Health Care Council on 360 NORTH

On June 11, 360 NORTH began recording the meetings of the Governor's Health Care Strategies Council. The council meets monthly in Anchorage until the culmination of it's work is presented at the Alaska Public Health Conference in December.
The second meeting was recorded yesterday and each subsequent gathering will be recorded and post-produced at KTOO. The finished programs will be broadcast as a weekly offering leading up to the presentation of the groups findings to the governor and legislature.
Production of the meetings is made possible, in part, by support from The Foraker Group.
To learn more about the council or the meetings you can go to the Health and Social Services council page.

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Alaska Film Archives Series Progress Report

Jointly created and produced by the Alaska Film Archives and 360 NORTH, this series is being made specifically for broadcast on 360 NORTH starting this fall. As of July the first thirteen programs are complete and thirteen more are in the works. Twenty-six Alaska Film Archives series programs will be ready to air when 360 NORTH launches this fall. They will be an anchor series of our planned Alaska History day each week.

The programs offer an in-depth look at long-format news stories from Alaska's past -- from 20 to 40 years ago. They also provide some insight on how the media covered and participated in events and issues during the forming of a young state.

The series has been made possible through the work of Dirk Tordoff, curator of the Alaska Film Archives, and Michael Knavel who is editing and re-packaging the programs for broadcast.

TWO NEW PRODUCTION INITIATIVES BEGIN

One of the priorities of 360 NORTH programming is to provide as much Alaska public affairs content as possible. To that end, two new Gavel to Gavel style production initiatives are scheduled or underway in order to increase the offering of public meeting coverage to public television viewers throughout the state

Preliminary planning has begun for coverage of the Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation board meetings beginning September 24-25. Subsequent meetings in December and early in 2008 are slated for production in anticipation of the continued presence of APFC on 360 NORTH.

On June 11 we recorded the first session of the Governor’s Health Strategies Council meetings in Anchorage. The council will meet monthly until culminating their work with recommendations to the governor and the legislature at the Public Health Conference in Anchorage during the first week of December. The monthly sessions will be recorded for delayed playback of all meetings later in the fall, closer to the date of the final conference.

These are two of the many programming initiatives moving forward for the fall launch of 360 NORTH that will help Alaskans better understand the public process in the state.

Construction Begins on KTOO-TV Digital Conversion

The sounds of demolition filled the corridors of KTOO’s building in Juneau this morning. It began what will lead to the new digital facilities for 360 NORTH operations and Gavel to Gavel Alaska production.

Last fall KTOO was one of 10 public TV stations in the U.S. selected to receive a digital transition grant from the Rural Development Utilities Program of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The grant program is designed to assist rural public television stations complete the transition from analog to digital television broadcasting. KTOO received an award of $1,000,000 to build new control centers for KTOO-TV, including all-new digital facilities for 360 NORTH and Gavel to Gavel Alaska.

Station manager Bill Legere said, “The new digital facilities will greatly improve our ability to provide a full-time, statewide channel of Alaska public affairs programming, including coverage of the Legislature. We will be replacing old obsolete analog equipment, some of which dates back to the 1980s.”

Burst, of Denver, Colorado will manage the engineering design, equipment procurement and installation required to convert KTOO’s control rooms from analog to digital, and make improvements to workflow and production capabilities. The project calls for expansion of a digital router, new digital switchers, improved graphic capabilities and digital conversion equipment. The digital conversion of KTOO’s facility is essential to the new 360 NORTH television service and continued upgrades in the Gavel to Gavel Alaska coverage of the legislature and state government. Construction is anticipated to be completed by late fall.

Alaska Native and Native American programming on 360 NORTH

Beginning with the fall schedule, 360 NORTH will dedicate a large programming block each week to Alaska Native and Native American programming. This regularly-scheduled lineup will include the best documentaries, public affairs, cultural and event productions from independent producers and public television.

Exciting recent acquisitions include NORTHWEST INDIAN NEWS and NATIVE REPORT. Northwest Indian News is an award-winning series that was started in 2003by the Tulalip Tribes in Washington. Native Report has just begun their third season and is a production of public station WDSE in Duluth. Both programs have recently produced stories in Alaska and their energy and perspective on Native issues will be a welcome and interesting contribution to the 360 NORTH program schedule.