With great determination, a committee of Beverly Hills civic-minded residents, in the late 1980's decided that they wanted Public Access in their community. Like other committees of this type in this country, they were not all that certain what access was, but didn't want to miss out on obtaining what would be theirs for the asking.

The group, under the leadership of former School Board President Jerome Weinstein, had already been incorporated as a nonprofit public benefit corporation as early as February 22, 1988, and was ready to run with the ball.

These community supporters had to be very excited when on April 11, 1989 the Beverly Hills City Council adopted Resolution No. 89-R-7898 which appropriated City funds in the amount of $417,000, just part of a cool million dollars, to go toward the design and construction of a model Public Access television station, which would later be referred to as BHTV. Century Communications' contribution was $875,000. It was not, however, until 7:00pm, Monday, June 18, 1990 that official programming would begin over channel 3 in Beverly Hills.

The first program to hit the cable-waves that evening was an introduction to the station, and an invitation to viewers to take advantage of the new million dollar studio at little or no expense to the user. After the Executive Director's invitation, Jay Jennings hosted "Comedy Showcase", followed by Janet Snow's "Bevery Hills Health Watch", "Ann Palmer in Beverly Hills", "The Rise and Follie of Vaudeville", the "Mayor's Innauguration", and a locally produced ten minute documentary entitled "Homeless Hills", with interviews with homeless persons in Beverly Hills.

Jerome Weinstein was unable to continue as Board leader, and Sheldon Sacks, an attorney, took the lead as President. Under his presidency, the excitement of Public Access and the venue it offered ruled in Beverly Hills. The famous city now had a television facility to offer, and the opportunity to become a premiere access station of its type in the nation.

That was the spirit that prevailed both with the Board of Directors and the Public. In the beginning, none of these people suspected that they were aboard the Titanic of Television. They were soon to learn that the City of Beverly Hills had no intention of permanently funding their operation, that no provisions had been initially drawn up on paper to provide money needed to operate; the Board would have to fend for themselves. Despite these conditions, the studio was built, and a state of the art affair it was! The grand opening, was, well, just grand! Board Members and officials came to review and approve the station, and all was seemingly ideal.

BHTV had a waiting list of 350 people who wanted to participate, even before the doors opened to the Public. Training classes began in Spring of 1990. This gave access users a brief education on how to use equipment and produce their own shows for airing on Channel 3. All Producers would have to come up with $12.00 needed for the video tape for their production. Fair enough. The response was tremendous... people wanted to produce at BHTV if only for the fact that it was Beverly Hills Television. The city name attracted producers from all parts of Los Angeles. It became quite a status symbol to be producing in this world famous city. And producers would take advantage of that. Celebrities were very definitely drawn to the station, and many appeared as guests at the very busy studio. After all, they were addressing their colleagues over Channel 3, and many times, on live television.

The League of Women Voters produced a program on what happens at the polling place on election day, and it became a big hit in Beverly Hills! A live call-in series was Hal Yoergler's "Court of First Resort" which featured on one episode the demolition of apartments in Beverly Hills- it produced a heated debate and made the best use of Public Access yet. Beverly Hills Mayor Alexander appeared on that show in person!

When host Eddie Crispell presented her live call-in show, the phones would not stop ringing at BHTV with enthusiastic viewers! BHTV had become the ideal facility to produce quality programs, a condition that the Staff always encouraged. Until February of 1995 it was THE place to be, and everyone had developed a sense of community and oneness to not only produce some of the best Public Access programs in the nation, but to also to pitch in and help each other crew their shows.

The years to come saw meetings and battles in the City Council Chambers over who would continue to finance BHTV. Even though the Council continued to temporarily fund the facility, each fiscal year saying "no more", the City became weary and on February 8, 1995, the City Manager met with the "landlords" of the Public Access property, and directed the locks of BHTV to be changed, and evicted all station personnel before 5pm that day. And there it sat. In fine shape, a million dollar studio... in the dark... Access Denied.