PUBLIC ACCESS ACCOLADES:

Santa Barbara Channels – the nonprofit organization behind local
access television channels 17 and 21 – took home several top honors
at the Homegrown Video Festival, one of the biggest local access
competitions in the country. At a time when business cable TV
takeovers threaten to rob boob-tube viewers of the splendors of
local access, Santa Barbara’s own little engine that could garnered
honorable mention in the children’s programming category with its
bilingual show Talk to Mirley, first place in the entertainment
talk show category for Mike DeGruy’s The Creative Community, and
another first-place nod for a public service spot used by the Santa
Barbara Rape Crisis Center. Even more impressively, S.B. Channels
took home the overall excellence award for stations with a budget
in excess of $500,000.