Access Tucson Executive Director Receives National Award
Posted July 17th, 2006 by Administrator in News, Front Page, About Us, Board of DirectorsContact: Sam Behrend, Executive Director 624-9833 x103
Access Tucson Executive Director Receives National Award
(Tucson, AZ) The Alliance for Community Media awarded its 2006 George Stoney Award for Humanistic Communications to Access Tucson Executive Director Sam Behrend in a recent ceremony in Boston. The Stoney Award is given annually to an organization or individual that has made an outstanding contribution to championing the growth and experience of humanistic communications.
“He’s had years and years of absolutely dedicated commitment to the cause of public access and he’s been really strong in the Alliance for Communication Democracy,” said Anthony Riddle, Executive Director of the Alliance for Community Media. “Access Tucson sets a really good standard for other centers.”
“I am humbled to be recognized by my peers for my 33 years of achievement in the “community media” movement,” Mr. Behrend said. “I am particularly excited to look ahead to work toward using new technologies and means of content distribution to give voice to every member of the Tucson community.”
The George Stoney Award is named for the 90-year-old media activist whose passion has been using technology to foster social justice and activism. He was instrumental in getting the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to mandate that cable operators modestly fund public access equipment and airtime. Mr. Stoney has been a powerful force in the community access media movement for decades and founded the National Federation of Local Cable Programmers (NFLCP) in 1976.
Mr. Behrend has been following in Mr. Stoney’s footsteps, becoming a recognized leader in the community media field for over 25 years, a driving force to keep Public, Education and Government (PEG) channels available in Southern Arizona, and giving regular citizens a voice on television. He has served on cable television and telecommunications advisory boards in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and here in Tucson. Under his leadership, Access Tucson created revolutionary facilities management software that is used by other PEG providers nationwide, and was the first to produce the national program Democracy Now! live via satellite.
Mr. Behrend was a founding staff member of Access Tucson in 1984 and has served as its Executive Director since 1987. He has given assistance to cities and PEG groups nationally and has been a faculty member of the University of Pittsburgh, University of Arizona and Pima Community College.
The Alliance for Community Media is a national non-profit organization that educates and advocates on behalf of PEG access.
Access Tucson operates three channels on the Cox Communications (97, 98 and 99) and Comcast (72, 73, 74) cable systems. Please call 624-9833 or visit http://accesstucson.org for further information.