ASTV will air news in county

Television will join the Aiken Communications information package beginning Tuesday.

You're well familiar with our print products: Aiken Standard, The Star, Wagener Monthly, Midland Valley Monthly, real estate magazines and a host of special sections and publications.

And we've noted your growing interest in our web offerings: aikenstandard.com and northaugustastar.com, where you can find both news and specialized content.

Now we are pleased to offer local television.

We've leased Channel 95 on Atlantic Broadband cable to give you regular local programming.

Beginning Tuesday, we will offer a news broadcast. We expect to quickly add a cooking show, a show for children, a sports talk show and a weekly magazine.

Also, the weekly broadcast from First Baptist Church will continue. And we expect to also add broadcasts from other churches, council and board meetings, sports coverage and lots of coverage of local festivals and community events.

I'll be frank with you. This challenge is quite ambitious.

But we are blessed with a great staff. I believe they are capable of expanding our offerings, while continuing to improve both our print and web operations.

We believe that we are in the information business. It is our intent to use our available resources to provide you with local information in formats that you want, not just what's convenient for us.

Our television effort actually started in 2008, when we started broadcasting a high school football game of the week. The sophistication of the broadcast improved greatly in 2009, when we added both play-by-play and color announcers, graphics and even instant replays.

We've been rebroadcasting those efforts recently on Channel 95 as we've made preparations for our new ventures.

News Director Tim O'Briant will head our television content team. It couldn't be in better hands.

Tim spearheaded the development of our football programming. He has become an expert at both shooting and editing video. He even used his carpentry skills to help build the news studio that was recently added to our newsroom.

Assistant Managing Editor Jennifer Miller will be coordinating many of the shows and scheduling while John Lowery, Jenifer Parkman, Scot Newcom and Mark Nelson will be behind and in front of the camera covering stories, editing and even taking turns as the news anchor.

James Grigsby is our technical expert, and David Boyd will not only film stories but also handle most of our technology issues.

Several others at the Aiken Standard will take turns as the news anchor, and the staff reporters will be helping gather news.

Just as with our print and web offerings, our local content will be supported by the sale of advertising and sponsorships.

Many spots for our shows have already been taken. But those interested in advertising may contact Ad Director Art Zappa, Sales Manager Dee Taylor, Digital Sales Manager Kathy Boyette or your regular advertising representative.

We are very excited about expanding our capabilities for serving you. We're very appreciative of the support you have given to both our print and web products.

We'll be anxious to hear from you about our television offering.