WTCI : Tennessee Valley PBS Station

As summer continues to heat up, WTCI offers programming and events that sizzle and delight while reaching out in tangible ways to the Tennessee Valley!

This month finally marks Antiques Roadshow’s arrival to Chattanooga. The news of this exciting development has been circulating with a buzz of anticipation and enthusiasm. A total of three programs will be taped to air nationwide in the Fall of 2009. The Tennessee Valley will no doubt reveal some of Antiques Roadshow’s most amazing treasures to date! The producers and appraisers from the show have been looking forward to this event as much as the staff and volunteers at WTCI. They have heard great stories about the charm and warmth of our community. Please join me in welcoming these visitors to the community with open arms.

For those of you who are lucky enough to have tickets to Antiques Roadshow on July 19, congratulations. If you didn’t receive tickets, you can still catch a glimpse of what the Roadshow experience is all about. On Friday, July 19 at 6 p.m., WTCI will host a backstage view of the Roadshow set and provide the opportunity to meet some of the appraisers from the show. Contact Sara Maloney at 423-702-7816 for more information.

In addition to Antiques Roadshow, the Tennessee Valley and WTCI are being featured in part of another national PBS program in 2009. WTCI was selected as 1 of 5 PBS stations nationwide to create a local community coalition as part of PBS’s American Experience’s WE SHALL REMAIN; a provocative, multi-media production that establishes Native American history as an essential part of U.S. history.

WTCI is anchoring a coalition that has brought together local organizations including Friends of Moccasin Bend, Hunter Museum of American Art and the Chattanooga History Center. Collaboratively, our organizations are creating public events and programming that will raise awareness of local Native American history and contemporary Native issues, and help foster a dialogue that will extend the crucial message of WE SHALL REMAIN, which is slated to air on PBS nationwide in Spring 2009.

As part of the series, a film crew of over 100 people from PBS’s American Experience was in our area last month taping segments for this documentary. They taped at the Chief Vann House in Chatsworth, New Echota State Park and Red Clay in Cleveland.  The segments will help tell the story of the Cherokee’s experience when federal troops forced them from their homes as they began their journey on the Trail of Tears. This is the latest example of how WTCI is helping share our local stories on a national level.

In conjunction with the broadcast of this national series, WTCI is producing our own local documentary that will go more in depth on the local stories that this region has to share about this tragic event in our country’s history. Production work has already begun and will pick up during the summer. 

WTCI is being recognized as a leader among PBS stations in engaging the community beyond what is seen on the television screen. I hope you take as much pride as I do in sharing our local stories with the nation.