Channel 17, we hardly knew ye

There is nothing like Council Bluffs in the summer. When I cruise down Broadway, window open, the staccato sounds of classic rock and bad mufflers in my ears, exhaust fumes, humidity and what I assume is corn chips frying at the Frito Lay plant in my nose, it's like ... home.
Summer brings back memories of cruising with high school buddies from what was the parking lot of Sam's Hamburgers down to what was the parking lot of Rog and Scotty's, talking to girls we didn't know, being loud and turning around to do it again for hours. Side trips to Fairmount Park, the Black Angel, the Lincoln Monument and Kwik Shop added to the carnival atmosphere of youth. We could have gone to Des Moines and back on the gas we wasted, but circles were good enough. That was back when INXS was at the top of the charts, gas was 90 cents a gallon and cruising was legal... good times.
Home means many things to many people. I'm sure that for others, Council Bluffs is all about afternoons at Bayliss Park with the grandkids, a night at a casino, a day at the library, Saturday at the Renaissance Faire or hours on a barstool talking to whoever shows up. Vive la difference!
The media captures that sense of home - good and bad. Every town looks at itself through the mirror of the media. Human interest stories, crime, concerts, new business, old business.
Who we are and what we are capable of is often reflected in what we see in our newspaper, on the 10 o'clock news and in original local programming. Without it, all we see is someone else's problems and triumphs. National programming that focuses the good, the bad and the ugly of the world and not our corner of it.
In Council Bluffs, the vast bulk of our media comes from Omaha. With the exception of The Nonpareil and a radio station here and there, everything comes from across the Missouri. Every TV station is an Omaha station and the news is primarily Nebraska news. If something sensational happens in Iowa, it gets covered, but often we are left to fend for ourselves when it comes to good news, festivals and cultural events - unless there is something odd about them.
I remember one May sweeps, KETV did a three part series on lot lizards - truck stop hookers. For three nights a reporter sat at the truck stop parking lot on South 24th taping prostitutes hopping in and out of semis. At the end of the series they disclaimed, "this happens at all truck stops, not just truck stops in Council Bluffs." What audacity. What a vulgar display. Of course it happens everywhere, but not all town have it shoved in their face. How could we not be humiliated. And there we were with little recourse.
Now a lot of people will read this and figure that just makes sense, Omaha is big city with all the fixin's and that is just the way life is on the border between two states. That is not always so. This kind of petty disdain is usually reserved for countries in the Balkans.
In the Quad Cities, you have Davenport and Bettendorf on the Iowa side and Rock Island and Moline on the Illinois side and in spite of the Mississippi running between them, they have what is basically one city with residents from both sides saying "I am from the QC." And the QC has its own feel.
News and especially views are important to a community because they create character, the personality of a city. Council Bluffs is a bit shapeless and often dejected because we don't see our leaders on TV every day. We don't see positive images of Council Bluffs broadcast on a regular basis. We don't have our own local celebrities or hear quotes from our fire chief or police. And we need that.
Sad thing is we used to have it. Channel 17 on America Heritage cablevision of Council Bluffs used to put on a local news program. It was raw, public access fair.
It was a crude-looking news program without all the slick packaging and graphics we are used to. It was staffed with young, inexperienced reporters and anchors some of us went to high school with. Their mission was an honorable one: Bring the people of Council Bluffs and southwest Iowa their own news, news often overlooked by the affiliate stations in Omaha.
Public access TV may seem like something of a joke, but it is quite important. The Federal Communications Commission thought so when it mandated that cable systems reserve channels for public access television. In spite of the cheap-looking, early-70s production values, public access is for anyone from the city council to the the high school Booster club to people with interests from gardening to UFOs. Anyone can get their own show to spout off about whatever subject strikes their fancy. It's the First Amendment in action, a beautiful and sometimes disturbing thing, but self-reflection is not always pretty - unless you're Gwyneth Paltrow.
This is something sorely lacking in Council Bluffs and we need to get it back. It is a matter of pride.

Greg Jerrett is a Nonpareil staff writer. He can be contacted at gjerrett@nonpareilonline.com.