KUAC TV Becoming Independent of AlaskaOne

December 11, 2011

Marmian Grimes

Interior Alaska's public television station is returning to its roots. Effective July 1, KUAC, like its radio counterpart, will be a standalone station serving Interior Alaska.

At the Nov. 18 meeting of the Alaska Public Broadcasting Service, the corporate entity for the AlaskaOne consortium — whose members include the general managers at each of Alaska's four public television stations — a motion was approved to move the public television centralized feed of AlaskaOne for KUAC, KTOO and KYUK to Alaska Public Telecommunications, Inc. (KAKM) in Anchorage. KUAC's general manager, Keith Martin, cast a dissenting vote. As a result, KUAC will no longer be a member of the AlaskaOne consortium of stations beginning at midnight, July 1, 2012.

The withdrawal from AlaskaOne will not change the television programming for residents of the Interior who receive their public television service from KUAC in Fairbanks or its translator communities of Healy, Delta and Nenana. What will change, effective July 1, is the public television service's identity - from AlaskaOne back to the original KUAC TV. The mission and quality of programming will stay the same.

Viewers of KTOO and KYUK will receive public television service from Anchorage beginning in July.

For more information, please contact KUAC at comments@kuac.org.