The cable television channel at the Urbana campus, UI-7, is undergoing a rebirth and transforming into a resource for broadcasting original, professional-quality programming produced by the campus community.
Kate Brickman, UI-7’s coordinator, was hired in July to revamp the channel and broaden the scope of its programming to encompass more original work produced by students and faculty and staff members.
UI-7 is one of four public/educational/governmental cable-TV channels in the Champaign-Urbana market, which includes channels operated by the cities of Champaign and Urbana, and Parkland College.
UI-7, available since 1997 to Champaign-Urbana and some surrounding communities through cable television, broadcast 22 hours of native-language programs supplied by the nonprofit educational organization SCOLA and newscasts by journalism students. The College of Liberal Arts and Sciences provided the SCOLA programming as an educational aid for students studying foreign languages, but decided to discontinue funding this summer since SCOLA programming was no longer integral to the curricula.
UI-7 had some loyal viewers for the native-language programming who were frustrated when the programming ended on July 1, but seemed to understand the decision to discontinue it, Brickman said.
“The goal is to make UI-7 a resource for the university,”
Brickman said. “It’s a way to share knowledge and ideas with the surrounding community. It’s nice to be able to provide programming that viewers can’t get elsewhere.”
Since Brickman joined the staff on July 16, she’s been promoting UI-7 and appealing to campus units and organizations for original content through announcements in e-week, on UI-7 and its Web page, and in meetings with faculty members, campus units and organizations.
Through those appeals UI-7 quickly acquired and began broadcasting 30 hours of original programming, including videos of concerts by local bands Candy Foster and Celtic Palooza; a documentary about the local lesbian-feminist chorus Amasong, by Jay Rosenstein; a news segment about wildlife preservation in Kenya, by Nancy Benson, and a documentary about rabbit-hunting and life lessons, by Walt Harrington, all faculty members in the department of journalism; informational videos about the Blue Waters project at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications and the legend about the ghost that some people believe haunts the English building; and lectures about Abraham Lincoln’s presidency, Native American issues and other topics given by faculty members and guest speakers.
UI-7 also will be rebroadcasting episodes of “Illinois Law,” the discussion forum produced by the College of Law that is broadcast locally on WCIA-TV (Channel 3), and will begin broadcasting repeats of the new episodes after they are broadcast on WCIA. Other series include the news program “Illinois International,” produced by International Programs and Studies, and the agricultural news program “Illini Farm Report,” produced by UI Extension. Additionally, UI-7 has broadcast videos welcoming new students and New Student Convocation, held on Aug. 22, and Chancellor Richard Herman’s discussion of the 2007-2008 school year with WILL-TV producer John Paul, and productions by students.
“The idea is to make the programming as diverse as what’s happening on campus,” Brickman said.
UI-7 is being integrated into the campus messaging system so that messages concerning emergency situations and news items such as campus closings can be broadcast automatically.
More information about UI-7, including a programming request form and programming policies, is available on the College of Media Web site. Brickman can be contacted at kapokarn@illinois.edu or 244-3011.
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