Thanks to Jeff Hoel for providing the transcript for the Episode 62 of the Community Broadband Bits podcast on volume three of "Crazy Talk" series. Listen to this episode here.

00:07:

Lisa Gonzalez:  Hi, and welcome again to the Community Broadband Bits Podcast, from the Institute for Local Self-Reliance.  I'm Lisa Gonzalez.  This is the third volume of our "Crazy Talk" series.  Chris and I encounter fallacies and downright lies about telecommunications on a regular basis.  In this series, we address those statements that are designed to confuse the people who encounter them.  Many of the lies come from well-paid corporate lobbyists and are carefully planted in various media outlets.

Recently, we encountered an opinion piece from an eastern senator that reiterated many of the same tired arguments against municipal broadband networks.  As modern technology has made media more readily available than ever, there are also more instances of twisted facts and figures.  The powerful players in the telecom industry depend on those inaccuracies to cloud the true benefits of publicly-owned networks.  We encourage you to think critically about statements you hear in the media, and as you talk to people in your everyday lives.

Hey, Christopher!  How's it going?

01:05:

Chris Mitchell:  Um, it's going pretty well today, Lisa.

01:07:

Lisa:  Christopher has on an orange tie today.

01:09:

Chris:  It is a bright orange tie.  It is the tie I got married in.

01:13:

Lisa:  Wonderful!

01:13:

Chris:  Yes.  I had a big meeting today.  This isn't just for the benefit of our listeners.  But I hope they'll be able to hear my extra confidence today.

01:21:

Lisa:  I already hear it.  Um, so let's talk a little bit about Chattanooga.  I think one of our listeners asked us to talk about Chattanooga.  What did they say, and what did they want us to discuss?

01:32:

Chris:  Well, Chattanooga's come up a number of times in situations where people are trying to say municipal broadband networks are always a failure.  Look at Chattanooga.  Boy!  Boy, did they make a huge mistake!  I think you should probably read the...

Thanks to Jeff Hoel for providing the transcript for Episode 74 of the Community Broadband Bits podcast with Billy Ray on the origins of the first muni broadband network. Listen to this episode here.

00:08:

Lisa Gonzalez:  Hi there.  This is the Community Broadband Bits Podcast, from the Institute for Local Self-Reliance.  I'm Lisa Gonzalez.

As part of a video project, Chris traveled to Glasgow, Kentucky, this past summer.  Glasgow is known as the first municipal broadband network.  Chris spent time there talking with Billy Ray, Superintendent of the Glasgow Electric Plant Board.  This week, we bring you some audio clips from the project, as a special Thanksgiving treat.  Billy Ray is the man behind the Glasgow network.  The network began when the community was dissatisfied with services from the incumbent cable TV provider.  Glasgow EPB now provides electricity, cable TV, and data services, including Internet access.

In the first segment, Billy Ray discusses why the community of Glasgow decided to invest in the network, and describes his vision.

00:55:

Billy Ray:  Glasgow already had cable TV.  It was from a company called Telescripts Cable Company.  And it was pretty poor.  So I began to have conversations with my board about how cable TV works, and what -- my vision about how electricity needed to be distributed in the future.  And how we could mitigate the need to build more and more generation facilities if we used the ones that we had more efficiently.  And, to this day, we use them miserably.  You know, most generation facilities that you see are only really living up to their nameplate rating about three or four hours a day, about three or four days a week.  The rest of the time, you're paying for it and not getting that much utilization out of it.

So, that's how we came to -- in the later '80s -- had synthesized that idea enough, and had a consultant do a study about whether it was truly possible to build a broadband network that could do cable TV as well as other data communications.  And the consultant said it was possible.  Although the consultant that we hired turned out to be kind of a cable TV aficionado.  And there was -- I remember, there was about a two-inch-thick report.  And the first...

