Local TV programming in Southern Oregon

A bit of media attention (including this blog) has been paid to LGBT focused programming on television as well as emerging gay channels such as the MTV owned Logo. But ever since Wayne and Garth we’ve all known that local cable access can really reach people. And, ahead of Portland’s lack of queer TV may be Wild Life, a public access talk show begun by Dennis Vickoren and L. Scott Clay, dedicated to exploring the lives on gay men in Southern Oregon. And while a self-proclaimed “venue for coming out” might seem tedious to our citified notions, it is certainly valuable in communities where Stark Street queens and Alberta hipsters may not be a daily presence. Certainly, it can even be a tear-jerker, as when guest Travis Thompson opens himself up and talks about the disavowal he felt by health care workers as his partner was dying of cancer. This is raw emotion, and the raw feel of public access programming is just the stage for such a show.