Tennessee Public Television Stations Launch Statewide “Tennessee Channel” to Promote Abundance of Local-Interest Programming

NASHVILLE, Tennessee – (December 2, 2009) – Harnessing the power of Tennessee’s intrastate fiber connection, the state’s public television stations will now be able to quickly share programming with each other and their respective viewing audiences. Starting Saturday, December 5, 2009, those stations will take advantage of the new broadcasting opportunity by presenting the Tennessee Channel, a new four-hour block of original Tennessee-centered programming gathered from the local content at all the public television stations in the state – NPT in Nashville, ETPtv in Knoxville, WCTE in Cookeville, WTCI in Chattanooga, WKNO in Memphis and WLJT in Martin.

The block of programming will be broadcast simultaneously throughout Tennessee on Saturdays from 5:00-9:00 p.m. CT, and Sundays, 1:00-5:00 p.m. CT on each station’s additional digital channel. Those in NPT’s viewing area will be able to see the Tennessee Channel on NPT2, available to viewers on Comcast Digital Cable channel 241, Charter Digital Cable channel 176 and over-the-air on channel 8.2.

Each station will provide programming for the Tennessee Channel, which will then be compiled each week and broadcast statewide to create a rotating mix of Tennessee shows from all around the state. Each week will give viewers throughout the state the opportunity to see Tennessee-based shows that were previously only available to a station’s local viewers.

“Up to now it has been difficult for Tennessee PBS stations to share programming in a timely manner,” says Kevin Crane, NPT Vice-President of Programming and Technology. “Thanks to this new fiber interconnection, we’ve overcome this obstacle and are now excited about providing programming related to Tennessee from around the state to our local viewers.”

Among the variety of programming that will be made available throughout the state are NPT’s recorded performances of the Blair Concert Series at Vanderbilt University and episodes of Insider’s View from Belmont University; WLJT’s West Tennessee Journal; WCTE’s Live Green Tennessee, WTCI’s Southern Accents; WKNO’s Best of Memphis Memoirs;  ETPtv’s Treasures in Your Attic, among many others.  

The Tennessee Channel is made possible by a grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

About Nashville Public Television
Nashville Public Television is available free and over the air to nearly 2.2 million people throughout the Middle Tennessee and Southern Kentucky viewing area, and is watched by more than 600,000 households every week. NPT provides, through the power of traditional television and interactive telecommunications, high quality educational, cultural and civic experiences that address issues and concerns of the people of the Nashville region, and which thereby help improve the lives of those we serve.

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