| News Releases |
MPTV
Earns Milwaukee Public Television has received two first place Awards for Excellence from the Wisconsin Broadcaster's Association. MPTV received the first place award in the major market television documentary category for Milwaukee's Riverwest Neighborhood, which premiered May 20. The one-hour program explored the continuing transformation of one of Milwaukee's oldest neighborhoods into an extremely desirable place to live. Dan Jones was the producer, Henry Reed was the editor, and Duane Rodriguez was the primary videographer. In the editorial/commentary category, Rick Horowitz received a first place award for his commentary on MPTV's Interchange program, a weekly discussion of current affairs.(visit Everybody come's to Rick's) MPTV also won the first place documentary award in 2002 for A Day in the Life of Milwaukee (Dan Jones, producer) and in 2004 for Wrestling City Kids (Raul Galvan, producer). |
MPTV
Changes Cable customers in several Wisconsin towns will find Milwaukee Public Television in a new spot in their cable line-up of stations beginning Aug. 5, according to Charter Communications. MPTV-10 (WMVS) will move from cable channel 4 to cable channel 22 in the town of Sharon and the counties of Jefferson and Walworth. The station will move from cable channel 4 to cable channel 21 in Darien, Delavan, Elkhorn, Oconomowoc, and Sullivan. A complete list of the affected locations follows at the end of the news release. "We are happy to bring you public television and we hope viewers in these areas will continue to tune in to WMVS on Charter Cable," said Tim Vowell, vice president of government relations for the company. The changes
are necessary to accommodate the requirements of programming suppliers,
according to Vowell. MPTV-36 (WMVT), one to two public television
channels broadcast from Milwaukee, will not be affected in areas
where it is currently carried by Charter. More than 500,000 households in southeastern Wisconsin's 11 counties routinely view WMVS to watch programs such as NOVA, Mystery!, Great Lakes Gardener, Tracks Ahead, Frontline, and Evening at Pops. The stations' blend of national and locally produced programs provides opportunities for personal, civic, and multicultural enrichment, as well as increased understanding of the global economy, international business and world affairs. Changing from Channel 4 to 22: Aztalan, Bloomfield, Village of Fontana, City of Ft. Atkinson, City of Jefferson, Village of Johnson Creek, Town of Koshkonong, Town of Lake Mills, City of Lake Mills, Town of Linn, Town of Randall, Village of Walworth, Town of Walworth, City of Whitewater, Village of Williams Bay, Town of Palmyra, Village of Palmyra, Town of Portland, City of Waterloo, Town of Watertown, City of Watertown, Town of Milford, Town of Emmett, Village of Genoa City, Village of Twin Lakes, Town of Wheatland, Village of Sharon. Changing from Channel 4 to 21: Town of Darian, Town of Delavan, City of Delavan, City of Elkhorn, City of Oconomowoc, Village of Sullivan, Town of Sullivan, Town of Layette. |
| Channel
10 Auction The Channel 10 Great TV Auction earned a total of $1,034,392 during its 36th annual, on-air run, surpassing the $1 million mark for the 16th consecutive year, according to Lamont McLoughlin, president of the Channel 10/36 Friends, Inc. The mammoth sale of more than 20,000 items ended Sunday morning at about 2:30 a.m. The nine-day event was televised from the auction's new headquarters at 12560 W. Townsend Rd., Brookfield, where approximately 2,000 volunteers worked for months to make it a success. A highlight of this year's auction was a $349,000 Dream Home in Muskego's Candlewood Creek development. The house was sold for $321,000, and the Friends will receive the net after the cost of construction. The auction is an important part of the fund-raising activity of the Channel 10/36 Friends, Inc. The Friends annually provide more than $5.5 million in support of programming on Milwaukee Public Television, WMVS and WMVT (MPTV-10 and MPTV-36). Auction Manager Art Langlas praised this year's co-chairs, Sam Valanju and Mary Ann Chycinski, for their for excellent leadership. |
| Channel 10 Offering Dream Home During Annual TV Auction After a 14-year-hiatus, Channel 10 has teamed up with Homes by Towne® to once again offer a spectacular Dream Home as part of its 2004 Great TV Auction. Homes by Towne®, which is headquarted in Milwaukee, is a national builder of quality single family and condominium homes. "The Dream Home was an extremely popular feature of past Auctions that created a lot of viewer excitement and interest," says Art Langlas, manager of the Channel 10 Great TV Auction. "We're delighted that Homes by Towne has helped us bring it back to the Auction." In addition to Homes by Towne's sponsorship, local contractors have donated more than $30,000 in time and materials. This year's
Dream Home is a 1,920 square-foot, single-level, Galena model
that has three bedrooms, two bathrooms, an open kitchen, dining
