Sources: Traci Taylor, 785-532-3121, traci@k-state.edu;
and Jim Mock, 785-532-3153, jmock@k-state.edu
News release prepared by: Andy Badeker, 785-532-6415, abadeker@k-state.edu
Monday, September 10, 2007
K-STATE CABLE CHANNEL'S NAME CHANGE TO K-STATE TV HERALDS NEW PROGRAMMING
MANHATTAN -- Kansas State University's homegrown cable channel is changing its name and expanding its programming, which will include a 10-episode retrospective of the university's Landon Lectures.
K-State TV, available 24 hours a day via Cox and Wildcat cable channel 8, was formerly known as KST8. The name change is part of a plan to expand into other markets, such as Wamego and Fort Riley, where the former call letters might no longer reflect the channel assigned to it. The change went into effect Monday, Sept. 10.
"We're building up this station incrementally," said Traci Taylor, marketing director for the Educational Communications Center in Dole Hall, where K-State TV originates.
The channel currently can be seen in Manhattan and Junction City, "but we have hopes of broadening to other local cable markets, and even nationally," Taylor said. That might take place through University House, a channel available through the Dish satellite network.
In addition to the Landon series, which features introductions and behind-the-scenes anecdotes from Charles Reagan, chair of the lecture series and associate to the president, additional local programs include "Kids A-Cookin'," the "Magic of Painting" with local watercolorist Jim Rigg, and two programs produced by K-State journalism students: the "Manhattan Matters" news magazine and "Purple Power Hour," which covers K-State sports.
"This is the only place in town where any local programming is being produced," said Jim Mock, director of production services for the center. The Educational Communications Center also provides editing and production facilities that rival those in Kansas City and similarly large markets.
New acquired programs for the fall include "ThinkTalk," a career-oriented show in which students interview successful actors, entrepreneurs, politicians and other professionals about their career paths. Also new to K-State TV is a series from Annenberg Media that aims to improve teachers' expertise in their specialties and their delivery; some programs are also intended for students.
"This is niche programming," Mock said, "and we're very aware of that. But that's the beauty of it." The channel, adopting the motto "educate, inform, enrich," can afford to offer programs that will have a limited audience. "They won't find it anywhere else," Mock said.
A schedule of K-State TV's programs is available at http://www.k-state.tv