“Trying to put band aids on things will never work.”
John Schwartz
Director and Founder of the Voqal Companies
A public media advocate for 40 years, John has founded community radio and television stations and brought wireless broadband services to cities throughout the United States. In 1980, John founded KBDI-TV in the Denver area, now known as CPT12. In 1983, he started what is now called Voqal — five non-profit organizations that obtained licenses in the Educational Broadband Service (EBS) band. Utilizing the organizations’ spectrum, commercial operator Clearwire, now a Sprint subsidiary, delivers 4G wireless broadband to most major U.S. cities. In exchange for the use of this spectrum, Clearwire provides the Voqal organizations with royalties, which they allocate to their operations and grant-making efforts. In 1995, John started Free Speech TV, a Denver-based progressive TV network which is seen on DISH Network, DirecTV, Roku and the web. John lives in Boulder, CO.
John talks about the work of Voqal to address the “Homework Gap.” He also talks about civic engagement and why political change is vital in making sure everyone has access to good schooling.