Health Care Council - online access to meetings

Three of seven meetings of the Alaska Health Care Strategies Council have, so far, been recorded for later broadcast. Starting with the meeting this week, the video and audio is also being archived for online access at any time. To watch the proceedings of the August 27th meeting, go to:

http://mfile.akamai.com/33941/wmv/smb2.download.akamai.com/33941/Health%20Council.wmv

All of the meetings will be shown in "Gavel to Gavel" style presentation on 360 North this fall leading up to the final meeting at the Public Health Conference in December.

Alaska Sea Grant - 360 North Programming Partner

The Alaska Sea Grant Marine Advisory Program has become a 360 North partner. The mission of MAP describes it as, "...a statewide outreach and technical assistance program helping Alaskans wisely use, conserve, and enjoy Alaska's marine and coastal resources."

Sea Grant works to educate and inform Alaskans. 360 North believes in, and shares that mission, so we are teaming up with Sea Grant by broadcasting their popular and informative programs. Ready to air on 360 North are:





-Sea Lions, Fishermen and Fish
-Sharing the Seas: Alaska's CDQ Program
-Wolf Control in Alaska
-Alaska's Onshore/Offshore Tug of War
-Salmon Farming, Boom or Bust
-ANWR: Wilderness Oil Reserve.



360 North is excited to be able to work with the University of Alaska Fairbanks to bring these programs about Alaska's resources and marine issues to our viewers. We are working to plan future co-production projects with the Sea Grant Marine Advisory Program. We hope to tap into their strong research, education and public service background and help Alaskans learn more about, and involve themselves in dialog about the resources of their state.

360 North - Going to the Dogs

Dog mushing, of course.

It's not too early to start thinking about winter and cold weather sports. To that end, some of the work on program acquisition has been devoted to programs scheduled to air later in the winter.

A license agreement was signed recently to assign 360 North broadcast rights to Season of the Sled Dog, a documentary about musher and first woman Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race finisher, Mary Shields.

Other dog mushing programs recently added to the 360 North library for broadcast include KYUK-TV programs The Fastest Trail, Racing the Wind, The Toughest Trail, and 25 Years and Running.

"Alaska has been my home for more than 40 years. My dogs have taken me down a trail of challenge and adventure, through some of the wildest natural beauty in the world. It would be my honor to share this with you." --Mary Shields

Discovering Alaska series - shooting complete

In May, 360 North began shooting a series of interesting Alaska lectures for broadcast. Working closely with University of Alaska Fairbanks Summer Sessions, nine events presented by creative Alaskans were videotaped. These writers, photographers and artists explain how their lives and their work has been inspired and influenced by the natural world.

Highlighted in the Discovering Alaska Lecture Series are:

•Roger Kaye-pilot, author
•Ken Whitten-wildlife biologist, photographer, woodworker
•Carolyn Kremers-teacher, author, poet
•Dennis Witmer-physicist,engineer, photographer
•Marjorie Cole-novelist
•Debbie Miller-author, environmental writer
•Todd Sherman-teacher, artist
•Susan Grace-singer, songwriter
•Mike Sfraga-geographer, educator, author

The final lecture was shot last week, on August 15. All nine episodes are in the post-production stage which will conclude by the end of this month. These programs will make their premier on 360 North this fall.

Strategic Planning for KTOO and 360 North

Last week the KTOO staff and board devoted time to work with facilitators from Eagle Hill Consulting on an updated long-range strategic plan for the stations and the services they deliver.

Through a Corporation for Public Broadcasting planning grant, Eagle Hill was hired to study and develop an understanding of critical issues facing KTOO over the next years. Jack Kelley and Jaime Zamora studied the stations, the broadcast environment in Alaska, national trends, and realities of daily operations at KTOO. Almost thirty hours of individual interviews were done with staff and the board. Group sessions were held with each department throughout the week. The process culminated in the board and management meeting with the consultants for an extended work session to craft the final list of "critical few" issues and draft an action plan to confront each over the next one to three years.

The future of all of KTOO's services and initiatives were discussed, including the role that 360 North will take in the future of KTOO and public television statewide.

Temporary Delay Center Operational

Over the past months 360 North has been preparing for 24-hour-a-day broadcast operations from the KTOO facility at 360 Egan Drive in Juneau. The ongoing scheduled facility upgrades and construction have made this a challenge.

For many years, Gavel to Gavel Alaska has originated many hundreds of hours of original programming each year. That program stream has not required the time delay of programs from other sources from outside of Alaska.

360 North programming will encompass the best of Alaskan programs and select offerings from Outside sources that are about Alaska, the North, or those that present topics of special interest to Alaska viewers. In order to have these programs ready for broadcast this fall, operations have begun to again record program feeds from national sources. These acquisitions take advantage of national memberships already in place at KTOO. In June we started recording satellite feeds from NETA, the National Educational Telecommunications Association, for later broadcast.

