"Pray for the dead and fight like hell for the living."
— Mary Harris "Mother" Jones, patron saint of hellraisers

Support the return of community broadcasting to Reno, Sparks and Washoe County, Nevada
Just click within the TV set image, below. Thank you.


Updated Jan. 5, 2012

Dear Supporters and Users of the late lamented Reno-Sparks-Washoe community TV station:

Since the 2010 demise of community TV after a 19-year run, I have been working to bring the Phoenix back from the ashes. I'm getting close and now I need your help.

I have been contacting potential underwriters and have met some early success. I am now in critical followup meetings. They ask a lot of questions, but one keeps coming up: How much community support do you have?

The big boys know that only broad support from lots of little guys can make us too legit to quit.

Big possibilities are opening up. We may have a brand new community channel. We may renovate the old one. We may do both. We also have the potential of expanding on all fronts via the airwaves —> not only cutting-edge wireless but old-fashioned/now-digitized over-the-air transmission.

And if we get this on, I will see to it that all the work we put into community radio begun in 2008-2009 will finally come to fruition. New fm radio potential has just opened up.

Further down the road, I envision building statewide radio/TV networks featuring programming produced by the people.

I am confident to a point that I am forming a non-profit, the latest in a long line of expenses it has taken to get to this juncture. Now I need some help both in dollars and numbers. (Your names will remain confidential.)

Unlike the former structure, there is no public money available to operate this new entity.

Please donate what you can afford. To those who have already become founding supporters, thank you so much.

You may contribute online by clicking in the TV set image, below.

You may also send a check or money order payable to U-News, P.O. Box 10034, Reno NV 89510.

Because of the corporate onslaught, community stations have been dropping like flies across the country. We must get non-corporate alternative media off the endangered species list.

I know times are tight, but this is important. Retrogressives have a much bigger megaphone.

Keep up the good work and the good fight. And stay tuned.

Thanks.

Be well. Raise hell.

Andrew Barbano
CesarChavezNevada.com
NevadaLabor.com
ReSurge.TV / Barbwire.TV
P.O. Box 10034
Reno, NV 89510
775-882-8255 [882-TALK]

CWA 9413/AFL-CIO

 

The way it was may come 'round again.

Please contribute and volunteer.

Barbwire live TV specials

Updated statewide broadcast schedule + links to 2009-2011 webstreaming on-demand archive

Andrew Barbano on Sam Shad's statewide Nevada Newsmakers

President Kevorkian and Harry Potter's Congress
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 7-17-2011 Daily Sparks Tribune

Dr. Strangelove and Sen. Don the Dumberer
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the Daily Sparks Tribune 7-10-2011

July 4 Railroad Jobs: We're Red, White and Screwed
PLEADING POVERTY: Washoe County Commission tries to up D.A.'s quickie conviction rate
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 7-3-2011 Daily Sparks Tribune

Nevada government's license to kill
A funeral dirge for the disposable worker
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 6-5-2011 Daily Sparks Tribune

Barbwire.TV 5-31-2011: The Mining Addiction
Barbwire banned in prime time
Tune in tonight LIVE 7:00 p.m. PDT / 02:00 ZULU GMT 6-1
Live webstreaming at the above link

Déjà vu, dustbusters and living legacies
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 5-29-2011 Daily Sparks Tribune

Clinging to the Ledge: Cold War
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 5-22-2011 Daily Sparks Tribune

TV PROGRAM REGIONAL RERUN SCHEDULE ANNOUNCED
Next live call-in show 7:00 p.m. PDT Tuesday, May 31, 2011
Same originating cable stations noted at above link which also has a regional coverage map.

TV this week:
Freedom Riders and wage defenders
Live with your phone calls throughout northwestern Nevada Tuesday, 5-17-2011
7:00 p.m. PDT 5-17-2011 / 02:00 5-18 ZULU
Click above for live webstreaming and rebroadcast times
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 5-15-2011 Daily Sparks Tribune
Updated 5-16-2011, 5-17-2011, 5-19 and 5-25-2011

Support the return of community broadcasting to Reno, Sparks and Washoe County, Nevada — To donate, just click within the TV set image, below. Thank you.

 

TALKING UP CLEANER CARS — Andrew Barbano interviews Susan Clark, Ph.D., co-founder of REA250 / REA250.com, and Bob Tregilus of the Alternative Transportation Club, EAA / ElectricNevada.org. In the foreground is AccessCarson director Keith Barnett. (4-28-2009 / Larry DeVincenzi photo)

 


What was perhaps the first marriage of talk radio, talk TV & webcast webchat

Support the return of community broadcasting to Reno, Sparks and Washoe County, Nevada
Just click within the TV set image, below. Thank you.

March 3, 2011

Dear Friends and Former Colleagues:

A plentiful plethora of programs once cablecast on the now-defunct Sierra Nevada Community Access Television (Reno-Sparks-Washoe) now reside on a sputtering RAID server at the former location in Reno's Meadowood Mall. Production guru Steve Halliwell says it's in serious need of reformatting. There are a whopping 5+ terabytes of shows on the drive. (None of which are my old Barbwire shows. What was I, chopped liver?)

