Seal Beach Cable Foundation proposes $250,000 capital plan, seeks PEG fee share and a station manager

The Seal Beach Cable Communications Foundation asked the City Council on a night in early May 2025 to approve phase 1 of a Community Media Access Collaborative, or CMAQ, plan that would hire a station manager and invest roughly $250,000 to modernize equipment at SBTV 3.

The request came from Peter Aninos, a Seal Beach Cable Communications Foundation board member, and Jim Quinlan, a volunteer producer and CMAQ advocate. Aninos told the council that the foundation has operated on about $75,000 a year for roughly 40 years and said the city’s 1 percent PEG allocation should be about $115,000 annually under current revenues. “The Cable Foundation has been operating on the same $75,000 a year for 40 years,” Aninos said. “That $75,000 annually would be worth about $220,000 today.”

Why it matters: Foundation leaders told the council that aging equipment, declining cable subscription revenue, and limited staffing threaten SBTV’s ability to produce local programming and support emergency communications. The foundation asked the council to consider using PEG and franchise-fee resources — and to authorize the station-manager position in the city’s budget process — so the station can train volunteers, expand streaming, and pursue outside grants.

Aninos and Quinlan described phase 1 as two linked steps: hire professional leadership (a station manager) and modernize studio equipment to meet current broadcast and…