Tom Meek (born 1956) is an American

columnist A columnist is a person who writes for publication in a series, creating an article that usually offers commentary and opinions. Columns appear in newspapers, magazines and other publications, including blogs. They take the form of a short essay ...

and author of "Another Day In Cyberville" published weekly in The Gainesville Voice, a

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

regional newspaper, beginning in October, 2000 in

The Gainesville Sun ''The Gainesville Sun'' () is a newspaper published daily in Gainesville, Florida, United States, covering the North-Central portion of the state. The paper is published by Lynni Henderson, the paper's Executive Editor is Douglas Ray and the edi ...

. "Cyberville" deals with issues related to high-tech, computers, New Media and Internet issues. Meek also writes musical and other occasional features on persons such as trumpeter
Wynton Marsalis
and American composer

Joseph Byrd Joseph Hunter Byrd, Jr. (born December 19, 1937) is an American composer, musician and academic. After first becoming known as an experimental composer in New York City and Los Angeles in the early and mid-1960s, he became the leader of The Un ...

for publication in print and online, and is the author of online blogs dealing with media and music. Meek has also served as a media consultant for interests worldwide including the

Fox Broadcasting Network The Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly known simply as Fox and stylized in all caps as FOX, is an American commercial broadcast television network owned by Fox Corporation and headquartered in New York City, with master control operations an ...

, Swedish Televerket and numerous

Fortune 500 The ''Fortune'' 500 is an annual list compiled and published by ''Fortune'' magazine that ranks 500 of the largest United States corporations by total revenue for their respective fiscal years. The list includes publicly held companies, along ...

companies, and is an

expert witness An expert witness, particularly in common law countries such as the United Kingdom, Australia, and the United States, is a person whose opinion by virtue of education, training, certification, skills or experience, is accepted by the judge as ...

certified by the

United States Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...

on media and copyright issues related to

cable television Cable television is a system of delivering television programming to consumers via radio frequency (RF) signals transmitted through coaxial cables, or in more recent systems, light pulses through fibre-optic cables. This contrasts with broa ...

and

broadcast television Broadcast television systems (or terrestrial television systems outside the US and Canada) are the encoding or formatting systems for the transmission and reception of terrestrial television signals. Analog television systems were standardized b ...

Life and career

Meek originally began involvement in media by doing volunteer music programming at WIOT-FM at age 12. He then extended his involvement in music by serving as a DJ and sound and light engineer at the Catacombs Coffee House in

Sylvania, Ohio Sylvania is a city in Lucas County, Ohio, United States. The population was 19,011 at the 2020 census. Sylvania is a suburb of Toledo, and encompassed by Sylvania Township. Its northern border is the southern border of the state of Michigan. T ...

from 1969-72. Meek began his television career while still in high school as a producer for WSPD-TV in

Toledo, Ohio Toledo ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Lucas County, Ohio, United States. A major Midwestern United States port city, Toledo is the fourth-most populous city in the state of Ohio, after Columbus, Cleveland, and Cincinnati, and according ...

in 1973. He also served as an Ohio county-level student coordinator in the 1972 presidential campaign of Senator George McGovern. He moved to

Columbus, Ohio Columbus () is the state capital and the most populous city in the U.S. state of Ohio. With a 2020 census population of 905,748, it is the 14th-most populous city in the U.S., the second-most populous city in the Midwest, after Chicago, and t ...

in 1976, where he worked as a music buyer for the Peaches Records chain. After spending a year in Boston, Massachusetts at

Grahm Junior College Grahm Junior College was a non-profit junior college located in Boston, Massachusetts. It opened in 1951 under the name Cambridge School, as part of a chain of schools that started in New York City and later included Chicago and Philadelphia bra ...

in 1978-79, Meek moved to

Gainesville, Florida Gainesville is the county seat of Alachua County, Florida, Alachua County, Florida, and the largest city in North Central Florida, with a population of 141,085 in 2020. It is the principal city of the Gainesville metropolitan area, Florida, Gaine ...

