|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
In 1969 WSTO TV was started in Stoughton, WI as Viking Media Corp. WSTO is the oldest PEG channel still in existence. WSTO began before the city of Stoughton, Wisconsin even had cable. Bob Burrel and his wife Janeen ran their own cables throughout the city and began to broadcast to people homes. Once cable service providers decided to come into Stoughton, Viking Media Corp, in association with The City of Stoughton, negotiated the first franchise agreement requiring the cable provider to provide a channel for this community station to continue, and requiring them to provide some funding in the form of an annual franchise fee. Thus insuring the life of the channel. Not too long after, Viking Media Corp became WSTO TV.
The Best is:
On November 11, 1974 WKTV in Wyoming, Michigan was incorporated and in 2010 marked 36 years of operation. WKTV is one of the very first community TV stations in the State of Michigan and one of the oldest, most continuously operated Community Television stations in the United States. The "W" and "K" stand for Wyoming-Kentwood Television and WKTV was originally was known simply as Wyoming Community Television. In 1995, the City of Kentwood recognized the decades of service WKTV had provided and entered into franchise agreement with the cable operator to join next door Wyoming and thus created WKTV which now proudly serves both communities.
In 2002 near the border of the two cities, WKTV built a new community television and media production facility and at 10,000 s.f with two studios, edit bays, public spaces, classrooms for media instruction and a 35' television production truck is one of the largest in Michigan. WKTV enjoys a active volunteer base close to 400 people and in 2009, community volunteers provided over 13,000 hours of volunteer time to WKTV.