Rotary Program:1/28/04

Program Chairperson: Carrie Cinnamond

Speaker: Malcolm (Mack) Walls, Kentucky Educational Television

Malcolm Walls brings 33 years of public broadcasting experience to KET. He came to KET in June 2003 from the Oklahoma Education Television Authority, which was ranked among the top 5 PBS markets where he served as executive director since January, 1999. Before that, Mack served as associate executive director for the statewide Okla. Network from 1995 to 1999 and has held executive and senior management positions at public broadcasting stations in Florida, Louisiana and Mississippi. He was also director of network programming for the Southern Educational Communications Association, headquartered in Columbia, S.C. Mack began his career at Mississippi Educational Television, serving as its second director of programming. He currently serves in national leadership as chairman of the National Educational Telecommunications Association. Mack is also a Rotarian in the Lexington Club.

Mack commended our Rotary Club and the admiration he has for our community and thanked us for the invitation to come to speak with us. His focus, however, was how television has impacted our lives, the changes in technology from the earliest days of the 1950's when every TV was black and white to today’s digital color images from cable and satellite, and how public broadcasting is making our lives better. Using a visual example, Mack demonstrated that new technologies now make it possible to broadcast digital signals from four separate channels in the same bandwidth that used to broadcast only one analog signal. The four channels now available included KET-1 which is local programming, KET-2 which is the prime-time schedule from PBS, and KET-3 and 4, which are channels for education and children that is broadcast to numerous schools throughout the state. The space that is left over can now broadcast any kind of data that can be digitized whether it be from text, pictures, or graphics that can be picked by personal computers by those of us at home or by state police and other public agencies. Not only does KET provide excellent programming that has remained true to its roots in providing public service and educational materials but it is unequaled anywhere in the nation in its programming to students, teachers and schools. For 35 years, KET has kept Kentuckians informed of legislative and public policy and the future looks even brighter in it’s commitment to making sure that all the people from Pikeville to Paducah get the best in education, arts, and adult learning. To complete the program, a video was shown about a documentary of Elkhorn City, Kentucky as an example of how KET keeps all of us informed from one end of the state to the other. Thanks, Mack for the program and keep up the good work! Submitted by J. Morgan Chapman