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ou might not think you’ve ever heard of CurrentTV, much less watched it – but that may not exactly be true. Even if you don’t subscribe to cable and stay glued to the television screen, chances are you’ve seen some CurrentTV content. All those adorable Outer Banks SPCA Pet of the Week videos that tend to circulate online? CurrentTV did those. And the Covid-19 video updates with Dare County Department of Health and Human Services Director Dr. Sheila Davies that we relied on for the latest information all those months? Ditto – all CurrentTV productions. Granted, you might have missed a few other captivating pieces the CurrentTV folks produced, but they’re working to change that. With any luck, their slogan of “Know Dare” will grow into the equally important, but slightly less catchy adage of “know that Dare County offers this informative news source.” “I think we have some work to do with the branding and the name recognition, but I also believe that the work that’s being done is shared frequently and helps many, many people,” says Dare County Public Information Officer Dorothy Hester. “The main thing is seizing the opportunities that exist, because video is an essential part of communications now.” CurrentTV has replaced the old GovEd Television that was developed to broadcast government meetings. It now consists of two separate CurrentTV channels – one focusing on education and the other on government – in a partnership with the towns of Duck, Southern Shores, Kitty Hawk, Kill Devil Hills, Nags Head and Manteo, plus the Dare County government, Dare County Schools, the Coastal Studies Institute (CSI) and The College of the Albemarle. The CurrentTV government channel (191 via Charter Cable) broadcasts town meetings as well as video segments on a variety of local happenings, while its education 42 | W I N T ER 2021
channel (198) features school highlights and specials such as the CSI lecture series, Science on the Sound. And no, you won’t find the next Wayne’s World on CurrentTV. There’s a difference between government access and public access. “It seems to come up every once in a while…some communities have a public access channel where any group out there can submit something,” Dorothy explains. “[With CurrentTV] everything we program has to be tied to one of the entities that’s a participating member, so it truly has to be something that involves one of the towns or the county or the schools.” That’s because CurrentTV is funded with money the state government collects as part of those fees in your television bill – and all of Dare’s participating group members have a stake in both the funding and the programming. “CurrentTV allows us to provide local, unfiltered information directly to the public,” says the town of Nags Head’s Public Information Officer Roberta Thuman, who’s been involved with her town’s programing for a number of years. “All of Dare’s municipalities, the county and the school system work together…and I think we have some of the best programming in the state. We have a lot to work with, after all – a close-knit, caring community and a picturesque environment provides for really interesting communityoriented shows.” The numbers seem to bear that out. Even as more and more folks “cut the cord” and drop cable, CurrentTV’s reach is actually expanding. Much of that is likely due to its flexibility. The CurrentTV.org website lets visitors watch videos in real time or on demand. Popular segments like the SPCA Pet of the Week, beach safety public service announcements (PSAs) and a variety of historical features are readily available with the click of a mouse. So, too, are specials on everything
