City to debut television station

Tuesday, Jan. 4, 2000 | 4:04 a.m.

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

LAS VEGAS - The city of Las Vegas plans to spend more than $1 million annually touting city services on its new television channel.

In addition to rebroadcasting City Council meetings several times a week, the channel will feature four city programs, which will also be shown repeatedly.

"Town Hall," a one-hour weekly call-in show with Mayor Oscar Goodman will be among the shows on the channel. The show currently airs in a one-half hour format on Clark County's cable channel.

On a new one-half hour show, "Access City Council," council members will be interviewed about issues in their wards. Each council member will appear once every six weeks.

The channel will also feature a show that highlights city programs, "City Beat," and "Pet Connection," a show geared toward pet owners. Both currently air on the county's channel.

The rest of the airtime will be filled with outside programming, such as shows on the environment, U.S. armed forces and the British Commonwealth.

Critics say government channels are nothing more than public relations tools for incumbent politicians, who get direct access to constituents at no charge.

The station's management will strive to keep politics out of the programming, according to City Manager Virginia Valentine.

Valentine also said she intends to talk with council members about a policy prohibiting appearances after they file for election.

Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman has suggested the opposite. He thinks the station could be used to air debates between incumbents and challengers. That would help lower the cost of running for office, he said.

Start-up costs for the station, which will air on Cox Cable Channel 2, were about $1.8 million, which came from a settlement with Prime Cable, now Cox Communications. Annual operating expenses are expected to be about $1.1 million.