TCB

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Physical Graffiti

SWITCHING CHANNELS: To the indignation of some, and relief of others, a decade of political wrangling and improbable perseverance ends Sept. 1 when the Austin Music Network yields Channel 15 to the privately owned Austin Music Partners' planned regional arts network Music + Entertainment Austin. Though the city announced plans to give Channel 15 to AMP last year, the transition has hardly been smooth, and questions linger over the rights to AMN's library of videos and live footage. A memo to City Council last week, written by Assistant City Attorney Sonny Hood, seems to grant AMP those rights wholesale, while others in the music community have questioned the legality (and morality) of the city turning over content intended for noncommercial use to a commercial enterprise. AMP's Connie Wodlinger says she has sent out an advisory to the major record labels notifying them of the changeover, and local instances will be handled on a case-by-case basis. "Anything [local] we want, we'll obviously go back and get the rights to air it, but I don't think there'll be that much," she says. (A major selling point of AMP's proposal was higher production values than AMN could offer.) AMP plans to use the library while preparing its own programming, scheduled to debut in October, about which Wodlinger says, "The first month will look very similar to what it is now." City Council is scheduled to decide whether to keep the current AMN as an Internet-only station at their Aug. 25 meeting; although AMN has been weaned from city money since last year, programming director Clay Fain admits the impression he gets is that City Hall is ready to wash its hands of the whole affair. "That's what it feels like," he sighs.