The Patriot Ledger - Nov. 26, 1991


Program director fired over content

Mark Gallagher pict By Mark Hamblett
The Patriot Ledger

DEDHAM - Program Director Mark Gailagher has been fired by Continental Cablevision apparently in a dispute over local programming.

Gallagher, one of the driving forces behind bringing award-winning programming to Channel 3, said he was victimized by conservative management unwiiling to experiment with fresh ideas on television. "This has been building for a while and it finally just blew up," Gailagher said. "Our programming was just too outrageous, too radical for them."

Christine E. St. Jean, community relations manager for Continentai, declined to elaborate on the reasons behind Galiagher's dismissal, saying only that it was in the "best interests" of the compariy and the community to make the change. "It's an internal decision, based on the job requirement of program director," St. Jean said.

Along-with production technician Eric Bickernicks and writer John Horrigan, Gallagher was responsible for local programming including documentaries and satirical shows on prevailing attitudes on sex, politics and modern American culture. But Gallagher said the company saw no benefit in programming that risked offending viewers. He said management felt the job of local access is to "televise town meeting and the board of selectmen and then put on a cooking show. They just sap the individuality and innovation-out of their employees," he said.

Bickernicks quit the station after hearing of Gallagher's fring and Horrigan, who also serves as an announcer for Dedham High School football games, said he would no longer contribute to the station. "The bottom line is that cable programming is just a public relations thing," Bickernicks said. "We would get 12 good responses to a show, but then one wacko would call up and criticize, and the company would over-react. It's corporate mediocrity. They felt we were here just to fill a quota."

The firing comes after a year in which the trio produced little in the way of controversial programming and only one month after (Gallagher appeared on NBC's "Today Show" to talk about the kind of programming local cable shows are capable of producing. "We never crossed into the obscene," Bickernicks said. "We knew what the line was."

Gallagher said cable companies have no interest in using local access as a showcase for local talent and fail to appreciate its potential as a creative outlet. Gallagher, who first joined Channel 3 in 1989, was packing his car with video tapes and personal items yesterday after hearing the bad news. "After all this time, I didn't espect it," he said. "We were at the station all the time, sometimes putting in 70 hours a week." "If someone on the board of selectmen had called and said, 'This kind of thing has to stop,' I would have understood it, because they're the licensing authority," he said. "But we haven't had an official complaint in a year and a half. So much for freedom of speech"


[Eric's notes: Well, that was the end of that. We knew it was coming, and perhaps we were hoping it would've happened sooner. Our jobs were pretty damn easy, we got to goof-off big time, do whatever we wanted and we were supposed to quit to find a better paying job? Yea right. :-)

I think anyone working in a corporate enviroment that complains about the bureaucracy that they have to deal with DESERVES what they're getting. For God's sake, if you're a creative individual, DO YOUR OWN THING! Start a business! GET OUT!! note: they usually pay their invoices on time, which is the ONLY good thing I can think of.]