New LV educational cable channel to debut

Friday, Dec. 10, 1999 | 9:51 a.m.

Cox Communications announced Thursday the creation of a new cable television channel that will broadcast programming created by Clark County's three public education institutions.

On Jan. 1, Cox cable channel 70, EDU.TV, will go on the air with shows created by the Clark County School District, the Community College of Southern Nevada and UNLV.

"This is a partnership," Steve Schorr, vice president of public and government affairs for Cox, said. "It has been the key to everything."

Schorr said the idea for the creation of an all-education channel was conceived at the time Cox bought Prime Cable in early 1998. "This started with the negotiations for our franchise," Schorr said. It is anticipated that a second all-education channel, to be operated by the three educational institutions, will go on the air late next year.

Channel 70 will broadcast 24 hours of programs seven days a week. Each institution has eight of the 24 hours and will use its allotted time to suit its needs.

The existing programming on Channel 70, Classic Sports, is part of a special package of programming that is being discontinued by Cox.

Distance education courses will be a part of the programming package. So will discussion panels, speakers, concerts, campus news and children's programs. Each school will create its own shows using student labor. The schools will send the programs to KLVX Channel 10 via fiber optics cable. A traffic manager has been hired by the consortium to put the programming together at Channel 10.

More than $300,000 of new equipment was purchased for the project, with the city of Las Vegas donating $150,000 matched by $150,000 from Cox. The city of Henderson contributed $30,000.

Tom Axtell, general manager of Channel 10, called the educational channel a "tremendous gift to the community." UNLV Provost Dougla Ferraro, speaking at a press conference announcing the venture, said, "we (educational institutions) talk a great deal about collaborating, but often it is more talk than collaboration. This collaboration represents the kind of partnership we strive for."

Richard Moore, president of CCSN, said the new channel opens the door to an education for more people. Moore said that the things that will appear in the community college portion of the programming will be designed to alert people to the world around them, to challenge them to think and ask questions.

"We're going to bring the wonder of the world into the living room," he said.

County Commissioner Erin Kenny said the new channel will expand the programming available to children and families.

Axtell says he doesn't feel there will be competition between channels 10 and 70 for viewers. "Complementary programming increases the universe," he said, adding that 30 markets in the United States have two public broadcasting channels.