City channel shows classic TV programs, movies

Published 6:41 pm Tuesday, July 19, 2016

“Amos ‘n’ Andy,” “Peter Gunn,” and “You Bet Your Life” are television shows that one must be of a certain age to remember viewing 50 or more years ago.

Those shows — and many more nostalgic shows like the early “Bonanza” shows, “Sergeant Preston of the Yukon” episodes and documentaries about the early years of NASA — are being show on City NINE, the public-access channel programmed by the City of Washington. City NINE can be found on channel 9 on Suddenlink’s cable TV service in Washington. Classic “Merry Melodies” and “Looney Tunes” cartoons also receive play.

While City NINE provides programming related to area events — festival coverage, education programs and informational programs — it also provides entertainment in the form of classic TV shows, most of them in black-and-white format. City NINE also shows movies. The old TV shows, cartoon and movies are in the public domain, meaning the public may use them.

David Carraway, the city’s information technology director, oversees the City NINE operations, including programming selections and videotaping events such as City Council meetings, other city functions and activities at many festivals in the city.

“I’m constantly looking for new programming for the PEG channel. I had run across domain-free programming. That’s where I’m getting the majority of all my video to show on the channel,” Carraway said.

There is no cost for the public-domain programming, he said.

“It’s domain-free. All I do is download it,” Carraway said, adding that he is amazed at the amount of free programming available at no cost. “I’m constantly trying to find more.”

A significant amount of the programming show on City NINE is videotaped and produced by Carraway. “I try to get the majority of the city-sponsored programs throughout the city, plus the public meetings that are open to the public,” Carraway said.

If he is unable to videotape an event or festival, Carraway seeks ways to put them on City NINE. “I try to work in association with some others that are doing it, and they allow me to rebroadcast what they shoot,” he said.

Carraway also looks for old photographs that show the city’s history and how it changed throughout the years. “I’m looking for updated imagery of old Washington to put on there,” he said.

Like WITN with its Washington Cam showing a view of the Washington waterfront, City NINE has City Hall Cam, providing a view from City Hall down Market Street to the waterfront. A quick check of City Hall Cam lets viewers know what the weather is like downtown.

To access the City NINE schedule, go to the city’s website at www.washingtonnc.gov and click on the City NINE link under the NEWS header on the left of the homepage. The City NINE schedule and other related links will be displayed. Anyone with old photographs related to Washington may contact Carraway at 252-975-9331.

About Mike Voss

Mike Voss is the contributing editor at the Washington Daily News. He has a daughter and four grandchildren. Except for nearly six years he worked at the Free Lance-Star in Fredericksburg, Va., in the early to mid-1990s, he has been at the Daily News since April 1986.
Journalism awards:
• Pulitzer Prize for Meritorious Public Service, 1990.
• Society of Professional Journalists: Sigma Delta Chi Award, Bronze Medallion.
• Associated Press Managing Editors’ Public Service Award.
• Investigative Reporters & Editors’ Award.
• North Carolina Press Association, First Place, Public Service Award, 1989.
• North Carolina Press Association, Second Place, Investigative Reporting, 1990.
All those were for the articles he and Betty Gray wrote about the city’s contaminated water system in 1989-1990.
• North Carolina Press Association, First Place, Investigative Reporting, 1991.
• North Carolina Press Association, Third Place, General News Reporting, 2005.
• North Carolina Press Association, Second Place, Lighter Columns, 2006.
Recently learned he will receive another award.
• North Carolina Press Association, First Place, Lighter Columns, 2010.
4. Lectured at or served on seminar panels at journalism schools at UNC-Chapel Hill, University of Maryland, Columbia University, Mary Washington University and Francis Marion University.

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