room, great room with a fireplace, first-floor laundry, two-car
garage and deck. The master bedroom features a master bath with
a double-basin vanity and walk-in-closet. The home
has a number of upgrades including: custom built birch kitchen
cabinets; Kohler fixtures in the kitchen and bath; GE dishwasher
and vented microwave; six-panel interior doors; hardwood floors
in the foyer, kitchen, dinette and great room; ceramic tile in
the laundry room and second bathroom; Pella windows; and nine-foot
basement walls with partial exposure. The finished home
will also include $25,000 worth of landscaping and a paved driveway
and walkway. The 2004
Dream Home is valued at $349,000. The minimum opening bid
for the home is $310,500. To bid on the 2004 Dream Home, interested
parties must be pre-qualified and a deposit will be required.
To receive a bid packet, please call 262/781-4998. • March
27-28, 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. Individual
appointments to tour the home can also be made by calling Auction Announces 2004 Dream Home The Channel
10 Great TV Auction is a live, nine-day, on-air fund-raising event
hosted by the Channel 10/36 Friends, Inc. to support Milwaukee
Public Television. Each year, businesses and individuals
donate more than 20,000 items. Viewers across southeastern
Wisconsin and northern Illinois bid for them by telephone and
online. The Channel
10 Great TV Auction will be broadcast live Friday, April 23 -
Saturday, May 1 on Channel 10. For more information, visit
www.10-36friends.org |
| MPTV
Drive Collects The Mister Rogers' Memorial Sweater Drive has collected a record number--14,725--of new or freshly cleaned sweaters for distribution to agencies working with families in need. The drive, now in its sixth year, had collected more than 22,000 sweaters since 1998. This year's collection outstripped all of the previous drives. The drive will donate the sweaters to selected agencies for distribution in Waukesha, Racine, Kenosha, Menomonee Falls, Green Bay, the Milwaukee area, and other areas in southeastern Wisconsin. Sponsors of the drive are Milwaukee Public Television, Aurora Health Care, Milwaukee Area Technical College, The Channel 10/36 Friends, Inc., Coakley Tech, Coakley Brothers Co., Mary Morgan Incorporated, and GE Medical Systems. Schools, churches and organizations collected sweaters for the drive and brought them to designated donation sites. The drive honored Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, now celebrating its 35th year as a beloved public television children's program. Mister Rogers died of cancer in 2003 at age 74. |
MPTV
Outdoor Program Milwaukee Public Television's Outdoor Wisconsin series has received first, second, and third place awards from the Association of Great Lakes Outdoor Writers in its television/video division's Excellence in Craft Contest. The first place award, in the "Best of Fishing" category, was for a story about Lake Michigan Charter Fishing. The second was in the open category for a report on the Milwaukee River Challenge Race, and the third place "Best of Hunting" winner was Deer Hunt 2002. The program's host, Dan Small, accepted the awards. Outdoor Wisconsin is a weekly, half-hour magazine-style program now in its 20th season. It provides an informative mix of outdoor lore on topics ranging from duck hunting to ice fishing along with information on conservation and nature. Jack Abrams is the executive producer. |
| Television
Engineering Manager Kevin Kukowski,
a Milwaukee native with more than 20 years of experience in television Prior to joining MPTV, Kukowski was chief engineer for eight years at Weigel Broadcasting which operates WDJT-TV CBS58, WMLW-TV, W63CU (Telemundo) and CBS HDTV. During that time, he was instrumental in the design and installation of a new tower, transmitters, master control, newsroom facilities, and HDTV for those stations. At MPTV, he will be responsible for supervising 28 engineers and other operations staff members, overseeing all on-air engineering, equipment systems, and operations. A 1983 graduate of the Electrical Technology Television Engineering Program at Milwaukee Area Technical College, Kukowski also earned a bachelor's degree in television and radio from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1977. His broadcast television career began at KFDA-TV, a CBS network affiliate in Texas. Other area positions have included chief engineer for WKLH and WLZR and chief engineer for Milwaukee Public Schools television and radio department (WYMS). In addition to his career interests, Kukowski enjoys playing the piano professionally and rebuilding keyboard instruments and antique radios. |
MPTV
Cameraman Wins Duane J. Rodriguez, a Milwaukee Public Television videographer, has earned his third Emmy for his work as a camera operator on NBC's technical crew at the 2002 Olympic Winter Games in Salt Lake City, Utah. The national award was for "Best Sports Remote Production." The
veteran production specialist has been with MPTV for 20 years.
