from: Local Voice Ohio [1]

Local Voice Ohio launched their website, localvoiceohio.org today, April 12, 2007 to be an organizing tool and information center in the coalition's battle to stop Big Telephone and Big Cable from bankrupting the public interest in Ohio in the area of video franchising.

Local Voice Ohio ("LVO") is a statewide coalition of municipalities, townships, the Ohio Chapter of the National Association of Telecommunications Officer and Advisors (OH-NATOA), the Ohio/Kentucky Chapter of the Alliance for Community Media (OK-Alliance) and other affected parties who are coming together to oppose Ohio Senate Bill 117 ("SB 117"), introduced on March 15, 2007.

LVO resulted from informal discussions of public officials in Ohio, their attorneys, and cable access managers who in February and March of 2007 heard rumors that telephone companies, particularly AT&T, would be proposing a bill to the Ohio legislature to attempt to pre-empt local cable/video franchising and control in favor of a State-controlled process to facilitate entry of telephone companies into local video markets. Upon the introduction of SB 117 on March 15 and seeing its sweeping and unprecedented language to abrogate local control of cable/video service in Ohio, LVO was created.

LVO is organized as a non-profit corporation in Ohio and has applied for 501(c)(4) status under the IRS Code. The idea behind LVO is to pull together, to the greatest possible extent, all of the constituencies affected by SB 117 — municipalities, large and small; townships, large and small; urban interests and rural interests; Public, Educational & Governmental (PEG) cable access centers; PEG access users; school districts; and other public interest groups — to demonstrate to the Ohio legislature and the Governor the overwhelming grassroots opposition to SB 117 as proposed; to educate the broad range of constituencies as to all of the practical and legal issues raised by SB 117 and to urge them to contact legislators and the Governor to oppose SB 117; to effectively lobby various legislators and Governor Strickland; and to raise necessary funds to perform these tasks.