These series include Small Business School, The New Flyfisher, Visionaries and Songs of the Mountains. Many one-time specials like Alone in the Winderness, Rockwell Kent and compilations from the International Wildlife Film Festival are also being collected and included in the program schedule starting in November.

Although the main broadcast control room is undergoing extensive digital conversion work, a temporary delay center was designed and implemented by David Waters and Carmelo D'Amico of KTOO. They built a small recording center including a simple automation system to accommodate daily recordings. This delay center will be in service until the primary automation system is reactivated in the new digital control room.

Marine Safety Programming

360 North is teaming up with the Alaska Marine Safety Education Association to bring informative marine safety television programs to viewers around Alaska.

Since its founding in 1985, AMSEA has trained more than 800 instructors, 390 teachers and youth educators. Each year this network of instructors, supported by AMSEA with equipment and educational materials, provides cold water safety education to more than 10,000 school children, commercial fishermen, recreational boaters and government agency personnel. Since AMSEA's inception they have trained over 110,000 people.

360 North is excited to be able to provide some of the training and educational materials created by AMSEA for viewers throughout the state. Programs about marine safety that will be in the upcoming fall schedule are:

•It Could Have Been Prevented
•Fishing Vessel Stability
•A Matter of Survival
•Rescues at Sea
•Beating the Odds
•When Seconds Count

This is just one example of the effort 360 North is taking toward successful partnering with organizations and associations throughout the state to bring educational and instructional programming to our viewers.

Hays Research Group chosen for Audience Research

Hays Research Group was selected to conduct audience research during the launch and first broadcast season of 360 North.

A portion of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting grant funding for the demonstration project that has helped start 360 North was earmarked for use in audience research. Audience tracking is important to the 360 North project and analyzing its success over the first 18 months and beyond. To attempt to measure audience now, and over the next year, KTOO chose to select an Alaska public opinion research company to derive information about viewers. The objectives of the research are to:

•Determine the reach and impact of the channel.
•Aid with the on-going development of the program schedule.
•Support the search for continued funding.

To select the firm to conduct audience research for 360 North, KTOO prepared a competitive request for proposals that went to research and public opinion polling companies throughout the state. Focused research, both qualitative and quantitative, is planned by Hays Research Group who has been awarded the contract for these services. It will be done by the use of a combination of polling and focus groups in urban and rural Alaska.

The audience research will be done in three stages. The first is expected to begin during fall, 2007. Subsequent samples and research are scheduled to follow in winter and spring of 2008.
Anne Hays will direct the work for Hays Research Group that will begin in November.

In Production - Alaska Veterans Tell Their Stories

The War: Alaskan Veterans Remember

Above: Tom Stewart, Jack Culbreath and Harold Wheaton talk to Katie Bausler about their experiences during WWII. These interviews and more will be featured in KTOO's The War: Alaskan Veterans Remember on 360 North this fall.


When the Ken Burns series The War is broadcast nationally this fall, a new KTOO television project will air statewide in Alaska to bring the subject closer to home. Producer Katie Bausler has been talking to veterans and brings those frank discussions and remembrances to you. The interviews will air in late September coinciding with the national series. The programs are being made available to public television stations throughout Alaska.

You are invited to learn more about this project and a national effort to preserve the stories of those who remember WWII.

Science for Alaska Series

A series of ten unique science lectures will make their television premier during the weekly science block on 360 North starting this fall.


These events were organized as a public outreach project by the UAF Geophysical Institute. They were presented in different venues around the state earlier this year. A 'traveling road show' of top scientists presented forums in Fairbanks, Juneau, Anchorage and Seward.

The program subjects in the Science for Alaska series range in topic from volcanoes, climate change, glaciers, and whales to the international polar year.

The program specific titles for the series are:

-Mirror Images, Exploring Auroras at each of the Poles
-Seals on Thin Ice, An Effect of Climate Change
-Warmer Climate, Thawing Permafrost, What will happen to Alask's Water?
-Recreating the World of Alaska's Dinosuars
-The International Polar Year 2007-2008: Opportunities for Alaska
-Sled Dog Science
-Some Like it Hot: Volcanoes in the Infrared
-A Different Season: People in a Changing Climate
-Understanding Belugas: When Scientists and Hunters Collaborate
-Dynamic Glaciers of Southeast Alaska

You won't want to miss these unique Alaska science programs this fall on 360 North.

Small Business School

Small Business School is a weekly, half-hour television show that began in 1994. The programs first aired on PBS-member stations in the United States, then on IBB Voice of America TV and on cable stations throughout Canada, Latin America, South America, Africa, the Middle East, New Zealand, Poland, and China.

Popularity has been growing for the series which is considered by many to be a vital tool for entrepreneurs and business owners. The programs study how ordinary people do extraordinary things. See how they actualize their dreams, create something of value, start a business and become successful. Small business owners tell the story of how they got the idea for their business, how they raised the money needed to launch, how they hire and keep great people and how they impact their customers and communities.

Small Business School will begin weekly broadcasts this fall on 360 North.