The full Idaho House voted 67-0 on Feb. 28 to approve a bill that would eliminate the capital funding source for local public-access organization Treasure Valley Community Television. The bill now moves to the Senate.

The bill's purpose is to open up competition for cable providers in Idaho, said officials from CenturyLink, the bill's sponsor. But TVCTV supporters are concerned about the loss of the 10 cents per cable subscriber fee, which keeps public access on the air.

"It probably will or could have an effect on the PEG funding," said Boise Republican Max Black, who chairs the Business Committee. "The cities have agreed in the compromise that was made that they would work to make the PEG stations remain on the air."

But for fans of public-access television, support from the community doesn't constitute a steady funding stream the way PEG funding does.

In today's issue of Boise Weekly, we caught up with TVCTV supporter Nancy Richards, who said she watches the channel "24 hours a day."

If the bill passes, according to Alex McNish, TVCTV executive director, Channels 11, 95 and 98 will be forced to go dark.

Boise Weekly is featured in a story out Tuesday from Net News Check (a news outlet with a lens on digital media) in a story about how alt weeklies are evolving online. As you'll read in the story, not all alt weeklies are as committed to digital media as Boise Weekly is—some still eschew a proper website and choose only to publish a PDF version of their paper online.

From the piece:

Alternative weeklies have never been the type to back down from fights; in fact, most of them got their start by picking them. A media product of the 1960s counterculture, alt weeklies such as the The Village Voice, the Chicago Reader and the Boston Phoenix began as the muckraking, hip counter-voice to the stodgier city dailies, the place for readers to turn for under-the-radar stories, edgy editorials and criticism, and uncanny prognostications of the Next New Thing.

But a funny thing happened when the news went digital: Faced with so many alternatives, suddenly the alt weeklies weren’t always the hippest guy in the room. And given that so many of these weeklies were small, independent operations, making the digital transition was often hampered by limited resources and technology. For once, the alt media found itself on the wrong side of the cutting edge.

Last week, members of the Association of Alternative Newsmedia, of which Boise Weekly is a member, gathered at an annual Web conference in San Francisco. A team from BW, including Publisher Sally Freeman, Editor Rachael Daigle, Art Director Leila Rader and Advertising Director Lisa Ware, spent three days learning how we can improve BW online, sparring with our colleagues over why it's important to invest in online digital media despite a low return on investment, and making a pretty thorough tour of the city's bar scene. Read more about Daigle's takeaways from the conference in today's edition of Boise Weekly.

After dumping its news programming in early December 2011, and losing its Fox affiliation earlier last year, KTRV 12 announced today that it will be moving the programming schedule from its digital station (My Boise TV, 12.2) to its main channel.

The addition of the My Network TV schedule will add to what has become a line-up of nationally syndicated shows and local sports. KTRV will now regularly air reruns of familiar sitcoms and dramas including MASH, 30 Rock, Law and Order: SVU, Burn Notice, Without a Trace and Monk.

KTRV's digital 12.2 will be dedicated to the Memorable Entertainment Television Network, which airs classic television programs like the Mary Tyler Moore Show, the Dick Van Dyke Show and The Odd Couple.

This one. Fo' realsies.

You got to get your act together Boise, cause we here at BW need more opportunities to scribe things like that. We know you have it in you. Boise State fans, we're looking at you.

It was fun while it lasted but alt rock lovers in the Treasure Valley are down one radio station.

V 99.1 officially switched from the alt rock format to news/talk radio the afternoon of Aug. 8. Impact Radio Group—which owns the station—will now simulcast more than 10 hours of news plus commentary on 99.1 FM and KINF 730 AM.

Station General Manger Darrell Calton said that while management was emotionally tied to V 99.1, it came down to a financial decision.

"The alt rock format was just not growing for us after two years," he said, adding that market research showed what they saw as a gap in news coverage in the valley. Calton said no jobs were lost due to the change of format and five positions were actually added.

Still, loyal fans may have an alternate way to listen to the station in the future. Calton said managers are weighing commentary and support for a possible online-only streaming station on the V99.1 FM Alternative Music Now Facebook page. If there is enough support, Calton said the station may reappear as a commercial-free online option.

After eight years of trying to get there, Radio Boise officially went live today at 1:10 p.m. MST on 89.9 FM. It was the first time since the station began broadcasting on the FM airwaves April 11 that autoplay was turned off and local DJs took the mic.

Several dozen DJs, staff and supporters gathered in the station's new studios in the basement of the Alaska Building for a ribbon-cutting ceremony and for DJs to play a series of songs they'd picked specially for the occasion.

"Relish this moment," said Executive Director Jeff Abrams. "It truly is historic. There [were] 500,000 people in this community who don't have their own radio station, and we did something to change that."

After being presented with a Radio Boise coffeemug and a large round of applause when he pronounced Radio Boise officially in operation, Abrams also spoke the station's first words: "Welcome, Boise. We are here to stay."

Dear Harper's:

I received your February ’11 issue in the mail yesterday—which I’m totally enjoying, BTW. But when I unfurled the rolled-up mag, stoked to scan the Index, two other envelopes dropped out. Now, these weren’t the usual inescapable mail squatters—coupons, pizza ads, Geico postcards—they were subscription solicitations from waiting room rags National Geographic and Newsweek.

Though I’ll admit I was flattered by your tacit acknowledgment of my exquisite taste when you pimped my mailing address out to The New York Review of Books and Foreign Affairs, this is where I draw the line. You’re Harper’s not Seventeen. You don’t fill your pages with lip-gloss samples or celeb bikini photos, why go so low as to hawk my personal info to third parties on the black (and white) market?

When I renewed my membership with you a few months ago, I assumed you’d keep things safe and tasteful, like a high-end hooker. Sadly, you’ve scrawled the equivalent of “For a good time call Tara …” on the magazine industry bathroom stall.

While you made it abundantly clear on your website that you wouldn't sell my e-mail address to third parties, I had to dig around a bit to find out that you “sometimes sell portions of our (snail) mailing list to other magazines. We don't do much of it, and we don't let just anyone use our list.” C'mon, Newsweek? Really?

Though I think I finally sleuthed out how to get uninvited to your little third-party party (“account summary” then “change my mailing preferences”), I’m still bummed that we ever had to sink to this point in our relationship.

I thought you were classier,

Tara

It's no secret that the newspaper business has been about as secure as a tent in a typhoon lately, but the announcement by the Deseret News on Aug. 31 that it is cutting 43 percent of its staff was still a shocker.

The fact that the paper called its decision not only necessary to stay alive, but the opportunity to "lead and innovate," was eyebrow-raising. Moving to a more Internet-dependent format isn't really innovative, and it glosses over the fact that 57 full-time and 28 part-time employees are not out of their jobs.

Among its plans to "innovate" include integrating its newsroom with an area television station, including moving some of its staff to the television station.

It also plans to recruit an "editorial advisory board" from across the country to lead its opinion pages, and
will use freelance writers and editors to provide content.

I'll admit, it's an unusual approach, but outsourcing local news might not be the best idea.