is on the
Access TV group says its door – and studio – are open
“There hasn’t been a program denied for content in my eight years here,” said Robert “Boots” Riggan, Ho’ike Kaua’i Community Television’s acting executive director.
Riggan is on the offensive, in a positive way, because the only time Ho’ike has gotten local press lately is when some disgruntled former Ho’ike board members and producers were barred from videotaping the station’s monthly board meetings.
Ho’ike, a private non-profit agency, is not regulated by the state’s sunshine laws (open meetings) and prohibits taping of its board meetings. Ho’ike videotapes its own board meetings.
But that’s not what Riggan wanted to talk about Monday.
“Ho’ike is here to provide alternative programming” islandwide, Riggan said.
“A few years ago, one guy, did a three-act play with a little bit of adult stuff in it, and his significant other had an astrology series on the air,” Riggan said.
And Riggan pointed out that Ho’ike doesn’t simply provide a place for all sorts of programming, from Hawaiian sovereignty shows to various (currently nine) ministers bringing their versions of God’s word to whoever is watching. Ho’ike will teach you how to do a show.
“We also offer classes on camera operation and teach how to edit programs,” he said.
To Riggan, the fact that there are sovereignty shows on Ho’ike is proof positive that the station has an open-door policy.
“Where else could you denounce America and yet you have the freedom to use a facility like this,” Riggan, a Vietnam-era military veteran, noted.
“Public access is part of PEG (public, education and government). But the people who think our board meetings should be public think everything here is public. And it’s not. We are a private, non-profit corporation,” Riggan said.
But according to Riggan, most of the station’s functions benefit the public.
“Public access provides equipment, training, channel space and technical support for every single resident of Kaua’i who wants to use it,” Riggan said.
Judy Thomson has been Ho’ike’s youth coordinator for the past five years. She noted proudly that the station has trained more than 80 teenagers to operate equipment and produce shows.
Last year, teens under Thomson’s guidance taped four two-hour shows in which all candidates running for state and county offices were given the opportunity to address voters. Those programs ran from September until the general election in November.
“We the Teens” presents a panel of representatives from public high schools on Kaua’i once a month on Ho’ike. “We the Teens” first aired in November of 2000 and is still running.
Riggan dismissed the opponents of the current Ho’ike administration as sore losers.
“They are disappointed because they are not running the operation,” he said.
But the battle is not over.
Activist Andy Parks, whose documentary-style news show has played intermittently on Ho’ike the past few years, has said repeatedly that videotaping Ho’ike’s board meetings is “a First Amendment issue.” Parks was at both December and January’s board meeting with a video camera.
And former Ho’ike board member Ed Coll hasn’t given up his fight against the powers that be, either. Coll has formed the Ho’ike Sunshine Hotline in response to what he said is Ho’ike’s “refusal to voluntarily follow” public information laws. Callers can leave a recorded question about Ho’ike at 246-2111 and have them answered on two Ho’ike shows, “Open Mike” and “Wassup with Ho’ike?”
Legislation pending in the Legislature (Senate Bill 615) would require state access corporations to comply with sunshine laws in all future contracts. No final action has been taken on the bill.
Riggan said anyone with questions about Ho’ike can call him at 246-1556.
Staff writer Dennis Wilken can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 252) and mailto:dwilken@pulitzer.net