and graduated from the

University of Florida The University of Florida (Florida or UF) is a public land-grant research university in Gainesville, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida, traces its origins to 1853, and has operated continuously on its ...

in 1982 with a degree in Communications while working at WUFT-TV and other media positions at the university from 1980-82. In his final semester Meek helped launch a new graduate level communications degree program, serving as director and co-producer of a drama "

Ernie Pyle Ernest Taylor Pyle (August 3, 1900 – April 18, 1945) was a Pulitzer Prize–winning American journalist and war correspondent who is best known for his stories about ordinary American soldiers during World War II. Pyle is also notable for the ...

, Here Is My War", winner of the 1982

Alpha Epsilon Rho Alpha Epsilon Rho () is a scholastic honor society recognizing academic achievement among students in the field of electronic media (including web/internet technologies, broadcasting, mass communication, radio, television, cable, and/or film). th ...

Grand Prize for Drama. Although he initially planned to pursue a journalism master's degree in Gainesville, Meek immediately began working as a producer and researcher at

WFTV-TV WFTV (channel 9) is a television station in Orlando, Florida, United States, affiliated with ABC. It is owned by Cox Media Group alongside independent station WRDQ (channel 27). Both stations share studios on East South Street (SR 15) in dow ...

, Orlando when offered a job in May, 1982. After two years producing a morning news and information program, he was hired at

WOFL-TV WOFL (channel 35) is a television station in Orlando, Florida, United States, airing programming from the Fox network. It is owned and operated by the network's Fox Television Stations division alongside MyNetworkTV outlet WRBW (channel 65). ...

in April, 1984, initially as Community Affairs Director, then as Station Operations Manager beginning in 1986. While at WOFL-TV, Meek wrote, produced and edited a number of documentaries, including a program on

Louis Comfort Tiffany Louis Comfort Tiffany (February 18, 1848 – January 17, 1933) was an American artist and designer who worked in the decorative arts and is best known for his work in stained glass. He is the American artist most associated with the Art NouveauL ...

and the

Charles Hosmer Morse Museum of American Art The Charles Hosmer Morse Museum of American Art, a museum noted for its '' art nouveau'' collection, houses the most comprehensive collection of the works of Louis Comfort Tiffany found anywhere, a major collection of American art pottery, and fi ...

Winter Park, Florida Winter Park is a city in Orange County, Florida, United States. The population was 30,183 according to the 2022 census population estimate. It is part of the Orlando–Kissimmee–Sanford, Florida Metropolitan Statistical Area. Winter Park was fo ...

which was credited with helping keep the Morse collections intact for an eventual larger museum, and a program on the introduction of

Health Maintenance Organizations In the United States, a health maintenance organization (HMO) is a medical insurance group that provides health services for a fixed annual fee. It is an organization that provides or arranges managed care for health insurance, self-funded hea ...

(HMOs) into Central Florida, which won a medal at the New York International Film & Television Festiva

in 1984. Meek's television producing experience exceeds 500 programs including documentaries, information, telethons, talk and public service, several thousand program segments, and serving as Executive Producer for thousands more news and public service programs. In 1987, at the request of several television stations, law firms and the

, Meek began a consulting practice in issues related to cable-broadcast television issues, which expanded to include a wide range of areas related to copyright, TV and radio station startups, disaster and strategic plans,

Nielsen ratings Nielsen Media Research (NMR) is an American firm that measures media audiences, including television, radio, theatre, films (via the AMC Theatres MAP program), and newspapers. Headquartered in New York City, it is best known for the Nielsen rat ...

, FAA airspace issues, digital television, tower construction and zoning issues, writing for print and television, multimedia production and other media issues. In 1989 Meek produced and moderated a set of four nationwide seminars for the

NATPE The National Association of Television Program Executives (NATPE) is a professional association of television and emerging media executives. The organization was established in 1963. NATPE implements its mission by providing members with educati ...

