KEEPING UP WITH THE CURRENT

You 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 off ers 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 Offi cer 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 channel (198) features school highlights and specials such as the CSI lecture series, Science on the Sound.

And no, you won’t fi nd the next Wayne’s World on CurrentTV. There’s a diff erence 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, unfi ltered information directly to the public,” says the town of Nags Head’s Public Information Offi cer 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 fl exibility. 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

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WORLD FAMOUS SEAFOOD BUFFET

Dare County’s CurrentTV brings information to life

By Steve Hanf

from local gardening tips to news about the Graveyard of the Atlantic Museum and National Park Service events.

Video producer Charlie Burroughs has worked at CurrentTV about a year now and loves the variety of content he gets to shoot alongside other local contract videographers like Benny Baldwin.

“Our ‘Destination Dare’ segments are always popular. That’s when all the towns produce a bi-monthly video, and it gets combined into one 30-minute segment,” Charlie says. “It’s a great update as far as what’s going on in the towns – and we’re always trying to produce interesting stuff .” Going forward, Dorothy hopes to expand on CurrentTV’s mission to give everyone the chance to get to know Dare better. To that end, they’re purchasing equipment that will enable livestreams from the fi eld – enhancing coverage of festivals or special events like the opening of the new Bonner Bridge Pier, for instance – to better share what’s happening in each town and throughout Dare County. From feel-good stories to more serious PSAs like “Love the Beach/Respect the Ocean,” CurrentTV strives to be a reliable source for news – at a time when keeping our community connected is more important than ever.

“We strive to tell stories and provide information in a way that’s eff ective,” Dorothy says, “but also in a way that people can relate to.”

“CurrentTV allows us to provide local, unfi ltered information directly to the public.”

-Roberta Thuman, Public Information Offi cer, Town of Nags Head KILL DEVIL HILLS AT MP 8.5 | CAPTAINGEORGES.COM

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