1980s–2000s
Community media advocates spend decades pushing for a public access platform in one of the nation’s largest cities.
About this hub
PhillyCAM (Philadelphia Community Access Media) is the nonprofit designated by the City of Philadelphia to operate its public access television network, launching its cable broadcast on October 23, 2009 - a milestone that came after Philadelphia's community fought for 27 years to establish public access television - and also operating WPPM 106.5 FM radio.
PhillyCAM broadcasts on Xfinity 66/966HD and Fios 29/30, reaching Philadelphia's cable subscribers with community-produced programming accepted from all Philadelphia residents covering talk shows, documentaries, news programs, animated films, arts and culture events, educational content, and youth media. The organization has won the Alliance for Community Media's top award for Overall Excellence in Public Access Television and is known for its Spanish-language producer training, which has generated significant multilingual programming reflecting the city's diverse Latino communities.
Philadelphia residents across the city's enormously diverse neighborhoods - from Kensington and North Philadelphia to West Philadelphia and South Philly - use PhillyCAM and WPPM to broadcast the community programming and radio content that gives the nation's sixth-largest city a genuinely local, community-controlled media presence after three decades of advocacy to make it possible.
Station History
Milestones, transitions, and community moments from PhillyCAM’s story.
2009
On October 23, 2009, PhillyCAM starts cablecasting on Comcast and Verizon, giving Philadelphia its long-fought public access television network.
2010s
PhillyCAM grows as a nonprofit community media center for member training, local television, community production, neighborhood storytelling, and civic media.
Today
PhillyCAM continues serving Philadelphia through public access television, WPPM 106.5 FM community radio, workshops, local journalism, youth media, and resident-created programs.
People connected
2 people
Hubs are remembered through the people who built, staffed, trained, volunteered, and organized within them.
Memories
From people connected to this hub
People TV and the Return of Atlanta’s Channel 24
Atlanta’s public access story began in 1980, when the city’s cable franchise created space for residents to make television of their own. Under Cable Atlanta, Jabari Simama became the city’s first director of public access, and the early system was built around the idea that Atlanta residents should have access not only to a channel, but to the tools, facilities, and training needed to speak for themselves.
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