Educational Foundation, which were seen as a groundbreaking effort to bring leaders of the broadcasting and cable industries directly together in a day-long event for the first time. In 1998 Meek expanded his consulting practice again to include computers, networks and Web design, with an additional added emphasis on skills training and Intranet/Internet Web-based collaboration. Meek was repeatedly cited in the 1997

decision ''Turner Broadcasting vs. FCC'', which established the

must-carry In cable television, governments apply a must-carry regulation stating that locally licensed television stations must be carried on a cable provider's system. North America Canada Under current CRTC regulations, the lowest tier of service on ...

rules regarding cable carriage of broadcast television stations in the United States, where Meek represented the

Federal Communications Commission The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government that regulates communications by radio, television, wire, satellite, and cable across the United States. The FCC maintains jurisdiction ...

(FCC),

United States Department of Justice The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), also known as the Justice Department, is a federal executive department of the United States government tasked with the enforcement of federal law and administration of justice in the United State ...

, the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB), the Association of Local Television Stations (ALTV), and the

Public Broadcasting Service The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educati ...

(PBS), among others. Meek also produced research used by the

U.S. Congress The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is Bicameralism, bicameral, composed of a lower body, the United States House of Representatives, House of Representatives, and an upper body, ...

in passing th
Satellite Home Viewer Act of 1988
governing the carriage of local television stations by

Direct broadcast satellite Satellite television is a service that delivers television programming to viewers by relaying it from a communications satellite orbiting the Earth directly to the viewer's location. The signals are received via an outdoor parabolic antenna comm ...

providers. Meek has also been heavily involved in the rules governing syndicated program exclusivity (" Syndex") for broadcast television and "superstations" such as

WGN-TV WGN-TV (channel 9) is an Independent station (North America), independent television station in Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, United States. Owned by Nexstar Media Group, it is sister station, sister to the company's sole radio property, talk ra ...

and WTBS-TV, submitting research in the ''United Video'' case which ruled in favor of Syndex . Meek maintains a Web page at th
TVCCS
site used by students and college classes in the U.S. concerning the history of must-carry and the Turner decision. Meek is also a frequent guest on the

WUFT-FM WUFT-FM is an NPR member radio station owned by the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida, broadcasting news and public media programming from NPR along with other distributors including APM, PRX, WNYC Studios and the BBC. The station a ...

(Gainesville, FL) program "Conner Calling", hosted by Hank Conner, and has offered personal, online and satellite presentations to technical groups, professional and trade organizations, private business, museum docents, civic groups and secondary and college audiences nationwide on the use of the Internet, communications, computers, mobile television, public service rules for broadcast television, Louis Comfort Tiffany, television ratings, journalism and the history of must-carry and the ''Turner'' case for the past twenty years. Meek also authors two blogs on media issues, "Reflections On Media" featuring information and reviews of recent media and music subjects, and "The Video Audio Overdose Galore" highlighting music and entertainment videos from online video and audio services. He is also the founder and moderator of CateraOwners, the world's largest owners group dedicated to the

Cadillac Catera The Cadillac Catera is a four-door, five passenger, rear-wheel drive luxury sedan marketed from 1996 until 2001 by Cadillac over a single generation in the United States. As a rebadged variant of the Opel Omega B, the Catera was manufactured by ...

automobile, with more than 2000 members worldwide. In 2007 Meek began authoring a weekly music events blog, "About & Out", for the Los-Angeles based music Web site LAJazz.com.

External links

Gainesville Voice Web site

Oyez Supreme Court Project With Text & Audio Of ''Turner'' Oral Argument & Court Opinions

TVCCS

CateraOwners

Blog - Reflections On Media

Blog - The Video Audio Overdose Galore

LAJazz.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Meek, Tom 1956 births Living people University of Florida alumni