Sue Miller Buske

President, The Buske Group

For the past 35 years, Sue Buske has represented local governments, citizens, and community organizations in their interactions with cable companies. Ms. Buske is widely recognized as one of the leading experts in the United States on cable policy and local cable programming issues. She is one of the pioneers of public access TV having participated in the training for Access Directors organized by George Stoney and Red Burns at the Alternate Media Center in 1972. She has received numerous national awards, including the George Stoney Award for Humanistic Communications. An award bearing her name, The Buske Leadership Award, is presented annually by the Alliance for Community Media to persons providing outstanding leadership in the field of local cable programming. Ms. Buske’s alma mater, the University of Wisconsin at Platteville, selected her to receive a Distinguished Alumnus Award in 2000.

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full interview
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Sue recounts how she first got involved in public access TV via an ad in the NY Times.
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Sue remembers the training she got at the Alternate Media Center with George Stoney and the other pioneer Access-Directors-to-be.
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http://www.archive.org/details/32_Buske_alt_med_ctr

Sue describes the environment and the mission in her first months as a public access manager in Dubuque, IA.
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http://www.archive.org/details/33_Buske_JohnnyAppleseed

Sue's memories of the first shows in Dubuque. You will be surprised at the gameshow Sue hosted!
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Sue provides an overview of the legislation that has been sweeping across state legislatures and changing the franchising process and formulas for cable TV and PEG.
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http://www.archive.org/details/35_Buske_DeconstructFrnchis/

In the state legislation maneuvers, Sue describes the dynamics between the cable TV industry is doing with the telco industry.
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http://www.archive.org/details/36_Buske_Cable_vs_Telco

How are the Telcos persuading the state legislatures?
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http://www.archive.org/details/37_Buske_Telco_Stratgy


What has been left behind in the new state cable franchising laws?
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http://www.archive.org/details/39_Buske_What_lost

Two states fared better than the other 18 where the cable franchising laws have been changed.
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http://www.archive.org/details/38_Buske_2States_Better

Sue identifies the ingredients that led to better outcomes in the state legislatures of Illinois and California.
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http://www.archive.org/details/40_Buske_ingredints_vctry

Many PEG access centers are closing down.
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http://www.archive.org/details/42_Buske_closings

Can we expect this franchising paradigm shift to be played out in all 50 statehouses?
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http://www.archive.org/details/48_Buske_Replay50States

Background on the restriction of PEG funding to capital expenditures only
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http://www.archive.org/details/47_Buske_capital_restrict

Sue's opinion on what ought to happen regarding PEG and the law.
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http://www.archive.org/details/46_Buske_FedMandate

Coalitions help on the local and national levels.
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http://www.archive.org/details/41_Buske_Coalition

What is Sue's answer to those who say that the internet has made community media centers and PEG channels irrelevant?
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http://www.archive.org/details/43_Buske_Reply_relevance

What are the ingredients of a vibrant PEG center?
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http://www.archive.org/details/44_Buske_SuccesfulPEG

Why makes a PEG center less likely to succeed?
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http://www.archive.org/details/45_Buske_pitfalls

Helen Soule Ph.D.

Executive Director
Alliance for Community Media

Throughout her career, Helen Soulé, Ph.D., has focused on providing leadership at the intersection of media, technology and learning. She has broad experience leading public and non-profit organizations, most recently as the Executive Director of Cable in the Classroom, the cable telecommunication industry’s education foundation.

Previously Soulé served as chief of staff to the assistant secretary for the Office of Post Secondary Education in the U.S. Department of Education and for eight years, was director of the Mississippi Department of Education Office of Technology, with responsibilities including the statewide internet backbone, teacher professional development, state and local technology planning, E-rate, and textbooks. As former teacher and district technology coordinator, she worked with teachers and administrators at every level to use technology and media to transform and enhance teaching and learning.

Soulé is one of the founders and past chairman of the State Education Technology Directors Association (SETDA), has been a member of the George Lucas Educational Foundation Advisory Board and has served on the board of the Consortium for School Networking and the International Society for Technology in Education. She is the recipient of Converge magazine's 30 "Shapers of the Future" award for 2001, a recipient of the 2001 E-School News "Impact 30 Award for Excellence", the 2004 SETDA Pioneer Award and a recipient of CableWorld’s 2007 “Women with Clout” award.

Soulé holds a B.S. in Elementary Education from Mississippi State University, M.A. in Educational Administration from Mississippi State University and Ph.D. in Educational Leadership from the University of Southern Mississippi.

You can listen to the entire interview or listen to individual subclips that appear below. Please consider leaving a comment or a question and subscribing to the discussion.



Full interview.
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http://www.archive.org/details/20_Soule_full_interview


In the first subclip, Helen points to the ACM's biggest strength and its greatest challenge.
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http://www.archive.org/details/21_Soule_ACM_strength_challenge

Helen says that "localism" is the key to the success and sustainability of PEG operations.
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http://www.archive.org/details/22b_Soule_localism

It's critical that we get our message to government officials.
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http://www.archive.org/details/23_What_msg_to__offcials

...the importance of building coalitions on the local and national level...
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http://www.archive.org/details/25_Web2ToolstoTeach

What does a PEG staff need to accomplish?
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http://www.archive.org/details/26_Meet_Community_Needs

Helen's favorite part of the job.......
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http://www.archive.org/details/27_Soule_Favorite_Part

What are Helen's hobbies outside of work?
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http://www.archive.org/details/28_Soule_Hobbies