A dispute over who should run Albuquerque's public access cable TV channels resulted in a lock out this week.
Members of Quote... Unquote, Inc., the company that has run two of the city's channels for decades, were locked out of the station's studios on Tuesday as they prepared to remove the company's equipment. The City recently awarded the contract to run the stations to a new company, but Quote... Unquote's contract wasn't set to expire until the end of the month.
From The Albuquerque Journal:
An evaluation committee rated uPublic [the company that was awarded the new contract] the highest among six that responded to a request for proposals, according to the city. But supporters of Quote…Unquote say there were flaws in the selection process, and they’ve been fighting to keep the channels. They say the uPublic proposal for the channels is more expensive and that Quote…Unquote offers more experience. Their attempts have not succeeded. Tourek said the city has paid Quote…Unquote what it’s owed for the month of June and is releasing it from any more obligations for the remainder of the month. The two sides will meet today to go over who gets what, he said.
City officials say there is a dispute over the ownership of some of the equipment at the studios. Quote... Unquote representatives say the inventory has already been completed and that they are being prevented from accessing the property they own. They plan to file a lawsuit over what they say was an improper selection process.