UW News

October 4, 1996

Celebrating the Beginning of a New Educational Resource in Wenatchee Valley UW News Release: 04 October, 1996

Wenatchee Mayor Earl Tilly and University of Washington President Richard L. McCormick join the Wenatchee community in celebrating the premiere of a new educational television channel available on TCI-Wenatchee cable channel 18.
The inauguration ceremony of this channel is from 4:30 to 6 p.m., Tuesday, Oct. 15 in the Wenatchee School District Office Board Room. Mayor Tilly and UW President McCormick will address the community, previews of the channel’s new educational programming and World Wide Web site will be available, and channel 18 will officially begin serving the people of Wenatchee Valley on TCI.

The ceremony celebrates the collaborative efforts of the City of Wenatchee, the University of Washington, Wenatchee Public Schools, Wenatchee Valley College and TCI to create this easily accessible and new learning opportunity for the community. Channel 18 will be Wenatchee Valley’s first non-commercial, non-profit educational channel to offer local and statewide programming around the clock.

The University of Washington initiated the collaboration earlier this year as part of its effort to develop greater educational opportunities for people across the state. The City of Wenatchee responded by making it possible to develop these opportunities through the local cable franchise. Wenatchee Public Schools and Wenatchee Valley College welcomed the resource as a way to reach more students and serve the needs of local K-20 teachers.

Channel 18 is possible because of the unique and innovative use of cutting-edge digital compression technologies in combination with traditional broadcast, cable, and telephone technologies. This exciting combination of state-of-the-art technological innovation and collaboration among institutions is a significant milestone in the state’s educational telecommunication’s history. As a result, channel 18 will have the flexibility and capacity to offer a variety of courses to students of all ages and learning needs.

Channel 18 offers the 18,000 cable subscribers in the Wenatchee Valley access to courses for credit and original university-level educational programs in topics such as health, literature, history, biology, computing, business, physics and astronomy. Students now have the opportunity to take courses at home, receiving credit through Wenatchee Public Schools, Wenatchee Valley College, the University of Washington, Washington State University and Central Washington University. Teachers in Wenatchee will have a resource dedicated to reaching local K-20 students with televised and Internet-based educational materials.

For more information about this new educational resource and…

Wenatchee Public Schools programming, call: (509)-663-8161
Wenatchee Valley College programming, call: (509)-664-2518
University of Washington programming, call: (206)-685-9137 or toll-free 1-888-616-UWTV
Cable Operations, TCI-Wenatchee, call: (509)-663-5108

*Channel 42 will serve as the temporary test-home of this resource until Nov. 1, when channel 18 will serve as its permanent home on TCI-Wenatchee cable system.