I've explored uploading them to an FTP server (it would take more than five days) or purchasing another drive and transferring them. A bit too Herculean of a task, according to experts I've contacted. Over and above all that, SNCAT producers usually kept copies of their shows, as did I. Since SNCAT went down, I've only had one request from someone looking to retrieve programs.

So, I am sending this bulletin to all --> and I mean ALL --> of my SNCAT and related e-lists. Pardon any irrelevancies or duplications as part of this last gasp in the next-to-last chapter of what's the use.

If you are looking to save your reruns for posterity before the Klingons nuke the Starship Enterprise, please contact Mr. Halliwell at <media.shalliwell@live.com>

Send him your show titles along with any other descriptive which might help him find them. There are LOTS of shows on the drive.

There will be a small service charge to dub the programs.

Please respond by Ash Wednesday, March 9. Death rays from Mars turn SNCAT to ashes shortly thereafter.

In addition to trying to save your old shows, I am trying to coax a Phoenix into rising from those ashes.

Both the City of Reno and the new proprietors of the former SNCAT location want to see a new version of public access return to Reno-Sparks-Washoe.

It will take the formation of a new 501 (c) (3) non-profit corporation and it will require some capital investment. Anyone who would like to volunteer to serve on an exploratory committee, please let me know. I'll have time to work on it after César Chávez Day IX on March 31.

It's worth it, dammit.

This community invested 20 years in public access and the execution must not stand. I served on the founding board and am in contact with several of the die-hards from that happier time. We are ready to rock 'n' roll.

Thanks for all your past and future efforts.

Keep up the good work and the good fight.

Be well. Raise hell.

Andrew Barbano
CesarChavezNevada.com
NevadaLabor.com
ReSurge.TV / Barbwire.TV

CWA 9413/AFL-CIO

Support the return of community broadcasting to Reno, Sparks and Washoe County, Nevada
Just click within the TV set image, below. Thank you.



Recent BARBWIRE Media Hits
and Ego Trips

   The Dean of Reno Bloggers could very well be Andrew Barbano, self-described "fighter of public demons," who started putting his "Barbwire" columns online in 1996 and now runs 10 sites.
            RENO NEWS & REVIEW, 11-9-2006

HAT TRICK: Read the 2008, 2009 and 2010 Nevada Press Association first-place award-winning Barbwire columns


Top 10 reasons to support community media

10. No commercials selling Trix as health food for your kid.

  9. No prescription management, self-control or exercise advice from Lush Rambo.

  8. No sales department pressure to go easy on some shyster advertiser —> and we'll never blow off The Dixie Chicks or Congressman Ron Paul.

  7. Unlike Howard Stern, all our shows will be produced by people fully dressed.

  6. On the other extreme, no one will ever do a show wearing white sheets and a hood. (Besides, the hood muffles the announcer.)

  5. Speaking of announcers, unlike catatonic NPR, when we present the news, we'll be so interested that you'll actually hear it in our voices. Better yet, you'll be able to actually hear our voices.

  4. Every day, we will prove that Hank Williams, Leroy Van Dyke, Jimmy Van Heusen, Van Morrison, Townes Van Zandt, Martha & the Vandellas, Van Halen and van Beethoven all belong on the same station simply because great music is great music —> if you release it from the corporate programming strait jacket. (Apologies to Van McCoy, Linus and Lucy Van Pelt.)

   3. If you don't like what we do or think you can do it better, you can actually get the chance to produce your own show.

  2. Commercials will never be louder than the programming because there will be no commercials.

  1. No annoying telethonizing constantly begging for public support...

...er, that last one may take a little time to fully implement.

Please consider joining the club and donating what you can afford. You may contribute online or send a check or money order to U-News, P.O. Box 10034, Reno NV 89510.

We did some good things in the 2008-09 season, including exclusive legislative coverage and bringing you at no charge Michael Moore's film Slacker Nation (including a segment on his hugely attended Reno appearance at Lawlor Events Center). We also scored our share of scoops ahead of the legit news sources. (And we still like newspapers.)

In 2010, we raised the issue that haunts the 2011 Nevada State legislative session:

SUING FOR SCHOOLS: A Barbwire Special
The case for making Nevada finally obey her constitutional mandate to adequately provide for public education
Can we do any worse with a judge running the system?
Interview with Sen. Harry Reid

We must get non-corporate alternative media off the endangered species list.

"Alternative media? Heck, I'd support alternative Democrats," wrote my old friend Dan Rusnak, retired business manager of Laborers' Union Local 169 all the way from the Commonwealth of Virginia.

I know times are tight, but this is important. (Consider the alternatives.)

To support community broadcasting, just click within the TV set image, below.

Spread the word and stay tuned to this website.

Thanks.

Be well. Raise hell.

Andrew Barbano


Honest, I was stone sober when this photo was taken on-air by viewer Mike Webb.

