Pat Gordon’s Low Performance Bad for Medford

15,658 Cable Subscribers 2019 data from Dept of Telecom. & Cable
10,770 Comcast customers
 4,888  Verizon customers
57.765 population of Medford
1,553,957@7:45 am
20,010 past month
Our numbers vs Pat Gordon’s lack of effort

The 2019 Cable Subscriber Counts in Medford are 4,888 customers for Verizon and 10,770 customers for Comcast. For this information we thank Cory at the Massachusetts Department of Telecommunications and Cable. That makes a total of fifteen thousand, six hundred and fifty eight! 15,658 cable subscribers.

POPULATION OF MEDFORD

According to a site called Suburban Stats dot org the current (2019) Medford population stands at 56,173

So I have stated in the past decade or so that we are hovering around 60,000 people as an estimate. With the data noted above let’s call it 57,765 for the sake of this article. Close to 58,000 people with almost 16,000 cable TV subscribers in Medford is a lot of revenue in franchise fees.

A public records request response from Medford City Hall on the city-owned access television stations claims that its membership is 81 individuals in a city of 57,765. Two items to note here:

a) Most public access stations are operated by a separate 501c3 non-profit public charity. The city of Medford appears to have decided to run the access channels, P/E/G – Public, Educational, Governmental.

b) When Medford had a 501c3 operating the station there was still a unique contractual arrangement – the city co-owned the cameras and equipment 

Thanks to the response from city hall to a public records request the purported eighty-one members of the station include one person listed twice, the station manager which city hall’s information puts him 30 miles up the road, ten politicians, three members of the old station, the cable advisory committee and a number of candidates for elected office. Equally puzzling is that the station claims 244 programs last year but includes the school committee and the city council meetings. Those programs air with or without a station, and this kind of information – 81 members and 244 shows in 2019 is a stretch. Fifty-eight thousand approximate citizens, sixteen thousand approximate cable TV subscribers and maybe sixty members of the access station opened October 17, 2017 is not the vibrant, exciting local media center that the citizens were promised.

Indeed, former Mayor McGlynn’s cable tribunal suggested putting the station in the center of town. Instead it is kind of an expanded Educational channel with limited hours for the public – on the Winchester border – up a dark road that is certainly a daunting trek for senior citizens and absolutely too difficult for children after hours without parental supervision.

On March 10, 2020 this writer will speak to the Medford City Council about the idea of bringing a station to the center of town and making it an easier place to access than in a high school. Sixteen thousand cable subscribers, fifty-eight thousand citizens deserve that kind of opportunity.

Joe Viglione 

1,553,957@7:45 am
20,010 past month