His duties range from shooting documentaries to taping the station's
local weekly programs. He took a leave of absence from MPTV to
work on the NBC crew during the winter of 2002. His assignments
included cross country skiing, the second half of the Nordic Combined
(ski jumping and cross-country) and the Biathlon (cross-country
and rifle shooting). A 1982 graduate of MATC's TV and Video Production program, Rodriguez often works on broadcasts of major league and college sports in his spare time and has covered sports events throughout the United States. |
FCC
Approves MPTV Plan for a The Federal Communications Commission has approved a request from Milwaukee Public Television that will enable the station to broadcast high definition programming full-time on WMVT-DT, according to Ellis Bromberg, MPTV general manager. MPTV had asked the FCC to waive the requirement that its new digital TV station, WMVT-DT (Digital Channel 35), simulcast 50 percent of the programs on its sister analog channel, WMVT (Channel 36). MPTV plans to put WMVT-DT on the air in June. Its first digital channel, WMVS-DT, began broadcasting in March, 2000. The new digital channel will offer only high definition programming 24 hours a day, drawing from both local and national sources, Bromberg said. "We consider ourselves pioneers in digital television, and the fact that we operate two digital stations in the same city gives us a rare opportunity to experiment with the medium," Bromberg said. "With digital, you can either dedicate your channel to a single stream of high definition digital programming, or split up the signal into a number of multicast digital streams. The FCC ruling will enable our viewers to have the best of both worlds." Since WMVT-DT will not be required to simulcast WMVT programs, viewers who can receive signals from all the MPTV analog and digital services will be able to choose from eight different MPTV programs at any given time. They include the original stations (Channels 10 and 36), delayed broadcasts of 10 and 36, children's programming, enrichment and instructional programs, a classical music channel, and the new HD station. FCC rules now require that television stations with digital signals simulcast their programming in the old and new forms at least 50 percent of the time. MPTV argued that it was able to simulcast all programming from its two analog stations on two of WMVS-DT's multicast channels. The commission said it found "good cause" to grant the request because it will enable MPTV "to experiment with innovative uses of [WMVT-DT] and to offer additional digital programming to the community." Viewers with digital TV sets or converters will be able to receive the signal, as well as the more than 80,000 viewers subscribing to Time Warner's digital cable tier. The entire FCC decision may be found on-line at: http://hraunfoss.fcc.gov/edocs_public/attachmatch/DA-03-1292A1.pdf MPTV built a 1,221-foot digital tower in 1999 and has been assembling high definition production and post-production facilities since that time. The station, a viewer-supported service of Milwaukee Area Technical College, produces many of its specials along with series such as Tracks Ahead and Great Lakes Gardener in high definition and has received several awards for its pioneering work in digital technology and distribution. |
| For additional information, contact Kay Tierney, Publicist, MPTV (414) 297-7512. |
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