PAC 14 Wins Prestigious Overall Excellence Award

SALISBURY, MD---For seven years, PAC 14 has been a pioneer of public access television in the region. Now, it can take its place as the No. 1 station of its kind in the United States in education and public service.

Operated as a partnership between Salisbury University, Wicomico County and the City of Salisbury, PAC 14 has earned the Overall Excellence Award in the Public, Education and Government Access category for stations with budgets under $200,000. The award is presented by the Alliance for Community Media as part of its 2006 Hometown Video Festival.

Likened to the Emmys for public access channels, the Hometown Video Festival celebrates the vast array of public access programming throughout the country. The alliance received some 1,400 entries for awards this year.

In addition to this honor, PAC 14 also earned national accolades earlier this year from the International Reading Association (IRA) for its Ready for School series, which earned the association’s Broadcast Media Award.

“Our success is made possible not only by the volunteer hosts and producers who put these shows together, but by our partnerships with the county, city and Salisbury University,” said Michael Goodson, general manager of PAC 14. “This is a community effort, and these awards reflect well on the entire community. We're overjoyed with the recognition, and excited because the best is yet to come.”

Programming on PAC 14 includes popular shows such as One on One with Phil Tilghman, Delmarva Gardens, Birth to Four, Focus on Health and SU on the Air, not to mention coverage of special annual events such as the Salisbury Christmas Parade.

One of PAC 14’s recent innovations has been the taping and broadcasting of live-on-film operations at Peninsula Regional Medical Center for the Focus on Health series. The resulting program shows viewers the intricacies of surgery, something that is typically seen only on national television.

Many of the programs seen on PAC 14 are produced by local citizens and non-profit organizations. The station’s mandate is to provide publicly accessible television services to the Wicomico community without the typical restraints of commercial television.

To follow the channel’s mandate and foster public use of the channels services, regularly scheduled qualifying workshops are held to teach novice citizens how to use PAC 14’s cameras and computer editors.

For more information or to learn how to produce a show for the station call 410-677-5014 or visit the PAC 14 Web site at www.pac14.org.