 

 


You may use your credit or debit card to support community media...
Please click within the above image.



...or send checks payable to U-News to
P.O. Box 10034
Reno, NV 89510

Thank you.

Electronic payments processed through E-Bay/PayPal secure servers.


2006: The launch of ReSurge.TV
The fight continues in 2011

     A new Nevada-based consumer organization targeting telecommunications, media and utility issues. Corporate America and city hall intrigue destroyed the Sparks-Reno-Washoe community station in 2010. Help us rebuild.

TOPIC A: LIFE AS TELEVISION

     Like most of the United States, Nevada cable television consumers are victims of a federally-created monopoly. Local governments have been loathe to use their limited power to help their own citizens. Las Vegas area residents, with the exception of Boulder City, were denied public access television services despite the sparkling track record of the Reno-Sparks system (which local consumers saved from extermination in 1990-91). In 2003, Nevada's only municipally-owned cable system, which has been fighting its own workers, made common cause with the Cox (southern Nevada) and Charter (northern Nevada) cable systems to kill pro-consumer legislation. Those cyberchickens are now coming home to rue.

     As the late Sen. Eugene McCarthy, D-Minn., said in a different time and place, "There's nothing left but to take it to the people."

     So here we are at the dawn of a new era of competition which the entrenched cable interests will fight fang and claw — if their conduct here and in other states provides any indication. They have pillaged Nevada ratepayers as they have those in other jurisdictions, so the pattern has become achingly apparent.

     What to do? Organize, organize, organize!

     Get on our mailing list. Volunteer to involve friends and colleagues in your own community by organizing, calling, writing and showing up at public meetings. Officially join the organization with an e-contribution (see above), or via U.S. Mail, see below.

     We need volunteers in every Nevada community for the upcoming clash of the titans. This is important.

     Telecommunications is not just phone calls and cable, it's the way in which your community may prosper in the future — or not.

     The choice will be yours only if you get involved in making the right choices.

     Don't underestimate your own power — Charter Communications refused to provide high speed Internet access to northern Nevada businesses until a Reno citizens committee began to investigate the lapse.

     Be well. Raise hell.

     Andrew Barbano
     Reno, Nevada

Contributions payable to U-News may be sent to
P.O. Box 10034
Reno, NV 89510
(775) 882-TALK
Or click here to contribute to the cause

Barbwire column on the depredations of Charter Communications and the Reno City Council wins 2009 Nevada Press Association first-place award

TOPIC B: DEATH AS A PROFIT CENTER

The campaign against forcibly paid obituaries

Major newspapers now exploit the dead by charging for obituaries, a national epidemic. I have some proposals to impact it, but first I'd like to hear your ideas. Please write me.



NEWS AND RESOURCES

Andrew Barbano on statewide Nevada Newsmakers TV-radio-webcast

The cities of Reno and Sparks play buzzard over the bones of SNCAT
Barbwire by Barbano / Expanded from the 8-29-2010 Daily Sparks Tribune

SUNDAY FEB. 21, 2010 — LIVE REGIONAL TV+webcast 6:00 p.m.
Rerun at 9:00 p.m. PST
SUING FOR SCHOOLS: A Barbwire Special
The case for making Nevada finally obey her constitutional mandate to provide for public education
Can we do any worse with a judge running the system?
Interview with Sen. Harry Reid

Michigan keeps PEG stations for basic customers where Nevada failed
Barbwire / Daily Sparks Tribune / 2-14-2010

Proving the power of non-corporate media
Health care in prime time, ready or not
Barbwire by Barbano/ Daily Sparks Tribune /12-6-2009
If Reform Fails: Health Care, Jobs & Unions LIVE TV Dec. 6, 2009
Available to every TV in N/E California and N/W Nevada

Barbwire column on the depredations of Charter Communications and the Reno City Council wins 2009 Nevada Press Association first-place award

2009-2010 ReSurge.TV archives
The fight for community TV survival

2006-2008 ReSurge.TV archives
The fight for cable consumers

City of Reno Citizens Cable Compliance Committee archives plus local, state and national cable / telecom information

Unofficial City of Reno Citizens Cable Compliance Committee website

NevadaLabor.com Energy War Room

NevadaLabor.com BARBWIRE Oilogopoly Archives

 

 


The Barbwire originated from Carson City during the 2009 and 2011 Nevada legislative sessions.

 

TALKING UP CLEANER CARS — Andrew Barbano interviews Susan Clark, Ph.D., co-founder of REA250 / REA250.com, and Bob Tregilus of the Alternative Transportation Club, EAA / ElectricNevada.org. In the foreground is AccessCarson director Keith Barnett. (4-28-2009 / Larry DeVincenzi photo)

 

Barbwire column on the depredations of Charter Communications and the Reno City Council wins 2009 Nevada Press Assocation first-place award


Click here to contribute to the cause

Contributions payable to U-News may be sent to
P.O. Box 10034
Reno, NV 89510
775-882-TALK [882-8255]

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Copyright © 2002-2011 Andrew Barbano