Dear Editor:

As the Lincoln County Television (LCTV) board president, I feel gratified that so many of our local select boards have chosen once again to provide support for LCTV, our community’s nonprofit public access station. The funds come from the franchise fees each town receives from the cable companies.

Many people may not know that cable companies are required by law to pay municipalities for the privilege of running wires and equipment through the public right of way as intended when these fees were set by the Cable Communications Act. Many towns use these fees to protect and assure access to public, educational, and government information offered by public access stations.

Wiscasset receives the largest amount of cable franchise fees of any town in Lincoln County — approximately $50,000. Unlike other towns in Lincoln County, Wiscasset does not allocate anything to support public access television for its citizens.

We want to appeal to Wiscasset citizens in hopes of gaining their support for resources to LCTV from their local government. LCTV provides a wide range of programming for Lincoln County by broadcasting COVID-19 updates, a variety of municipal meetings, local sports, and community events (many from Wiscasset) to citizens on Spectrum/Tidewater 7 and other programs at LCTV.org.

Lincoln County Television is a nonprofit which has served our county since 1987 and receives zero tax dollars. The station supports itself through franchise fees, business sponsorships, production services, fundraisers, and donations by generous community members.

In a December 2021 letter to Town Manager Dennis Simmons, we expressed our interest in partnering with Wiscasset to broadcast and provide on-demand viewing for Select Board and municipal meetings. We already feature Wiscasset businesses and events on our shows. Wiscasset viewers have benefited from the 60+ ongoing Covid-19 updates with LincolnHealth professionals. We presented at a 2022 Select Board and Budget Committee meeting in hopes of gaining financial support.

In the coming year, we hope that Wiscasset citizens will ask their representatives to support the valuable services LCTV delivers to our citizens with the funds provided to the town through cable franchise fees.

Larry Sidelinger

President, Board of Directors

Lincoln County Television