Thanks to Jeff Hoel for providing the transcript for Episode 72 of the Community Broadband Bits podcast with Chris Mitchell, Lisa Gonzalez, and John Farrell on the forth episode of 'Crazy Talk' series. Listen to this episode here.

00:09:

Lisa Gonzalez:  Hi., and welcome again to the Community Broadband Bits Podcast, from the Institute for Local Self-Reliance.  I'm Lisa Gonzalez.

Recently, Christopher joined WUNC in North Carolina on a local radio show, "The State of Things," hosted by Frank Stasio.  Marian Norton, a resident of Chatham County, and Scott Pryzwansky, a public relations executive from Time Warner Cable, also joined the conversation.  During the discussion, the panel discussed why North Carolina was recently ranked last in the country for the rate of Internet subscription.  During the 14-minute conversation, Time Warner Cable offered a variety of talking points.  We think the timing is perfect for another episode of our "Crazy Talk" series.  This week, we invited our colleague John Farrell to give another view on Time Warner Cable's claims.  John is the Director of the Democratic Energy program here at ILSR, and he has extensive experience studying how policies relate to utilities.  Here are Chris and John and I as we listen to specific excerpts from the October radio show.

01:08:

Chris Mitchell:  Welcome to another edition of the Community Broadband Bits Podcast -- today with super-special guest John Farrell.

01-16:

John Farrell:  Hello.

01:16:

Chris:  John Farrell is a coworker that I hassle on a near-daily basis.  I leave him alone most Fridays, because he does not come into the office.  John is my colleague here.  He does a lot of our work on energy.  And he knows a lot about cable and Internet type stuff, because he's a big geek like me.  So he's going to join us for this episode of our "Crazy Talk," Volume 4.  Lisa is here as well.

01:38:

Lisa:  Hello.

01:38:

Chris:  And we're going to start with a recording of a cable executive, a guy from Time Warner Cable who is the head of their public relations for the east coast.  And he and I were on an interview recently.  He said a few things that I wanted to go back in and challenge....

Thanks to Jeff Hoel for providing the transcript for Episode 70 of the Community Broadband Bits podcast with Will Aycock on Greenlight, the leading service provider in Wilson, North Carolina. Listen to this episode here.

00:08:

Will Aycock:  Our purpose is supporting this community.  We are public-minded, and we're here to make this a better place for us all to live.

00:15:

Lisa Gonzalez:  Hi there.  This is Lisa Gonzalez, from the Institute for Local Self-Reliance.  Welcome again to the Community Broadband Bits Podcast.
Will Aycock, General Manager of Greenlight Community Broadband visits us this week.  Greenlight is located in Wilson, North Carolina, and has been offering fiber-to-the-home services since 2008.  Residents appreciate the triple-play from a local community provider.  Businesses and government have come to rely on Greenlight's affordable and reliable services.  Fortunately, community leaders recognized years ago that a fiber optic network was quickly becoming like any other necessary utility.  The network has directly attracted and retained new industry.  Likewise, highly skilled talent continued to move to Wilson for a network that outshines those available in most urban areas.  Will shares some success stories with us, and emphasized Greenlight's core goal: to improve the quality of life in Wilson.  Wilson's another community that continues to reap the rewards that flow from this community-minded approach.  Here are Will and Chris.

01:15:

Chris Mitchell:  Welcome to another Community Broadband Bits Podcast.  This is Chris Mitchell, and I'm here today with Will Aycock, the General Manager of Greenlight in Wilson, North Carolina.  Welcome to the show.

01:26:

Will Aycock:  Well, thank you, Chris.  I'm pleased to be here.

01:29:

Chris:  I love talking about Wilson.  You're actually one of the first municipal networks that I ever visited.  It was before Greenlight even started.  I was maybe nine months into working on this -- working with the Institute for Local Self-Reliance.  And I was at a conference near Raleigh.  And I went up to Greenlight and took a tour of what you were doing, and learned a lot about it.  So, I'm really excited to be talking about it now, six...