Hundreds urge Prince George's County Council to fully restore funding for community TV

Dozens of residents, current and former staff and public officials told the Prince George's County Council on April 28 that the county should restore full funding for Prince George's Community Television (CTV), a public access station based in the county.

At a public hearing on the proposed fiscal 2026 operating budget, speakers described CTV as a training ground for broadcast careers, a source of local news and public information, and “a platform for local voices” that is not duplicated by commercial media. The sheriff, several long-time producers and former employees, and dozens of volunteers and interns spoke during two hours of public comment.

Supporters said CTV provides hands-on training and pipeline opportunities for local students and early-career journalists. Curtis Crutchfield, former news director and longtime CTV staffer, listed former interns who went on to television careers: “Makia Turner… Deja Muriel… Samantha Accundoro… Chris Thomas,” and said CTV “has long trained young people, young, professionals.” Marvin Jackson, a producer at CTV, said the station “has been able to train young people” and called it a resource that “needs to be nurtured and saved.”

Several current CTV staff and recent interns described how the station allowed them to operate cameras, edit and produce programs that led to jobs or internships elsewhere. Jamis Sams, who interned in 2023 and 2024, said CTV “taught me things that no other news station teaches” and that those experiences led to a job offer at his university station. Bryce Parker, a reporter at CTV, said the station “gave me a voice” and urged council members to “save CTV.”

Pat Thornton, president of CTV’s board of directors, framed the station in statutory and franchise terms, saying CTV is part of PEG (public, educational and government access) obligations embedded in cable franchise agreements and arguing the channels serve government transparency and community education. “CTV has been the cornerstone of our community for decades,” she said, urging council members to sustain funding.

Multiple speakers, including long-time station staff like operations director Robert Berry and former staffer Curtis Crutchfield, emphasized the station’s role as an inexpensive workforce-development pipeline that has produced nationally recognized journalists and media professionals. “It really is an investment in this community,” Berry said.

A sheriff's representative also testified in favor of funding, saying the station helps public safety outreach and asking council members to “please, please, anything that you can do in order to assist them with funding.” Martin Mitchell, a longtime CTV volunteer, said, “We must protect and fully fund CTV,” and described the station as an “authentic” local media voice.

Speakers cautioned the council that cuts to CTV would reduce local coverage of county events and services, curtail training opportunities for young people, and leave a gap in community programming. Phil Lewis of the Washington Association of Black Journalists said defunding CTV “will create a news vacuum where anyone… can come in and fill that void with misinformation and disinformation.”

Council members did not vote at the hearing. The testimony will be part of the record the council considers as it finalizes the FY26 budget in the coming weeks.

Provenance: first related public comment began when the sheriff spoke about CTV's role in outreach (transcript timecode ~00:04:37); the last clearly CTV-related public comment in the record was a vice-chair remark endorsing community support (transcript timecode ~02:07:12).