"Truly Alaskan" Documentaries

Five very interesting and very Alaskan documentaries have recently been acquired to air on 360 North. They are all the work of long-time filmmaker Curt Madison of River Tracks Productions.

Four of the programs look deeply into Alaska Native culture and will be important contributions to the planned weekly block of Native programming. The fifth documentary, on mining, is a unique history offering.

Hitting Sticks, Healing Hearts - This documentary was produced at the request of village elders. It provides an in-depth, insiders view of an Athabaskan memorial potlatch. It aired on public television in Alaska and was used as part of the Death, A Trip of a Lifetime series produced by KCTS, Seattle.

Songs in Minto Life - Like 'Hitting Sticks,' the setting is the Athabaskan Indian village of Minto. This film is about music and the way it weaves through every aspect of life.

Tanana River Rat - This program is a vibrant drama of contemporary life in Interior Alaska. Brothers separated by the political realities of Alaska after the 1991 Native land claims are forced together on the river when a cousin drowns. The family and village come together as they always have in times of crisis.

Huteetl: A Koyukon Memorial Potlatch - Considered a valuable anthropological document, this video looks at the final death rites of a young couple who died in a small airplane crash. More than 200 people joined the 100 residents of Hughes for the week-long celebration releasing the deceased spirit from a year of wandering.

Bedrock Pay - This project gives viewers insight into some of the characters and the lifestyle of gold mining in the historic Manley and Eureka districts of the Interior.

Each of these "truly Alaskan" programs has won numerous awards and been recognized in North America and throughout the world.

Great Progress in the Control Room

The first days of work in the KTOO control room by the Burst team has revealed big changes. Here you see the BEFORE picture when the drywall mud was still wet.And, below, you see the progress of the first three days of work from the same angle. There is still so much to be done, but seeing the racks and furniture in place is exciting for the staff.
We will continue to post pictures as the control rooms take shape with the help of KTOO's John Kelly who has been documenting the work and providing pictures.

First Day Progress

These guys from Burst are pretty good. At 8 am the room was empty. By the time they left for lunch, the racks were in place and furniture was being built. It's a good start. Of course, there are all of these wires that need to be connected to something....

A Truck Full of Stuff...

A truck full of stuff arrived in the KTOO parking lot on Friday. It took a forklift and several people to unload the equipment, destined for the rebuild project in the control rooms, into the building for unpacking.

The technicians from Burst, the integrator selected for the KTOO digital conversion project, arrive in the building this morning to begin unpacking. Eventually, all of the equipment that now fills the studio in large crates and on pallets will fit neatly into the new master control room and production control room.



Let's hope there is a lot of packing material in there because it looks like a lot of equipment. It weighs just under 20,000 pounds and has a value of about $750,000. It will be exciting over the next weeks to see it all installed and operating in KTOO's new state-of-the-art 360 NORTH and Gavel to Gavel facility.

Regular updates and pictures will continue to be posted.

Planning for the Public Launch of a Television Service

The KTOO staff has been meeting to propose ideas and work through details of the official launch of 360 North. In August a work session including everyone from the KTOO stations was held to identify a list of promotion, programming and public relations tasks. Since then, small groups have worked through planning of different facets of announcing and presenting the new television service to the public.

Above, Tim Olson describes progress on the promotion plan and spot production at a staff meeting while Bill Legere, KTOO CEO and General Manager, looks on.

Special Session Coverage

On October 18, Alaska Day, the Alaska State Legislature will convene in special session to consider issues related to the state oil and gas tax. This topic and the special session has garnered unique interest in light of the ongoing corruption charges and trials, some involving legislators who voted on the original legislation regarding petroleum taxes.

KTOO's Gavel to Gavel Alaska will provide full coverage of all of the proceedings from Juneau during the session. Although KTOO will be in the middle of its digital conversion and facilities upgrade, equipment is being configured to provide the extensive coverage that Alaskans have come to expect from KTOO over the past twelve years.

360 North is excited to be able to broadcast this important public affairs coverage of Alaska government. It is one of the important services that the people of Alaska have come to rely on their public television stations to provide.

ISER Lecture Series - Production Begins Next Week

Each month during the school year, ISER, The Institute of Social and Economic Research at the University of Alaska Anchorage, presents an informative public lecture. These Lunchtime Talks provide an opportunity for ISER researchers and their colleagues from other organizations to present their recent work and findings.

Beginning on September 11, 360 North will be teaming up with UAA and ISER to record and broadcast these events. In the first program we will hear from Antony Scott, an analyst with the state's Division of Oil and Gas, who will talk about trying to understand future natural gas pricing. He will describe how the state attempts to make informed policy decisions in an atmosphere of price uncertainty.

Additional program topics and guests will be announced each month. And, 360 North will work to produce a monthly television program of each talk. Broadcasts will begin in November.

Coverage of the National Conference of State Legislatures

360 North will be bringing coverage of a national event to its Gavel to Gavel Alaska programming this fall.

The National Conference of State Legislatures is a bipartisan organization that serves the legislators and staffs of the nation's 50 states, its commonwealths and territories. NCSL provides research, technical assistance and opportunities for policymakers to exchange ideas on the most pressing state issues. Each year, at their annual meeting, members from across the nation gather to discuss issues, attend workshops and conduct forums. This year, with the help of the National Association of Public Affairs Networks, 360 North will broadcast coverage of the sessions that took place in Boston.

KTOO's Gavel to Gavel Alaska is a member of NAPAN, and Bill Legere, KTOO general manager, serves on the NAPAN board. This year, another member, The Connecticut Network, produced programs of many NCSL sessions. They have made these recordings available to other public affairs channels like 360 North.

Topics range from energy policy, education and health care reform to climate change and media advances in the delivery of news.

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.

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.