Original Program Reaches New Milestone

Original Program Reaches New Milestone

OKEMOS - HOMTV of Meridian Township aired the 1000th episode of its original
production series, Meridian Magazine, live at 6 pm on August 22nd. HOMTV broadcasts on channel 21 in Okemos, Haslett and East Lansing on the Comcast cable system.

In 1980, Meridian Township launched a government access cable channel with volunteer staff operating cameras to produce coverage of live meetings. In 1984, a volunteer intern began creating a weekly news program. Each week, student interns would gather news material, produce packages and conduct interviews. Those
elements were then edited into a magazine style program called Meridian Magazine. Since then, Meridian Magazine has experienced several changes including going from a post-produced show to a live-to-tape format in 2004. On January 18, 2005, Meridian
Magazine aired live for the first time and permanently changed from a magazine style format to a news format. The new format also provided student interns with live, on-air reporting experience, something never before offered. HOMTV alumni Taryn Asher and Jason Carr, who are now reporters for FOX 2 Detroit, join the 1000th episode paying tribute to those humble beginnings.

“This 1000th episode honors Meridian Magazine’s history from 1984 to today, and shows the tremendous amount of love and dedication behind the scenes that local programming can bring to the public,” said Meridian Township Interim Communications
Director, Deborah Guthrie. “It has also been a tremendous building ground for many successful news producers, directors, anchors and reporters in the industry today.”

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